Microsoft Purview – Interview preparation

Hi All,

Greetings for the day!

We have started preparing a set of basic interview questions. These cover topics such as Azure, SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Teams, Microsoft Purview, and more.

Please visit our interview guide for Microsoft 365 services. Guide to Microsoft 365: Certification & Interview Tips – https://knowledge-junction.in/interview-preparation-2/

This article focuses on interview preparation questions specifically related to Microsoft Purview.

Q 1. What is Microsoft Purview?

• Microsoft Purview is Set of solutions / tools / services to help organizations to
  • Govern
  • Protect and
  • Manage data wherever it is located

We have detailed article on basics of Microsoft Purview. Getting Started with Microsoft Purview – https://knowledge-junction.in/2025/06/28/getting-started-with-microsoft-purview/

Q 2. What are Retention Policies?

• Retention policy manages data for our organization.
• It does this by deciding proactively whether to retain content, delete content, or retain and then delete the content.

Q 3. Which two scopes are for retention policies?

• Adaptive scopes
• Static scopes

Q 4. What are the locations in Retention Policies?

• Retention policy support multiple services that are identified as “locations” in the retention policy
• We can’t create a single retention policy that includes all the supported locations:
  • Exchange mailboxes
  • SharePoint sites or SharePoint classic and communication sites
  • OneDrive accounts
  • Microsoft 365 Group mailboxes & sites
  • Skype for Business
  • Exchange public folders
  • Teams channel messages
  • Teams chats
  • Teams private channel messages
  • Microsoft Copilot experiences (in preview)
  • Enterprise AI apps (in preview)
  • Other AI apps (in preview)
  • Viva Engage community messages
  • Viva Engage user messages

Q 5. How long it takes for retention policies to take effect?

• When we create and submit a retention policy, it can take up to seven days for the retention policy to be applied

Q 6. What the Information Protection Reports in Microsoft Purview provide?

• The Information Protection Reports in Microsoft Purview provide a centralized view of
  • data classification,
  • protection policies,
  • encryption, and
  • security activities
• across Microsoft 365, Azure, AWS, on-premises storage, and Microsoft Fabric.

Q 7. What feature “Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MIP) scanner” provides?

• Identify sensitive data in on-premises file shares and SharePoint.

Q 8. How to navigate to Microsoft Purview Portal?

• Either through direct URL – https://purview.microsoft.com/
• Or from Microsoft 365 admin center.
  • We have detailed article to navigate to Microsoft Purview. Small Tricks and Tips – Microsoft 365 administration- Microsoft Purview Portal – How to navigate – https://microsoft365junction.com/2023/05/04/small-tricks-and-tips-microsoft-365-administration-microsoft-purview-portal-how-to-navigate/

Q 9. What roles are require to access the Data Explorer tool in Microsoft Purview?

Role	Access level
Data Explorer List Viewer	View file metadata and classification labels but not content.
Data Explorer Content Viewer	View file contents in addition to metadata.

Q 10. What roles are require to access the Content Explorer tool in Microsoft Purview?

Content Explorer List Viewer	View a list of items with classification details.
Content Explorer Content Viewer	View file contents in addition to metadata.

Q 11. What is ACTIVITY EXPLORER in Microsoft Purview?

• Activity explorer in Microsoft Purview allows security and compliance teams to track how labeled content is accessed, modified, and shared.
• By analyzing activity trends, organizations can assess policy effectiveness, detect potential security risks, and refine data protection measures

REFERENCES

• Microsoft Purview Portal – https://purview.microsoft.com/
• small Tricks and Tips – Microsoft 365 administration- Microsoft Purview Portal – How to navigate – https://knowledge-junction.in/2023/05/04/small-tricks-and-tips-microsoft-365-administration-microsoft-purview-portal-how-to-navigate/
• Guide to Microsoft 365: Certification & Interview Tips – https://knowledge-junction.in/interview-preparation-2/
• Getting Started with Microsoft Purview – https://knowledge-junction.in/2025/06/28/getting-started-with-microsoft-purview/

Thanks for reading 🙂

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