What is the purpose of organizational units (OUs) in Active Directory?

• A. To group objects for administrative purposes
• B. To define security policies at the domain level
• C. OUs are used to group objects, such as users, groups, computers, and other OUs, for administrative purposes
• D. To host certificate authorities

Answer: (C)

Organizational Units are logical containers inside an Active Directory domain that provide administrative scope. They group objects—such as users, computers, groups, and even other OUs—so admins can delegate control to specific teams and apply policies to just that subset. This targeted delegation and policy application is the essence of their purpose. Hosting a certificate authority is a server role, and while Group Policy can be linked to OUs for configuration, the fundamental function of an OU is to organize for administration rather than to define security at the domain level.