In this post we are going to cover the Microsoft Purview platform, the portal and licensing: what Purview is, where you open it, how the account works and how you pay for it. These are 7 real Purview interview questions, asked the way they come up on a real project, and the last one is a scenario where your manager gives you one slide to explain Purview to leadership.
Microsoft Purview is the Microsoft service that helps you know, protect and govern your data across platforms: Microsoft 365, Azure, Fabric, other clouds and on-premises. Interviewers start here because everything else depends on it. If you can't say what Purview covers, which portal it lives in and how it's billed, the deeper questions on scans and labels won't land.
Part 1 of the Real Time Microsoft Purview Interview Questions and Answers series on TechBrothersIT.
- The short answer
- Question 1: Your CIO asks: we already have Unity Catalog in Databricks and the OneLake catalog in Fabric, so why do we need Microsoft Purview? What do you say?
- Question 2: A new team member asks what Purview actually covers. What are its three solution areas, and what goes into each one?
- Question 3: Your security team still bookmarks the old compliance portal, and an older Purview account opens in a different site. Which portal do you use today, and what happened to the old ones?
- Question 4: Your company created Purview accounts in three subscriptions years ago. How does the tenant-level Purview account work now, and what is the difference between the free and the enterprise version?
- Question 5: Finance asks how data governance in Purview is billed. What are governed assets and data governance processing units, and what is not charged?
- Question 6: HR wants sensitivity labels and DLP on email and SharePoint, and the data team wants scanning of Azure SQL. Which licenses cover the Microsoft 365 side, and what is pay-as-you-go?
- Scenario 7: Your manager gives you one slide to explain Purview to leadership. What is on it?
The short answer
Microsoft Purview governs data across platforms in three areas: data security, data governance, and risk and compliance, all in the Microsoft Purview portal. There is one tenant-level account, free or enterprise. Data governance is pay-as-you-go on governed assets and DGPUs, while Microsoft 365 features come with per-user licenses.
Keep that in mind. Every question below is one piece of it.
Question 1: Your CIO asks: we already have Unity Catalog in Databricks and the OneLake catalog in Fabric, so why do we need Microsoft Purview? What do you say?
Those catalogs are good, but each one governs its own platform. Unity Catalog sees Databricks. The OneLake catalog sees Fabric.
Now let's look at where our data actually lives. It is also in Azure SQL, ADLS, Snowflake, and SQL Server and Oracle on-premises. Here is what Purview adds on top of the platform catalogs:
- First, one Data Map. Purview scans all of those sources, including Unity Catalog and the Fabric tenant, into one map.
- Then the business layer on top of that map: governance domains, data products, a glossary, data quality, and lineage across platforms.
- Then data security. The same sensitivity labels and DLP policies the company already uses in Microsoft 365 also reach Fabric and Power BI.
So the answer to the CIO is: the platform catalogs enforce access in their own platform, and Purview gives one governed view across all of them.
It isn't one. Unity Catalog still grants access in Databricks, and Purview doesn't. The platforms enforce, and Purview gives one governed view. They work together.
Question 2: A new team member asks what Purview actually covers. What are its three solution areas, and what goes into each one?
There are three solution areas: data security, data governance, and risk and compliance. Let's go through them one at a time.
Data security is about protecting and controlling the data:
- Information Protection, with sensitivity labels
- Data Loss Prevention
- Insider Risk Management
- The new Data Security Posture Management experience (DSPM)
Data governance is about knowing and trusting the data:
- The Data Map, which scans, classifies and tracks lineage
- Unified Catalog, with governance domains and data products
- The glossary and data quality
- Health management
Risk and compliance is about proving and investigating:
- Audit and eDiscovery
- Data Lifecycle Management and Records Management
- Communication Compliance
- Compliance Manager
Some pieces are shared by all three, like sensitivity labels and classifiers.
On a real project, the data team usually owns governance, security owns DLP, and legal owns eDiscovery. Say that in the interview and you sound like someone who has done it.
Question 3: Your security team still bookmarks the old compliance portal, and an older Purview account opens in a different site. Which portal do you use today, and what happened to the old ones?
Today there is one portal: the Microsoft Purview portal, at purview.microsoft.com. Data security, data governance, and risk and compliance all live there.
Let's look at the three addresses you will run into:
| Address | Status today | |
|---|---|---|
| PURVIEW PORTAL | purview.microsoft.com | use this: all three areas |
| COMPLIANCE (CLASSIC) | compliance.microsoft.com | retired, Dec 2024 |
| GOVERNANCE (CLASSIC) | web.purview.azure.com | still around for older accounts |
First, the classic compliance portal. It is retired. The retirement ran from November to December 2024, and settings moved over automatically, so there was nothing to migrate. The security team just needs to update the bookmark.
Then the classic governance portal, at web.purview.azure.com. It is still around for older accounts. If an account only opens there, it's usually not your primary, tenant-level account.
That matters, because new governance features ship only on the upgraded, tenant-level account. So the interview answer is: one portal for everything, the compliance portal is gone, and the classic governance portal is only for older accounts.
Question 4: Your company created Purview accounts in three subscriptions years ago. How does the tenant-level Purview account work now, and what is the difference between the free and the enterprise version?
The new experience uses one organization-wide Purview account per tenant. Let's walk through what happens to the three accounts.
- First, one of your existing accounts is promoted to primary, and it keeps its metadata.
- The other two can't use the new experience. They stay in the classic governance portal.
- Instead of extra accounts, you now separate things with Data Map domains and collections. The primary account's root collection becomes the default domain.
Now free versus enterprise:
| Free | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|
| SETUP | automatic | Azure subscription |
| FIND DATA | live view | scans, classification |
| MANAGE | basic curation | collections, workflows |
| STATUS | preview | generally available |
The free version is in preview. It's automatic, with catalog search, live view of supported Azure and Fabric resources, and basic curation, but it's limited and has no support tickets. The enterprise version is linked to an Azure subscription, and adds scanning, automatic classification, collections and workflows.
The enterprise account is an Azure resource. Deleting it permanently deletes all your governance data, so protect it with an Azure Policy that denies delete.
Question 5: Finance asks how data governance in Purview is billed. What are governed assets and data governance processing units, and what is not charged?
Since January 6, 2025, data governance is pay-as-you-go, billed through an Azure subscription in the same tenant. There are two meters.
The first is governed assets. An asset becomes governed when you link it to a data product, a critical data element (CDE), a glossary term or a data quality rule. Each unique asset counts once per day, however many things it's linked to. And a whole SQL server added to a data product counts as one asset, not every table.
The second is data governance processing units, or DGPUs. One DGPU is 60 minutes of managed compute, used by data quality and health management.
Here is what is not charged:
- Scanning into the Data Map
- Assets scanned but not linked to anything
- Domains and data products with no assets
- Assets with only classic glossary terms
Prices change. Say you'd check the official pricing page and calculator, and track the bill in Azure Cost Management.
Question 6: HR wants sensitivity labels and DLP on email and SharePoint, and the data team wants scanning of Azure SQL. Which licenses cover the Microsoft 365 side, and what is pay-as-you-go?
There are two billing models. The Microsoft 365 side uses per-user licenses. The wider data estate is pay-as-you-go.
Let's map each need to what covers it:
| Need | Covered by |
|---|---|
| Manual and default labels, DLP for Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive | Microsoft 365 E3 |
| Auto-labeling, Endpoint DLP, Insider Risk, premium eDiscovery and Audit | E5 or Microsoft Purview Suite |
| Governing Azure SQL (scans not charged), non-Microsoft 365 data, AI apps | pay-as-you-go (Azure) |
For HR, Microsoft 365 E3 already covers manual and default sensitivity labels, and basic DLP for Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive.
If they want auto-labeling, Endpoint DLP, Insider Risk Management, or the premium eDiscovery and Audit features, they need E5, or the Microsoft Purview Suite add-on, which used to be called Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance.
Governing Azure SQL is data governance, and it isn't tied to Microsoft 365 licenses. It's pay-as-you-go, billed monthly through an Azure subscription linked to the tenant, though the scan itself isn't charged. Pay-as-you-go also covers other non-Microsoft 365 data, and AI apps.
The two models complement each other, and some pay-as-you-go features need the per-user license first. So the short answer is: E3 or E5 for people, and Azure billing for the data estate.
Scenario 7: Your manager gives you one slide to explain Purview to leadership. What is on it?
Let's build the slide from top to bottom.
The headline is one sentence: Purview tells us what data we have, where it is, how sensitive it is, and keeps it protected, across Microsoft 365, Azure, Fabric and on-premises.
Under it, three boxes:
- Know your data, with the Data Map and Unified Catalog.
- Protect it, with labels, DLP and insider risk.
- Prove compliance, with audit, eDiscovery and retention.
Then three short lines at the bottom:
- Cost. Per-user licenses for Microsoft 365, and pay-as-you-go for governance, which grows with the assets we actually govern.
- First step. Start with one governance domain and one data product the business cares about, like the monthly revenue report, and show results before you scale.
- What it's not. It doesn't replace Unity Catalog or database permissions.
Leadership trusts you more when you are honest about what Purview doesn't do, so keep that last line on the slide.
Key points to remember
- Purview governs across platforms; Unity Catalog and OneLake enforce inside theirs
- Three areas: data security, data governance, risk and compliance
- One portal: purview.microsoft.com; the compliance portal is retired
- One tenant-level account: free (preview) or enterprise
- Governance: governed assets + DGPUs; Microsoft 365: per-user
Part 2: Data Map, Scans and Integration Runtimes
Part of the Real Time Microsoft Purview Interview Questions and Answers series on TechBrothersIT. Product names, features and their status (GA or preview) are current as of October 2026. Microsoft changes Purview every month, so check the Microsoft Learn page for anything you quote in an interview.
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