Beginner’s Guide to Power BI Certification

Are you just starting out on your Power BI journey, or are you an experienced BI developer?

Either way, earning your Microsoft PL-300 Certification can provide a number of personal and professional benefits, including:

• Validating your Power BI knowledge and skills

• Sharing and promoting your accomplishment with the world

• Connecting with other peers who are certified

• Increasing access to new jobs and career advancement opportunities

About the PL-300 Exam

Microsoft's PL-300 Exam is designed for business intelligence professionals who are responsible for designing and building scalable Power BI reporting solutions.

The exam covers a wide range of topics, including importing and preparing data, building relational models, creating and publishing reports, and sharing dashboards with stakeholders across organizations.

Exam Structure

The DA-100 certification exam structure is fairly straightforward. It contains anywhere from 40-60 questions, which must be answered within a time limit of 150 minutes. In order to pass, you’ll need to score at least 70%, or 700 out of a possible 1,000 points.

Here's a breakdown of the exam structure:

Question Types

The questions on the PL-300 exam consist of two types: Knowledge-based and Case Study.

Knowledge-based questions can take the form of multiple choice, multiple selection, fill in the blank, or drag-and-drop. These questions may be related to data transformation, formulas (M & DAX), product features, and more.

Case study questions are also multiple choice, but require you to read through a fictional case and use the information provided to answer a series of related questions.

One of the interesting aspects of the DA-100 exam is that at no point will you ever use or interact with the Power BI ecosystem. The entire exam consists of selecting answers from pre-populated lists.

Here are some examples of the types of questions you may encounter on the exam:

Skills Covered

The PL-300 covers five measured skill areas:

While this isn’t an exhaustive list of what’s actually covered in the exam, it provides a great idea of how each core skill area is assessed. Note that most questions are based on features in General Availability (not in Preview).

Keep in mind that the DA-100 exam is constantly evolving, and the skills and topics covered are often updated to reflect changes in the product. Make sure to consult the official Microsoft exam skills outline for the most up-to-date information!

Tips for Success

You may be thinking “what are the most important factors to keep in mind while preparing for the PL-300?”

Here’s my go-to list of helpful tips to keep in mind before you register for your exam:

Last but not least, make sure to check out our brand-new PL-300 certification prep course, designed to help you build the exact skills you need to ace the exam:

PL-300 Exam Certification Prep

Learn on! 🤘🏻