PL-300 Model the data Practice Test 4 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You are analyzing a DAX query as shown in the exhibit. You need to determine the result set. The model contains tables: Date, Product, and Sales with relationships. Which statement accurately describes the output?

Accepted Answer

The query returns total sales per year and category for Amount > 100. Option A is correct because the DAX query uses SUMMARIZE to group sales by 'Year' from the Date table and 'Category' from the Product table, then filters the Sales table to include only rows where Amount > 100. The result is a table of total sales (sum of Amount) for each combination of year and category that meets the filter condition.

Answer

The query returns total sales for each year, ignoring category

Answer

The query returns sales amounts only for products with Amount > 100

Answer

The query returns total sales for each category, ignoring year

Question 2

You are reviewing the partition configuration for a Power BI Import model as shown in the exhibit. The table Sales is partitioned by year. You need to modify the model to improve incremental refresh performance. What change should you make?

Accepted Answer

Configure incremental refresh policy. Configuring an incremental refresh policy (Option B) is the correct approach because it automatically manages partition creation and refresh for the Sales table based on a date/time column. This improves performance by refreshing only the most recent data (e.g., last 5 years) while keeping historical partitions unchanged, reducing refresh time and resource consumption compared to manual yearly partitions.

Answer

Increase the number of partitions to monthly

Answer

Remove all partitions and load data as a single table

Answer

Change the storage mode to DirectQuery

Question 3

You are designing a Power BI data model for a sales analysis. The model includes a table named Sales with columns: OrderID, OrderDate, CustomerID, ProductID, Quantity, UnitPrice. You need to create a star schema. Which TWO tables should you create as dimension tables?

Accepted Answer

Product. In a star schema, dimension tables contain descriptive attributes that provide context for the measures stored in the fact table. Product is a classic dimension because it holds product details (e.g., name, category) that describe the sales facts. Customer is also a dimension because it stores customer attributes (e.g., name, region) used for slicing and dicing sales data.

Answer

Calendar

Answer

Sales

Answer

Orders

Question 4

You have a Power BI data model with a table named Employees that contains: EmployeeID, ManagerID, Department, and Salary. You need to create a parent-child hierarchy for the reporting structure. Which THREE actions should you perform?

Accepted Answer

Enable the 'Group on' feature in the visual to expand/collapse. Option A is correct because enabling the 'Group on' feature in a visual (such as a matrix or table) allows users to expand and collapse parent-child hierarchies, making the reporting structure interactive. This feature works with the hierarchy path created by calculated columns (Option B) and the self-referencing relationship (Option C) to display the drill-down behavior.

Answer

Create a separate table for managers

Answer

Set cross filter direction to Both on the relationship

Question 5

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

Create a date table using CALENDAR or CALENDARAUTO. The correct answers are A and D. First, create a date table (A) for time intelligence, then use SUMMARIZECOLUMNS (D) to group by month and count orders. Option B (CALENDARAUTO) is a function to create a date table, but the step is incomplete. Option C (VALUES) returns distinct values, not aggregated. Option E (GROUPBY) is similar but less common.

Answer

Use CALENDARAUTO in a measure

Answer

Use the GROUPBY function

Answer

Use the VALUES function to get unique months

Question 6

You have a Power BI data model with a table named Sales that includes columns: ProductID, SalesAmount, and SalesDate. You need to create a measure that calculates the total sales amount for the current quarter and compares it to the previous quarter. Which THREE DAX functions should you use?

Accepted Answer

PREVIOUSQUARTER. The correct answers are A, B, and D. CALCULATE (A) is used to modify filter context. SUM (B) to aggregate. PREVIOUSQUARTER (D) for time intelligence. Option C (DATEADD) could also work, but PREVIOUSQUARTER is more specific. Option E (DATESQTD) is for quarter-to-date, not previous quarter.

Answer

DATEADD

Answer

DATESQTD

Question 7

You are designing a data model in Power BI that includes a fact table called 'Sales' and dimension tables 'Customer', 'Product', and 'Date'. The 'Sales' table contains columns: 'SalesID', 'CustomerID', 'ProductID', 'DateKey', 'Quantity', and 'Amount'. You need to ensure that the model follows star schema best practices and that filters from the 'Customer' table propagate correctly to the 'Sales' table. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Create a one-to-many relationship from Customer (one side) to Sales (many side) based on CustomerID.. Option B is correct because a star schema requires a one-to-many relationship from dimension tables to fact tables, with the dimension table on the one side. Option A is wrong because many-to-many relationships would break star schema simplicity. Option C is wrong because bidirectional filtering can cause ambiguity and is not recommended by default. Option D is wrong because merging tables into a single flat table is the opposite of star schema.

Answer

Merge the Customer and Sales tables into a single flat table.

Answer

Set the cross-filter direction to Both on the relationship between Customer and Sales.

Answer

Create a many-to-many relationship between Customer and Sales using SalesID.

Question 8

You have a Power BI data model with a table 'Orders' that has columns: 'OrderID', 'OrderDate', 'CustomerName', 'Region', 'Product', 'Quantity', 'UnitPrice'. You want to create a measure that calculates total sales amount. Which DAX expression should you use?

Accepted Answer

Total Sales = SUMX(Orders, Orders[Quantity] * Orders[UnitPrice]). Option A is correct. The SUMX function iterates over each row and multiplies Quantity by UnitPrice, then sums the result. Option B is incorrect because SUM only works on a single column. Option C is incorrect because COUNTROWS counts rows, not amounts. Option D is incorrect because AVERAGE calculates average, not total.

Answer

Total Sales = COUNTROWS(Orders)

Answer

Total Sales = AVERAGE(Orders[Quantity]) * AVERAGE(Orders[UnitPrice])

Answer

Total Sales = SUM(Orders[Quantity] * Orders[UnitPrice])

Question 9

You are modeling data from an Azure SQL Database into Power BI. The source table 'Sales' contains 10 million rows. You need to ensure that the data model supports fast query performance for a report that shows sales by month and product category. The report uses a slicer for year. What is the best practice for improving performance?

Accepted Answer

Create an aggregate table in Power BI that pre-aggregates sales by month and product category.. Option D is correct because creating an aggregate table in Power BI that pre-aggregates sales by month and product category drastically reduces the number of rows the report must scan, from 10 million to a much smaller set of aggregated rows. This enables fast query performance for the slicer and visual-level filters, as Power BI can leverage the aggregate table via its aggregation feature, which automatically redirects queries to the pre-summarized data when possible.

Answer

Disable the auto-date/time feature.

Answer

Increase the data load frequency to every 15 minutes.

Answer

Use DirectQuery mode to query the source database directly.

Question 10

You have a Power BI model with a table 'Employees' that includes columns: 'EmployeeID', 'ManagerID', 'Name'. You need to create a hierarchy that shows the reporting structure. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Create a self-join relationship from Employees[EmployeeID] to Employees[ManagerID].. To create a hierarchy that shows the reporting structure in Power BI, you first need to establish a self-join relationship between the Employees table and itself, linking EmployeeID to ManagerID. This allows Power BI to traverse the parent-child relationship and build a natural hierarchy (e.g., using Parent-Child functions like PATH). Without this relationship, the model cannot understand how employees relate to their managers.

Answer

Merge the Employees table with itself using Merge Queries.

Answer

Add a calculated column that concatenates EmployeeID and ManagerID.

Answer

Create a many-to-many relationship between Employees and itself.

Question 11

You are building a data model for a retail company. The 'Sales' fact table has a column 'Discount' that is a percentage (0 to 1). You create a measure 'Total Discount Amount' = SUM(Sales[Discount]) * SUM(Sales[Quantity]) * SUM(Sales[UnitPrice]). However, the measure returns incorrect results when multiple discount percentages exist in the same filter context. What is the issue?

Accepted Answer

The measure is performing aggregations at the wrong granularity; it should use SUMX to iterate over each row.. The measure uses SUM on each column individually, which aggregates all values in the filter context before multiplying. When multiple discount percentages exist, this incorrectly multiplies the total of all discounts by the total of all quantities and total of all unit prices, rather than computing discount per row. The correct approach is to use SUMX to iterate over each row of the Sales table, calculating Discount * Quantity * UnitPrice per row and then summing those row-level results, ensuring accurate granularity.

Answer

The measure contains a circular dependency.

Answer

The measure is referencing columns from different tables without proper relationships.

Answer

The Discount column should be of type Decimal instead of Percentage.

Question 12

You have a Power BI data model with a 'Date' table that contains continuous dates from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2025. The 'Sales' table has a relationship with the 'Date' table. You need to create a measure that calculates the total sales for the last 12 months from the current context. Which DAX function should you use?

Accepted Answer

DATESINPERIOD. Option D is correct. DATESINPERIOD allows you to specify a range of dates (e.g., last 12 months) relative to a end date. Option A is incorrect because SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR returns the same period one year ago, not the last 12 months. Option B is incorrect because DATEADD shifts dates by an interval. Option C is incorrect because PREVIOUSMONTH returns the previous month only.

Answer

PREVIOUSMONTH

Answer

DATEADD

Answer

SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR

Question 13

Which TWO of the following are best practices for designing a star schema in Power BI?

Accepted Answer

Dimension tables should have a primary key and descriptive columns.. Option A is correct because dimension tables in a star schema are designed to store descriptive attributes (e.g., product name, category) and must have a primary key column that uniquely identifies each row. This primary key is referenced by foreign keys in fact tables, enabling efficient filtering and slicing in Power BI. Without a primary key, relationships cannot be properly enforced, leading to ambiguous or incorrect query results.

Answer

Fact tables should contain calculated columns for business logic.

Answer

Merge all tables into a single flat table for simplicity.

Answer

Use many-to-many relationships between fact and dimension tables.

Question 14

Which THREE of the following are valid considerations when using Power BI DirectQuery mode?

Accepted Answer

Queries are sent to the underlying data source in real time.. Option C is correct because in DirectQuery mode, Power BI does not import data; instead, it sends native queries to the underlying data source (e.g., SQL Server, Oracle) each time a visual is rendered or a filter is applied. This ensures that the data displayed is always current, as the query is executed in real time against the source system.

Answer

Data is imported into the Power BI dataset.

Answer

You cannot create relationships between tables.

Question 15

Which TWO of the following are valid methods to create a date table in Power BI?

Accepted Answer

Using the 'Mark as Date Table' feature on an existing table with dates.. Option B is correct: using CALENDARAUTO auto-detects date range from model. Option D is correct: marking a table as date table is a standard method. Option A is incorrect because manual typing is not practical. Option C is incorrect because there is no 'Create Date Table' button. Option E is incorrect because there is no 'Generate Date Table' in the modeling tab.

Answer

Using the 'Create Date Table' button in the ribbon.

Answer

Using the 'Generate Date Table' option in Power Query.

Answer

Manually typing dates in Excel and importing.

PL-300 Model the data Practice Test 4 — 15 Questions

Exhibit

PL-300 Model the data Practice Test 4 — 15 Questions

Exhibit