Let’s discuss the Exam Prep Guide for PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate. This exam preparation guide helps you to prepare for the PL-300 exam. This certification validates your ability to analyze data with Power BI, create visualizations, and provide actionable insights.
Do you know what the PL-300 exam is? The PL-300 exam, or the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst exam, is designed to assess your skills in using Power BI to analyze data and provide actionable insights. This PL-300 exam guide will give you a comprehensive knowledge of PowerBI.
Power BI is a business analytics tool developed by Microsoft that allows users to visualize and share insights from their data. It connects various data sources and transforms raw data into interactive dashboards and reports. PowerBI is very important in the IT sector.
The Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate is fundamental to achieving your career goal. This guide will ease your Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate Exam, and you will get complete information.
Table of Contents
How Many Questions Are Included on the PL-300 Exam?
The PL-300 or the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exam typically includes 40 to 60 questions.
Who is Eligible to Take the PL-300 Exam?
The PL-300 exam, also known as the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst exam, does not have formal prerequisites. However, to be well-prepared and eligible, you should ideally have Experience with Power BI, Knowledge of Data Analysis, Familiarity with DAX, and Experience with Data Sources.
Exam Prep Guide for PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certification
This exam guide helps candidates learn about the Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate. This course is a stepping stone to more advanced certifications.
This study guide should help you understand what to expect on the exam and includes a summary of the topics the exam might cover and links to additional resources.
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Updates to the Exam
Microsoft periodically updates the exam to reflect the skills required to perform a role. We have included two versions of the Skills Measured objectives, depending on when you are taking the exam.
Usually, the English-language version of the exam is updated first. Some exams are localized into other languages and updated approximately 8 weeks after the English version is updated.
Microsoft is dedicated to updating localized versions, as noted. However, there may be times when the localized versions of an exam are not updated on this schedule. Other available languages are listed in the Schedule Exam section of the Exam Details webpage. If the exam isn’t available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes to complete it.
Skills Measured as of October 21, 2024
To pass the PL-300 exam, you must study all the syllabus topics. The syllabus includes different topics as of October 21, 2024. If you plan to attend the exam on October 21, 2024, this post will help you understand the exam topics.
Audience Profile
This is the audience profile for the PL-300 exam, also known as the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst exam. As a candidate for this exam, you should deliver actionable insights by working with available data and applying domain expertise. The following are the important points.
- Provide meaningful business value through easy-to-comprehend data visualizations.
- Enable others to perform self-service analytics.
As a Power BI data analyst, you work closely with business stakeholders to identify business requirements. You collaborate with analytics engineers and data engineers to locate and acquire data.
| Uses of Power BI |
|---|
| Prepare the data |
| Model the data |
| Visualize and analyze data |
| Manage and secure Power BI |
Note: You should be proficient at using Power Query and Data Analysis Expressions (DAX).
Skills at a Glance in PL-300 Exam Guide
This section provides a high-level overview of the PL-300 Exam. You can follow these topics to prepare for your exam and score maximum marks. The topics are applicable as of October 21, 2024, and you can expect them on the exam.
- Prepare the data (25–30%)
- Model the data (25–30%)
- Visualize and analyze the data (25–30%)
- Manage and secure Power BI (15–20%)
Prepare the Data (25–30%)
Preparing the Data is one of the main topics on the PL-300 exam. You can expect around 25-30% of questions from this topic on the exam. There are 3 sub topics included in the Prepare the Data topic. The table below shows the 4 sub-topics and the details of Prepare the Data.
| Get or Connect to Data | Profile and Clean the Data | Transform and Load the Data |
|---|---|---|
| Identify and connect to data sources or a shared semantic model | Evaluate data, including data statistics and column properties | Select appropriate column data types |
| Change data source settings, including credentials and privacy levels | Resolve inconsistencies, unexpected or null values, and data quality issues | Create and transform columns |
| Choose between DirectQuery and Import | Resolve data import errors | Group and aggregate rows |
| Create and modify parameters | Pivot, unpivot, and transpose data | |
| Convert semi-structured data to a table | ||
| Create fact tables and dimension tables | ||
| Identify when to use reference or duplicate queries and the resulting impact | ||
| Merge and append queries | ||
| Identify and create appropriate keys for relationships | ||
| Configure data loading for queries |
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Model the Data (25–30%)
In the PL-300 exam, the “Model the Data” section evaluates your ability to create and manage data models in Power BI. Model the Data is the second topic on the PL-300 exam.
You can expect almost 25-30% of questions from this topic on the exam. The Model the Data topic includes 3 subtopics. The table below shows the subtopics and their details.
| Design and Implement a Data Model | Create model calculations by using DAX | Optimize Model Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Configure table and column properties | Create single aggregation measures | Improve performance by identifying and removing unnecessary rows and columns |
| Implement role-playing dimensions | Use the CALCULATE function | Identify poorly performing measures, relationships, and visuals by using Performance Analyzer and DAX query view |
| Define a relationship’s cardinality and cross-filter direction | Implement time intelligence measures | Improve performance by reducing granularity |
| Create a common date table | Use basic statistical functions | |
| Identify use cases for calculated columns and calculated tables | Create semi-additive measures | |
| Create a measure by using quick measures | ||
| Create calculated tables or columns | ||
| Create calculation groups |
Visualize and Analyze the Data (25–30%)
In the PL-300 exam, the “Visualize and Analyze the Data” section assesses your ability to create and manage data visualizations and analyse them using Power BI. The table below shows some subtopics on this topic.
| Create Reports | Enhance Reports for Usability and Storytelling | Identify Patterns and Trends |
|---|---|---|
| Select an appropriate visual | Configure bookmarks | Use the Analyze feature in Power BI |
| Format and configure visuals | Create custom tooltips | Use grouping, binning, and clustering |
| Apply and customize a theme | Edit and configure interactions between visuals | Use AI visuals |
| Apply conditional formatting | Configure navigation for a report | Use reference lines, error bars, and forecasting |
| Apply slicing and filtering | Apply sorting to visuals | Detect outliers and anomalies |
| Configure the report page | Configure sync slicers | |
| Choose when to use a paginated report | Group and layer visuals by using the Selection pane | |
| Create visual calculations by using DAX | Configure drillthrough navigation | |
| Configure export settings | ||
| Design reports for mobile devices | ||
| Enable personalized visuals in a report | ||
| Design and configure Power BI reports for accessibility | ||
| Configure automatic page refresh |
Manage and Secure Power BI (15–20%)
In the PL-300 exam, the “Manage and Secure Power BI” section evaluates your ability to manage and secure the Power BI environment. Around 15-20% of questions can be expected on this exam.
| Create and Manage Workspaces and Assets | Secure and Govern Power BI Items |
|---|---|
| Create and configure a workspace | Assign workspace roles |
| Configure and update a workspace app | Configure item-level access |
| Publish, import, or update items in a workspace | Configure access to semantic models |
| Create dashboards | Implement row-level security roles |
| Choose a distribution method | Configure row-level security group membership |
| Configure subscriptions and data alerts | Apply sensitivity labels |
| Promote or certify Power BI content | |
| Identify when a gateway is required | |
| Configure a semantic model scheduled refresh |
Resource
Study guide for Exam PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst
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Author
Anoop C Nair has been Microsoft MVP from 2015 onwards for 10 consecutive years! He is a Workplace Solution Architect with more than 22+ years of experience in Workplace technologies. He is also a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group Community leader. His primary focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM and Intune. He writes about technologies like Intune, SCCM, Windows, Cloud PC, Windows, Entra, Microsoft Security, Career, etc.