Microsoft Information Security Administrator Associate
The SC-401 exam is designed for professionals who implement and configure Security. It validates your ability to implement information protection, implement data loss prevention and retention, and manage risks, alerts, and activities.
Exam details
- Certification
- Microsoft Information Security Administrator Associate
- Exam code
- SC-401
- Level
- Associate
- Duration
- Approximately 100 minutes
- Questions
- Typically 40–60 questions
- Passing score
- 700 out of 1000
- Cost
- USD $165 — typical price; the exact fee varies by country/region and currency, and local taxes may apply.
- Prerequisites
- None required
- Languages
- English (also available in Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified) and Spanish)
- Delivered by
- Pearson VUE
- Renewal
- Free online assessment, every 12 months
Skills measured
Implement information protection (30–35%)
- Create sensitive info types, EDM, trainable classifiers, fingerprints, and OCR support.
- Implement sensitivity labels, publishing and auto-labelling policies, and container labels.
- Protect Windows files, file shares, and Exchange with the Information Protection client and message encryption.
Implement data loss prevention and retention (30–35%)
- Design and manage DLP policies, Adaptive Protection, and Defender for Cloud Apps file policies.
- Configure Endpoint DLP, device requirements, just-in-time protection, and activity monitoring.
- Create retention labels and policies, auto-apply, precedence, and recover retained content.
Manage risks, alerts, and activities (30–35%)
- Implement Insider Risk Management policies, connectors, forensic evidence, and cases.
- Investigate Purview Audit, Activity explorer, DLP alerts, Defender XDR, and eDiscovery.
- Protect data used by AI services with DSPM for AI policies, roles, and activity monitoring.
Study resources & practice tests
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Frequently asked questions
Who should take SC-401?
SC-401 is for information security administrators, data-protection specialists, and Purview administrators. Most work in compliance, Microsoft 365 security, and data-protection teams in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and the public sector.
What is the average salary for an Information Security Administrator?
Information security administrators who specialise in Microsoft Purview are usually hired as information security or data protection specialists. As of 2026, US mid-level security administrators commonly earn about $95,000 to $130,000. In the United Kingdom, Barclay Simpson places information security analysts around £60,000 to £75,000 and information security engineers around £70,000 to £85,000. Western European information security pay is often about €60,000 to €90,000. There is no single published EMEA average.
Where do I find exam questions to practice?
You will find websites selling exam dumps or brain dumps that claim to be real SC-401 questions. Those materials are not official. Microsoft treats using brain dumps as cheating. It can invalidate your score, revoke certifications you already hold, and ban you from future exams. Microsoft publishes a free Practice Assessment for SC-401 on Microsoft Learn. Those questions are examples only, not the live exam. MeasureUp also sells the official practice test linked in the study resources on this page. You can try the Microsoft exam sandbox to see the question types and timer, but it does not use real exam questions. Practise the skills measured in a real product environment rather than memorising leaked items.
Does the exam include official labs I can use to practice?
Microsoft does not publish a stable list of which certification exams include labs, and a lab can be dropped for a candidate if the live environment is unavailable. Role-based Azure and security exams such as SC-401 may include performance-based labs in a live cloud environment. You only find out at the start of your sitting. For practice, Microsoft Learn modules for this exam often include a free Azure sandbox, and official instructor-led SC-401T00 training delivered by a Microsoft Learning Partner includes labs. Those labs are for the course, not a copy of the exam. Applied Skills assessment labs are a separate Microsoft credential, not SC-401 exam labs. The Microsoft exam sandbox shows traditional question types only. It does not give you the lab virtual machine.