You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
MICROSOFTMicrosoft Certified:Information Security Administrator Associate
The Microsoft Certified: Information Security Administrator Associate certification validates your ability to plan and implement information security using Microsoft Purview and related services. It is designed for administrators responsible for protecting data in Microsoft 365 environments from internal and external threats. Earning this certification demonstrates your skills in implementing information protection, data loss prevention, and managing security alerts.
Exam formatMultiple choice and interactive components
Duration100 minutes
DeliveryPearson VUE
Passing score700 out of 1000
Free questions322
Content last reviewed 28 July 2026 · Up to date
The certification
What SC-401 proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
3domains
9objectives
73concepts
US $165exam fee
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The Microsoft Certified: Information Security Administrator Associate certification validates your ability to plan and implement information security of sensitive data using Microsoft Purview and related services. As an Information Security Administrator, you are responsible for mitigating risks by protecting data inside collaboration environments managed by Microsoft 365 from internal and external threats.
You will implement information protection, data loss prevention, retention, insider risk management, and manage information security alerts and activities. This role involves collaborating with other roles responsible for governance, data, and security to develop policies that address an organization’s information security and risk reduction goals.
Who it’s for
This certification is intended for information security administrators who plan and implement security measures for sensitive data using Microsoft Purview and related services. You are responsible for protecting data in Microsoft 365 environments from internal and external threats and implementing information protection, data loss prevention, and retention policies. You should be familiar with Microsoft 365 services, PowerShell, Microsoft Entra, the Microsoft Defender portal, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. This role requires collaboration with workload administrators, business application owners, and governance stakeholders to implement technology solutions that support necessary policies and controls.
Recommended experience
Familiarity with Microsoft 365 services and security tools. Experience with Microsoft Purview and related services; Knowledge of data protection and risk management; Understanding of Microsoft 365 security and compliance solutions
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective Microsoft measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official Microsoft exam outline · checked 28 July 2026 · See the source
Implement information protection
- Implement and manage data classification
- Implement and manage sensitivity labels in Microsoft Purview
- Implement information protection for Windows, file shares, and Exchange
Implement data loss prevention and retention
- Create and configure data loss prevention policies
- Implement and monitor Microsoft Purview Endpoint DLP
- Implement and manage retention
Manage risks, alerts, and activities
- Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management
- Manage information security alerts and activities
- Protect data used by AI services
On the day
The exam itself
Everything Microsoft publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
Exam codeSC-401
CertificationInformation Security Administrator Associate
Exam formatMultiple choice and interactive components
Duration100 minutes
Passing score700 out of 1000
DeliveryPearson VUE
LanguagesEnglish, Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Spanish
PricingUS $165
Certification levelAssociate
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path Microsoft lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to Microsoft Certified: Information Security Administrator Associate
Credential earnedMicrosoft Certified: Information Security Administrator Associate Associate level certification Renewal and maintenance
The Information Security Administrator Associate certification is valid for one year. Renew before it expires by completing Microsoft's free online renewal assessment. Stay current with the latest technologies and maintain your certification.
Learn more about renewal requirements Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. Microsoft maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by Microsoft
Exam registration
Register for the exam through Pearson VUE, Microsoft’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official Microsoft certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
Is any part of the SC-401 exam hands-on or lab-based?
Yes. The exam includes interactive components where you complete tasks using Microsoft 365 security tools.
If I fail SC-401, when can I retake it?
You must wait 24 hours after a first failed attempt, and 14 days before each subsequent attempt. There is no annual cap on attempts.
What job roles does the Information Security Administrator Associate credential map to?
It aligns with roles such as information security administrator, data protection officer, and compliance manager.
Can I recertify by passing a different Microsoft exam?
Yes. Earning a higher-level Microsoft certification can renew this credential without taking the SC-401 renewal assessment.
Information freshness · Content last reviewed on 2026-07-28 Up to date
Practice free questions 322 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept Microsoft measures — each one written out.
3domains
9objectives
73concepts
68free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official Microsoft exam outline · checked 28 July 2026 · See the source
1Implement information protection114 questions
2Implement data loss prevention and retention81 questions
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
Implement and manage data classification10 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
48 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
322 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
322questions
68pages
9objectives
Freealways
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1Implement information protection114 questions
2Implement data loss prevention and retention81 questions
3Manage risks, alerts, and activities127 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
73concepts
322free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from Microsoft
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
2official links
73concepts mapped
The source
Microsoft’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official Microsoft outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 9 objectives, 73 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When Microsoft changes the outline, this page changes with it.
9objectives on the outline→73concepts written→322free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.