PL-300 Practice Test 2 — 30 Questions

Question 1

You have a Power BI report that uses a custom visual from AppSource. The visual is not rendering correctly. What should you check first?

Accepted Answer

The visual is not certified by Microsoft.. Custom visuals are embedded in the report file when published from Power BI Desktop; they do not require a network connection to AppSource to render. If a visual is not rendering, first check whether the visual is certified by Microsoft, as the Power BI service administrator might have disabled the use of uncertified visuals. Option A is incorrect because the visual does not rely on a live connection to AppSource. Option B is incorrect because report themes only affect styling, not rendering. Option C is incorrect because RLS filters data but does not prevent visual rendering.

Answer

The network connection is blocked from reaching AppSource.

Answer

The visual is not compatible with the report theme.

Answer

The dataset has row-level security applied.

Question 2

You need to create a relationship between two tables in Power BI. Both tables contain a column named 'ProductID', but the values in one table are integers and in the other are text. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Ensure both columns have the same data type, either by changing the data type in Power Query or in the model view.. In Power BI, relationships require matching data types on both sides of the key columns. If one 'ProductID' column is integer and the other is text, the relationship engine cannot resolve the join because the data types are incompatible. Changing both columns to the same data type—either in Power Query (recommended for performance) or in the model view—resolves this mismatch and allows a valid relationship to be created.

Answer

Merge the two tables into one in Power Query.

Answer

Create a new calculated column that converts the integer to text using FORMAT.

Answer

Set the relationship to 'Many-to-many' to bypass the type mismatch.

Question 3

You need to audit Power BI activities such as viewing reports, sharing dashboards, and exporting data. Which TWO actions should you take to enable and access audit logs? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Access the audit log from the Microsoft 365 compliance portal.. To audit Power BI activities, you must first enable audit logging by turning on the 'Create audit logs for Power BI activities' tenant setting in the Power BI admin portal (option C). Once enabled, you can access the audit logs from the Microsoft 365 compliance portal (option B). Option A is incorrect because Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is not the primary location for audit logs; it can integrate but is not required. Option D is incorrect because Power BI does not have an export feature for audit logs to CSV; you can export from the compliance portal. Option E is incorrect because Azure Monitor diagnostic settings are for Azure resources, not for Power BI audit logs.

Answer

Configure Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps to forward logs to Microsoft Sentinel.

Answer

Use the 'Export' feature in Power BI to export audit logs to a CSV file.

Answer

Set up a diagnostic setting in Azure Monitor to collect Power BI logs.

Question 4

You are a Power BI administrator. You need to audit all activities related to sharing reports and dashboards in the Power BI service. Which tool should you use?

Accepted Answer

Power BI activity log (via admin API or portal). The Power BI activity log provides a comprehensive record of all user activities within the Power BI service, including sharing reports and dashboards. Option A (Microsoft Purview compliance portal audit log) can capture some Power BI activities but is less specific and may not include all sharing events. Option B (Azure diagnostic settings) exports telemetry data to other destinations and is not designed for direct auditing of user actions. Option D (Microsoft Sentinel) is a SIEM tool that can ingest logs but is not the primary tool for auditing Power BI activities. The Power BI activity log is the correct choice as it is purpose-built for auditing Power BI user activities.

Answer

Microsoft Purview compliance portal audit log

Answer

Azure diagnostic settings for Power BI

Answer

Microsoft Sentinel

Question 5

Your organization uses Power BI Premium per user. You need to ensure that a specific report is only accessible via a Power BI app and not directly in the workspace. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

In the workspace settings, set 'Allow users to access the workspace content directly' to disabled.. Disabling 'Allow users to access the workspace content directly' in workspace settings restricts users from accessing reports directly in the workspace, forcing them to use the Power BI app. Option B is incorrect because removing users from the workspace role would also remove their access via the app. Option C is incorrect because moving the report to a different workspace does not prevent direct access in that workspace. Option D is incorrect because sharing the report only with app users does not prevent direct access in the workspace.

Answer

Remove the users from the workspace role.

Answer

Publish the report to a different workspace.

Answer

Share the report only with the app users.

Question 6

A company uses Power BI Premium with a capacity-based license. The capacity is frequently reaching its memory limit, causing reports to be evicted. You need to reduce memory pressure on the capacity. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Implement row-level security (RLS) to limit data loaded per user.. Implementing RLS reduces the amount of data loaded into memory for each user, thus reducing memory pressure. Option A is incorrect because enabling the Large dataset storage format increases memory usage as it loads the entire model into memory. Option B is incorrect because moving datasets to shared capacity does not reduce memory pressure on the Premium capacity, but may degrade performance. Option C is incorrect because increasing scheduled refresh frequency increases memory usage during refresh operations, not reducing it.

Answer

Enable the 'Large dataset storage format' for all datasets.

Answer

Move all datasets to a shared capacity.

Answer

Increase the scheduled refresh frequency to every hour.

Question 7

You manage a Power BI tenant. You need to prevent users from sharing reports with external users. Which THREE actions should you take?

Accepted Answer

Create a Microsoft Entra ID conditional access policy to block external users.. Options A, B, and C are correct. Creating a Microsoft Entra ID conditional access policy blocks external users from accessing resources. Disabling 'Publish to web' prevents public embedding of reports. Disabling 'Share content with external users' in the admin portal prevents sharing with external users. Option D is wrong because disabling 'Create app workspaces' does not prevent sharing with external users; it prevents creation of workspaces. Option E is wrong because disabling 'Export to Excel' does not affect sharing.

Answer

Disable 'Create app workspaces' for non-admins.

Answer

Disable 'Export to Excel' for all reports.

Question 8

Refer to the exhibit. You are implementing row-level security (RLS) in Power BI. The JSON policy above is applied to the 'Sales' table. The user is in the 'SalesRegion' role. Which rows will the user see?

Accepted Answer

Rows where Region is 'North' only.. The JSON policy defines a filter that restricts the 'Sales' table to rows where the 'Region' column equals 'North'. The user is in the 'SalesRegion' role, which applies this filter. RLS in Power BI evaluates the filter expression for each row, returning only those that satisfy the condition, so only rows with Region = 'North' are visible.

Answer

Rows where Region is 'North' and 'South'.

Answer

No rows, because there is a conflict.

Answer

Rows where Region is 'South' only.

Question 9

Refer to the exhibit. You are reviewing the configuration of a Power BI dataset with row-level security (RLS). A user named 'user@contoso.com' reports that they can see all data when they should see only data for their region. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The 'effectiveIdentity' is set to the user's email, bypassing RLS.. The 'effectiveIdentity' property in the exhibit is set to 'user@contoso.com', which overrides RLS and allows that user to see all data. In Power BI, the effective identity is used for testing purposes; in production, it should not be set for a specific user if RLS is intended. Option B is incorrect because the exhibit shows RLS roles are defined, so missing mapping is not the issue. Option C is incorrect because roles exist. Option D is incorrect because the user is likely assigned to a role, but the effective identity overrides it.

Answer

The RLS roles are missing the 'SalesRole' mapping to the dataset.

Answer

The dataset does not have any RLS roles defined.

Answer

The user is not assigned to any RLS role.

Question 10

Drag and drop the steps to configure a scheduled refresh for a dataset in the Power BI service into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Navigate to the dataset in the Power BI service and open its settings, then expand the 'Scheduled refresh' section, then set the refresh frequency and time windows, then click 'Apply' to save.. Scheduled refresh is configured in the dataset settings, enabling automatic updates at specified intervals.

Answer

Set the refresh frequency and time windows, then expand the 'Scheduled refresh' section, then navigate to the dataset in the Power BI service and open its settings, then click 'Apply'.

Answer

Navigate to the dataset in the Power BI service and open its settings, then expand the 'Scheduled refresh' section, then click 'Apply', then set the refresh frequency and time windows.

Answer

Expand the 'Scheduled refresh' section, then navigate to the dataset in the Power BI service and open its settings, then set the refresh frequency and time windows, then click 'Apply'.

Question 11

Your Power BI dataset uses DirectQuery to an Azure SQL Database. Users complain that the report is slow. You need to improve query performance without changing the data source. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Reduce the number of columns and rows retrieved by the report visuals.. Reducing the number of columns and rows retrieved by report visuals directly minimizes the amount of data sent from Azure SQL Database to Power BI via DirectQuery. Since DirectQuery sends native queries to the source for each visual interaction, fewer columns and rows mean smaller, faster queries, which reduces overall latency without altering the underlying data source.

Answer

Add more visuals to the report to distribute the load.

Answer

Switch the dataset to Import mode.

Answer

Increase the scheduled refresh frequency.

Question 12

You are a Power BI administrator for a large enterprise. You have a Power BI semantic model that uses a single large fact table named Sales (100 million rows) and several dimension tables. The model is used by multiple departments, each with different row-level security (RLS) rules based on the SalesRegion column. You have implemented RLS using static roles. However, you notice that when users from different departments view the same report page, the query performance varies significantly. You suspect that the RLS filters are causing the performance difference. You need to investigate and optimize the RLS performance. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Use Power BI Performance Analyzer to capture query performance for each user role and analyze the generated DAX queries in DAX Studio.. Using Power BI Performance Analyzer allows you to capture query performance for each user role, and analyzing the generated DAX queries in DAX Studio helps identify which queries are slow and whether RLS is the cause. This is the first logical step to diagnose the performance variation. Option A (increasing memory) may not address RLS-specific issues. Option C (converting to dynamic RLS) is a potential optimization but not the initial diagnostic step. Option D (removing RLS and using bookmarks) is not a recommended security approach and would not investigate the root cause.

Answer

Increase the data model's memory limit in Premium capacity.

Answer

Convert all RLS roles to use dynamic RLS with USERPRINCIPALNAME.

Answer

Remove all RLS roles and implement security at the report level using bookmarks.

Question 13

You have a Power BI report with a page that contains a bar chart showing sales by product category. You want to allow users to click on a bar and navigate to a different report page that shows detailed sales for that category. Which feature should you use?

Accepted Answer

Drillthrough. Drillthrough is the correct feature for navigating from a summary visual to a detail page for a specific data point. Cross-filtering only filters other visuals on the same page. Bookmarks are for saved views. Report page tooltips are for hover details. Custom visuals are not needed.

Answer

Bookmarks

Answer

Report page tooltips

Answer

Cross-filtering

Question 14

You are preparing data for a Power BI report. The source data contains a 'CustomerName' column with values like 'John, Doe'. You need to split this column into two columns: 'FirstName' and 'LastName'. The comma is used as a delimiter, but some names have a space after the comma. Which split method should you use?

Accepted Answer

Split by delimiter using comma, then use 'Trim' to remove extra spaces. Splitting by comma and then trimming extra spaces handles the inconsistent spacing after the comma (e.g., 'John, Doe' vs 'John, Doe'). Power Query's 'Split Column by Delimiter' using comma will separate the values, and the subsequent 'Trim' step removes leading/trailing spaces from the resulting columns, ensuring clean 'FirstName' and 'LastName' values without manual cleanup.

Answer

Split by number of characters using a fixed width

Answer

Split by delimiter using semicolon

Answer

Split by delimiter using comma, using 'Left-most delimiter'

Question 15

Which are valid ways to create a calculated table in Power BI? (Select all that apply)

Accepted Answer

VALUES(Customer[Country]). To create a calculated table, you need a DAX expression that returns a table object. Options A, C, D, and E all return tables: VALUES returns a single-column table of distinct values; FILTER returns a filtered subset of rows; CALENDARAUTO returns a date range table; SUMMARIZE returns a grouped table with aggregations. Option B, CALCULATE, returns a scalar value, not a table, so it is invalid.

Answer

CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Amount]), ALL(Sales))

Question 16

You are creating a Power BI report that uses a table named Orders with columns: OrderID, OrderDate, ShipDate, and Status. You need to create a calculated table that contains one row per month with the total number of orders shipped in that month. Which TWO steps should you take?

Accepted Answer

Use SUMMARIZECOLUMNS with 'Date'[Month] and COUNTROWS of Orders. To create a calculated table that shows total orders shipped per month, you can directly group by the month of ShipDate using SUMMARIZECOLUMNS. Since the Orders table already contains a ShipDate column, a separate date table is not required for this aggregation. Option C (creating a date table) is unnecessary here; you can simply extract the month from ShipDate within the grouping. Option D correctly uses SUMMARIZECOLUMNS with 'Date'[Month] and COUNTROWS of Orders. Note: If the 'Date' table is not already present, you would need to create it, but the question asks for steps to create a calculated table that contains one row per month with totals. The most direct step is to use SUMMARIZECOLUMNS with the month column from the Orders table (or a date table if available). However, among the given options, only D is a required step.

Answer

Use CALENDARAUTO in a measure

Answer

Use the GROUPBY function

Answer

Create a date table using CALENDAR or CALENDARAUTO

Answer

Use the VALUES function to get unique months

Question 17

You have a Power BI model where the Sales table is filtered by a Customer dimension. Users report that when they filter a measure from the Customer table (e.g., Customer Count), it does not affect the Sales visual. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The relationship is inactive. When a relationship is inactive, filters do not propagate between tables by default. In this scenario, filtering a measure from the Customer table does not affect the Sales visual because the relationship is inactive. Active relationships are required for cross-filtering to work. Options B and C would still allow filtering in specific directions, and D is not a standard setting.

Answer

The relationship cardinality is many-to-many

Answer

The cross-filtering direction is set to one direction (Customer -> Sales), but the filter is applied on Customer

Answer

The security filtering behavior is set to oneDirection

Question 18

You are building a star schema in Power BI. The fact table contains sales transactions. Which of the following should be stored in a dimension table?

Accepted Answer

Product category. Product category is a descriptive attribute that belongs in a product dimension table. Option B is wrong because sales amount is a numeric measure that should be stored in the fact table. Option C is wrong because customer ID is a foreign key that links to a customer dimension but is stored in the fact table as a key, not as a descriptive attribute. Option D is wrong because transaction date can be part of a date dimension, but the question asks for what should be stored in a dimension table, and product category is the clearest dimension attribute among the options.

Answer

Sales amount

Answer

Customer ID

Answer

Transaction date

Question 19

Refer to the exhibit. You have a DAX measure that calculates customer lifetime value (CLV) as total revenue divided by distinct customer count. When you use this measure in a visual with Product category, you notice that the CLV values are higher than expected. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The measure counts customers per category, but customers who buy multiple categories are counted in each category, reducing the denominator. The CLV measure is defined as total revenue divided by distinct customer count. When this measure is used in a visual with Product category, the context filters both the revenue and the customer count to that category. The DISTINCTCOUNT(CustomerID) returns the number of customers who purchased at least one product in that category. If a customer buys multiple categories, they are counted in each category's distinct count. This makes the denominator per category smaller than the total distinct customer base, leading to a higher CLV value than expected. Option A is incorrect because returns would reduce revenue, not cause higher CLV. Option C is incorrect because using COUNTROWS would count transaction rows, not distinct customers, making the denominator larger and CLV smaller. Option D is incorrect because DIVIDE handles division by zero, and the scenario does not involve zero customers.

Answer

The measure does not filter out returns

Answer

The measure should use COUNTROWS instead of DISTINCTCOUNT

Answer

The measure is dividing by zero for categories with no customers

Question 20

Which TWO of the following are valid methods to share a Power BI report with external users who do not have an internal Microsoft Entra ID account? (Select two.)

Accepted Answer

Deploy the report to Power BI Report Server and configure anonymous access. Deploy the report to Power BI Report Server and configure anonymous access allows external users without Microsoft Entra ID accounts to view the report via a web portal or URL. Option C is correct: Inviting them as guest users in Microsoft Entra ID (B2B) enables external users to access the report through the Power BI service using their existing email address. Option A is wrong: Publishing to public web makes the report publicly accessible to anyone on the internet, not just specific external users. Option D is wrong: Email subscriptions send a static snapshot of the report, not an interactive experience. Option E is wrong: Embedding in SharePoint Online requires the user to have a valid Power BI license and access to the report via the Power BI service, which typically requires internal authentication.

Answer

Publish to public web (Publish to web)

Answer

Send them an email subscription with the report attached

Answer

Embed the report in a SharePoint Online page and share the link