Study guide for Exam SC-400: Administering Information Protection and Compliance in Microsoft 365

Purpose of this document

This study guide should help you understand what to expect on the exam and includes a summary of the topics the exam might cover and links to additional resources. The information and materials in this document should help you focus your studies as you prepare for the exam.

Useful links Description
Review the skills measured as of August 22, 2023 This list represents the skills measured AFTER the date provided. Study this list if you plan to take the exam AFTER that date.
Review the skills measured prior to August 22, 2023 Study this list of skills if you take your exam PRIOR to the date provided.
Change log You can go directly to the change log if you want to see the changes that will be made on the date provided.
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Take a free Practice Assessment Test your skills with practice questions to help you prepare for the exam.

Updates to the exam

Our exams are updated periodically to reflect skills that are required to perform a role. We have included two versions of the Skills Measured objectives depending on when you are taking the exam.

We always update the English language version of the exam first. Some exams are localized into other languages, and those are updated approximately eight weeks after the English version is updated. While Microsoft makes every effort to update localized versions as noted, there may be times when the localized versions of an exam are not updated on this schedule. Other available languages are listed in the Schedule Exam section of the Exam Details webpage. If the exam isn't available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes to complete the exam.

Note

The bullets that follow each of the skills measured are intended to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. Related topics may be covered in the exam.

Note

Most questions cover features that are general availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.

Skills measured as of August 22, 2023

Audience profile

Candidates for this exam are information protection and compliance administrators who plan and implement risk and compliance controls in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

The information protection and compliance administrator translates an organization’s risk and compliance requirements into technical implementation. They are responsible for implementing and managing solutions for content classification, data loss prevention (DLP), information protection, data lifecycle management, records management, privacy, risk, and compliance.

The information protection and compliance administrator works with other roles that are responsible for governance, data, and security to evaluate and develop policies to address an organization's risk reduction and compliance goals. This role assists workload administrators, business application owners, human resources departments, and legal stakeholders to implement technology solutions that support the necessary policies and controls.

Candidates should have experience with Microsoft 365 services, including Microsoft 365 Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams. They should also be familiar with PowerShell.

  • Implement information protection (25–30%)

  • Implement DLP (15–20%)

  • Implement data lifecycle and records management (10–15%)

  • Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview (15–20%)

  • Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365 (15–20%)

Implement information protection (25–30%)

Create and manage sensitive info types

  • Identify sensitive information requirements for an organization's data

  • Translate sensitive information requirements into built-in or custom sensitive info types

  • Create and manage custom sensitive info types

  • Create and manage exact data match (EDM) classifiers

  • Implement document fingerprinting

Create and manage trainable classifiers

  • Identify when to use trainable classifiers

  • Design and create a trainable classifier

  • Test a trainable classifier

  • Retrain a trainable classifier

Implement and manage sensitivity labels

  • Implement roles and permissions for administering sensitivity labels

  • Define and create sensitivity labels

  • Configure and manage sensitivity label policies

  • Configure auto-labeling policies for sensitivity labels

  • Monitor data classification and label usage by using Content explorer, Activity explorer, and audit search

  • Apply bulk classification to on-premises data by using the Microsoft Purview Information Protection scanner

  • Manage protection settings and marking for applied sensitivity labels

Design and implement encryption for email messages

  • Design an email encryption solution based on methods available in Microsoft 365

  • Implement Microsoft Purview Message Encryption

  • Implement Microsoft Purview Advanced Message Encryption

Implement DLP (15–20%)

Create and configure DLP policies

  • Design DLP policies based on an organization’s requirements

  • Configure permissions for DLP

  • Create and manage DLP policies

  • Interpret policy and rule precedence in DLP

  • Configure a Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps file policy to use DLP policies

Implement and monitor Endpoint DLP

  • Configure advanced DLP rules for devices in DLP policies

  • Configure Endpoint DLP settings

  • Recommend a deployment method for device onboarding

  • Identify endpoint requirements for device onboarding

  • Monitor endpoint activities

  • Implement the Microsoft Purview Extension

Monitor and manage DLP activities

  • Analyze DLP reports

  • Analyze DLP activities by using Activity explorer

  • Remediate DLP alerts in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal

  • Remediate DLP alerts generated by Defender for Cloud Apps

Implement data lifecycle and records management (10–15%)

Retain and delete data by using retention labels

  • Plan for information retention and disposition by using retention labels

  • Create retention labels for data lifecycle management

  • Configure and manage adaptive scopes

  • Configure a retention label policy to publish labels

  • Configure a retention label policy to auto-apply labels

  • Interpret the results of policy precedence, including using Policy lookup

Manage data retention in Microsoft 365 workloads

  • Create and apply retention policies for SharePoint and OneDrive

  • Create and apply retention policies for Microsoft 365 groups

  • Create and apply retention policies for Teams

  • Create and apply retention policies for Yammer

  • Create and apply retention policies for Exchange Online

  • Apply mailbox holds in Exchange Online

  • Implement Exchange Online archiving policies

  • Configure preservation locks for retention policies and retention label policies

  • Recover retained content in Microsoft 365

Implement Microsoft Purview records management

  • Create and configure retention labels for records management

  • Manage retention labels by using a file plan, including file plan descriptors

  • Classify records by using retention labels and retention label policies

  • Manage event-based retention

  • Manage the disposition of content in records management

  • Configure records management settings, including retention label settings and disposition settings

Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview (15–20%)

Plan and manage regulatory requirements by using Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager

  • Plan for regulatory compliance in Microsoft 365

  • Create and manage assessments

  • Create and modify custom templates

  • Interpret and manage improvement actions

  • Create and manage alert policies for assessments

  • Choose between eDiscovery (Standard) and eDiscovery (Premium) based on an organization’s requirements

  • Plan and implement eDiscovery

  • Delegate permissions to use eDiscovery and Content search

  • Perform searches and respond to results from eDiscovery

  • Manage eDiscovery cases

  • Perform searches by using Content search

Manage and analyze audit logs and reports in Microsoft Purview

  • Choose between Audit (Standard) and Audit (Premium) based on an organization’s requirements

  • Plan for and configure auditing

  • Investigate activities by using the unified audit log

  • Review and interpret compliance reports and dashboards

  • Configure alert policies

  • Configure audit retention policies

Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365 (15–20%)

Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance

  • Plan for communication compliance

  • Create and manage communication compliance policies

  • Investigate and remediate communication compliance alerts and reports

Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

  • Plan for insider risk management

  • Create and manage insider risk management policies

  • Investigate and remediate insider risk activities, alerts, and reports

  • Manage insider risk cases

  • Manage forensic evidence settings

  • Manage notice templates

Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Information Barriers (IBs)

  • Plan for IBs

  • Create and manage IB segments and policies

  • Configure Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive to enforce IBs, including setting barrier modes

  • Investigate issues with IB policies

Implement and manage privacy requirements by using Microsoft Priva

  • Configure and maintain privacy risk management

  • Create and manage Privacy Risk Management policies

  • Identify and monitor potential risks involving personal data

  • Evaluate and remediate alerts and issues

  • Implement and manage subject rights requests

Study resources

We recommend that you train and get hands-on experience before you take the exam. We offer self-study options and classroom training as well as links to documentation, community sites, and videos.

Study resources Links to learning and documentation
Get trained Choose from self-paced learning paths and modules or take an instructor-led course
Find documentation Microsoft 365 security documentation
Microsoft 365 Zero Trust deployment plan
Microsoft Purview compliance documentation
Microsoft 365 Defender documentation
Learn about data loss prevention (DLP)
Microsoft 365 for enterprise documentation and resources
Ask a question Microsoft Q&A | Microsoft Docs
Get community support Security, compliance, and identity community hub
Follow Microsoft Learn Microsoft Learn - Microsoft Tech Community
Find a video Exam Readiness Zone
Browse other Microsoft Learn shows

Change log

Key to understanding the table: The topic groups (also known as functional groups) are in bold typeface followed by the objectives within each group. The table is a comparison between the two versions of the exam skills measured and the third column describes the extent of the changes.

Skill area prior to August 22, 2023 Skill area as of August 22, 2023 Changes
Audience profile Minor
Implement information protection Implement information protection No change
Create and manage sensitive information types Create and manage sensitive information types No change
Create and manage trainable classifiers Create and manage trainable classifiers No change
Implement and manage sensitivity labels Implement and manage sensitivity labels No change
Design and implement encryption for email messages Design and implement encryption for email messages No change
Implement DLP Implement DLP No change
Create and configure DLP policies Create and configure DLP policies No change
Implement and monitor Endpoint DLP Implement and monitor Endpoint DLP No change
Monitor and manage DLP activities Monitor and manage DLP activities No change
Implement data lifecycle and records management Implement data lifecycle and records management No change
Retain and delete data by using retention labels Retain and delete data by using retention labels No change
Manage data retention in Microsoft 365 workloads Manage data retention in Microsoft 365 workloads Minor
Implement Microsoft Purview Records Management Implement Microsoft Purview Records Management No change
Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview No change
Plan and manage regulatory requirements by using Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager Plan and manage regulatory requirements by using Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager No change
Plan and manage eDiscovery and Content search Plan and manage eDiscovery and Content search No change
Manage and analyze audit logs and reports in Microsoft Purview Manage and analyze audit logs and reports in Microsoft Purview No change
Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365 Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365 No change
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance No change
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management No change
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Information Barriers (IBs) Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Information Barriers (IBs) Minor
Implement and manage privacy requirements by using Microsoft Priva Implement and manage privacy requirements by using Microsoft Priva No change

Skills measured prior to August 22, 2023

Audience profile

Candidates for this exam are information protection and compliance administrators who plan and implement risk and compliance controls in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

The information protection and compliance administrator translates an organization’s risk and compliance requirements into technical implementation. They are responsible for implementing and managing solutions for content classification, data loss prevention (DLP), information protection, data lifecycle management, records management, privacy, risk, and compliance.

The information protection and compliance administrator works with other roles that are responsible for governance, data, and security to evaluate and develop policies to address an organization's risk reduction and compliance goals. This role assists workload administrators, business application owners, human resources departments, and legal stakeholders to implement technology solutions that support the necessary policies and controls.

Candidates should have experience with Microsoft 365 services, including Microsoft 365 Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams. They should also be familiar with PowerShell.

  • Implement information protection (25–30%)

  • Implement DLP (15–20%)

  • Implement data lifecycle and records management (10–15%)

  • Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview (15–20%)

  • Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365 (15–20%)

Implement information protection (25–30%)

Create and manage sensitive info types

  • Identify sensitive information requirements for an organization's data

  • Translate sensitive information requirements into built-in or custom sensitive info types

  • Create and manage custom sensitive info types

  • Create and manage exact data match (EDM) classifiers

  • Implement document fingerprinting

Create and manage trainable classifiers

  • Identify when to use trainable classifiers

  • Design and create a trainable classifier

  • Test a trainable classifier

  • Retrain a trainable classifier

Implement and manage sensitivity labels

  • Implement roles and permissions for administering sensitivity labels

  • Define and create sensitivity labels

  • Configure and manage sensitivity label policies

  • Configure auto-labeling policies for sensitivity labels

  • Monitor data classification and label usage by using Content explorer, Activity explorer, and audit search

  • Apply bulk classification to on-premises data by using the Microsoft Purview Information Protection scanner

  • Manage protection settings and marking for applied sensitivity labels

Design and implement encryption for email messages

  • Design an email encryption solution based on methods available in Microsoft 365

  • Implement Microsoft Purview Message Encryption

  • Implement Microsoft Purview Advanced Message Encryption

Implement DLP (15–20%)

Create and configure DLP policies

  • Design DLP policies based on an organization’s requirements

  • Configure permissions for DLP

  • Create and manage DLP policies

  • Interpret policy and rule precedence in DLP

  • Configure a Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps file policy to use DLP policies

Implement and monitor Endpoint DLP

  • Configure advanced DLP rules for devices in DLP policies

  • Configure Endpoint DLP settings

  • Recommend a deployment method for device onboarding

  • Identify endpoint requirements for device onboarding

  • Monitor endpoint activities

  • Implement the Microsoft Purview Extension

Monitor and manage DLP activities

  • Analyze DLP reports

  • Analyze DLP activities by using Activity explorer

  • Remediate DLP alerts in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal

  • Remediate DLP alerts generated by Defender for Cloud Apps

Implement data lifecycle and records management (10–15%)

Retain and delete data by using retention labels

  • Plan for information retention and disposition by using retention labels

  • Create retention labels for data lifecycle management

  • Configure and manage adaptive scopes

  • Configure a retention label policy to publish labels

  • Configure a retention label policy to auto-apply labels

  • Interpret the results of policy precedence, including using Policy lookup

Manage data retention in Microsoft 365 workloads

  • Create and apply retention policies for SharePoint Online and OneDrive

  • Create and apply retention policies for Microsoft 365 groups

  • Create and apply retention policies for Teams

  • Create and apply retention policies for Yammer

  • Create and apply retention policies for Exchange Online

  • Apply mailbox holds in Exchange Online

  • Implement Exchange Online archiving policies

  • Configure preservation locks for retention policies and retention label policies

  • Recover retained content in Microsoft 365

Implement Microsoft Purview records management

  • Create and configure retention labels for records management

  • Manage retention labels by using a file plan, including file plan descriptors

  • Classify records by using retention labels and retention label policies

  • Manage event-based retention

  • Manage the disposition of content in records management

  • Configure records management settings, including retention label settings and disposition settings

Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview (15–20%)

Plan and manage regulatory requirements by using Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager

  • Plan for regulatory compliance in Microsoft 365

  • Create and manage assessments

  • Create and modify custom templates

  • Interpret and manage improvement actions

  • Create and manage alert policies for assessments

Plan and manage eDiscovery and Content search

  • Choose between eDiscovery (Standard) and eDiscovery (Premium) based on an organization’s requirements

  • Plan and implement eDiscovery

  • Delegate permissions to use eDiscovery and Content search

  • Perform searches and respond to results from eDiscovery

  • Manage eDiscovery cases

  • Perform searches by using Content search

Manage and analyze audit logs and reports in Microsoft Purview

  • Choose between Audit (Standard) and Audit (Premium) based on an organization’s requirements

  • Plan for and configure auditing

  • Investigate activities by using the unified audit log

  • Review and interpret compliance reports and dashboards

  • Configure alert policies

  • Configure audit retention policies

Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365 (15–20%)

Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance

  • Plan for communication compliance

  • Create and manage communication compliance policies

  • Investigate and remediate communication compliance alerts and reports

Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

  • Plan for insider risk management

  • Create and manage insider risk management policies

  • Investigate and remediate insider risk activities, alerts, and reports

  • Manage insider risk cases

  • Manage forensic evidence settings

  • Manage notice templates

Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Information Barriers (IBs)

  • Plan for IBs

  • Create and manage IB segments and policies

  • Configure Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive to enforce IBs, including setting barrier modes

  • Investigate issues with IB policies

Implement and manage privacy requirements by using Microsoft Priva

  • Configure and maintain privacy risk management

  • Create and manage Privacy Risk Management policies

  • Identify and monitor potential risks involving personal data

  • Evaluate and remediate alerts and issues

  • Implement and manage subject rights requests