PL-900 Demonstrate capabilities of Power BI Practice Test 1 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A sales manager wants to create a Power BI report that shows monthly sales trends and allows drilling down from year to quarter to month. Which feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Hierarchy. A hierarchy in Power BI allows users to create a parent-child relationship between fields (e.g., Year → Quarter → Month) that enables automatic drill-down and drill-up actions in visuals. This directly supports the sales manager's requirement to view monthly trends and drill from year to quarter to month without manual configuration.

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Drill-through

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Bookmarks

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Slicers

Question 2

A company has a Power BI dataset that refreshes daily. Users report that the report shows stale data from two days ago. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The scheduled refresh has failed for the past two days. The most likely cause is that the scheduled refresh has failed for the past two days. Power BI datasets that rely on scheduled refresh must complete successfully to update the data; if the refresh fails, the dataset retains the last successful refresh’s data, which in this case is from two days ago. Users seeing stale data from two days ago directly indicates that the refresh has not succeeded since then.

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The dataset uses DirectQuery mode

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Incremental refresh is configured incorrectly

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The on-premises data gateway is offline

Question 3

A marketing team wants to share a Power BI dashboard with external partners who do not have Power BI licenses. What is the recommended approach?

Accepted Answer

Use Publish to web (public embedding). Option B is correct because 'Publish to web' creates a public embed code that allows anyone on the internet to view the dashboard without requiring a Power BI license or authentication. This is the only built-in method in Power BI that enables sharing with external users who have no Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) licenses, as it bypasses the license requirement entirely by making the report publicly accessible.

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Give each partner a Power BI Pro license

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Embed the dashboard in a SharePoint Online page

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Share the report link directly via email

Question 4

A data analyst needs to combine data from two Excel tables that have a common column 'ProductID'. Which Power BI tool should they use?

Accepted Answer

Merge Queries. Merge Queries is the correct tool because it combines two tables by matching rows based on a common column (ProductID), similar to a SQL JOIN. This allows the analyst to bring in additional columns from one table into the other, which is exactly what is needed when data from two Excel tables must be integrated on a shared key.

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Append Queries

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Pivot Column

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Group By

Question 5

A Power BI report uses a calculated column that shows [Sales Amount] * 1.1. Users notice the column shows incorrect values after a data refresh. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DAX formula was edited to multiply by 1.2 instead of 1.1. Option A is correct because if the DAX formula was edited to multiply by 1.2 instead of 1.1, the calculated column would produce values 9.09% higher than expected after the refresh. This directly explains the discrepancy users observe, as calculated columns are recomputed during data refresh based on the current formula definition.

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The dataset was refreshed in Import mode instead of DirectQuery

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The data type of 'Sales Amount' changed from decimal to integer

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The source column name changed from 'Sales Amount' to 'SalesAmt'

Question 6

A manager wants to see a Power BI report on their mobile phone while offline. What should they do?

Accepted Answer

Use the Power BI mobile app and download the report for offline viewing. Option B is correct because the Power BI mobile app supports downloading reports for offline viewing. This feature allows users to cache a report on their device, enabling access without an internet connection. The manager can simply open the report in the mobile app and select the download option to make it available offline.

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Export the report to PDF on a desktop computer

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Share the report via email

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Subscribe to the report to receive email updates

Question 7

A company has a Power BI dashboard that displays real-time data from Azure Stream Analytics. Which connection type should they use?

Accepted Answer

Push dataset. Push datasets are designed for real-time streaming scenarios where data is pushed into Power BI via APIs, such as from Azure Stream Analytics. Unlike Import or DirectQuery, Push datasets support automatic refresh of streaming data without requiring a scheduled refresh, making them ideal for real-time dashboards.

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Import

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DirectQuery

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Composite model

Question 8

A Power BI report contains a measure that calculates year-over-year growth. The measure works correctly in Power BI Desktop but shows blank values after publishing to the service. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The time zone settings in the service differ from Desktop. Option C is correct because time zone settings in the Power BI service can cause date-based measures like year-over-year growth to return blank values. When a measure uses functions such as SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR or DATEADD, the service may interpret date boundaries differently than Power BI Desktop, especially if the dataset uses a different time zone or if the service applies UTC conversion. This mismatch can result in no matching dates for the calculation, leading to blank results.

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The dataset was deleted from the service

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The user does not have permission to view the measure

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The scheduled refresh is not configured

Question 9

Which TWO features can be used to secure data in Power BI?

Accepted Answer

Row-level security (RLS). Row-level security (RLS) is correct because it restricts data access at the row level based on user roles and filters, ensuring that users only see data relevant to them. This is a core Power BI security feature that controls data visibility without duplicating reports or datasets.

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Q&A visuals

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Bookmarks

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Drill-through

Question 10

Which THREE components are required to create a Power BI dashboard?

Accepted Answer

A dataset. A dataset is required because it provides the data model and source that powers the visualizations in a Power BI dashboard. Without a dataset, there is no underlying data to display, making it a fundamental component for any dashboard.

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An on-premises data gateway

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A dataflow

Question 11

Which TWO are valid Power BI visualization types?

Accepted Answer

Funnel chart. Option D (Funnel chart) is a valid Power BI visualization type used to represent stages in a linear process, such as sales pipelines or conversion funnels, where each stage's value decreases progressively. Power BI includes Funnel charts as a built-in visualization in its standard visualizations gallery, making it a correct answer.

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Waterfall chart

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Gantt chart

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Scatter map

Question 12

Which THREE actions can be performed in the Power Query Editor?

Accepted Answer

Change data types. Option B is correct because the Power Query Editor is specifically designed for data transformation and cleaning tasks. Changing data types (e.g., from text to number) is a fundamental transformation that ensures data is correctly formatted for analysis in Power BI.

Answer

Create measures

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Create relationships between tables

Question 13

A user sees the exhibit error when opening a Power BI report in the service. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The data source connection in the service was modified. The error shown in the exhibit is a typical 'Couldn't load the data for this visual' message that occurs when the data source connection defined in the Power BI service has been changed (e.g., server name, database name, or authentication method) but the report's underlying dataset still references the old connection. This mismatch prevents the service from retrieving data, even if the gateway is online and credentials are valid. Option D is correct because modifying the data source connection in the service without updating the dataset's connection string breaks the data retrieval pipeline.

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The scheduled refresh failed due to credentials

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The on-premises data gateway is offline

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The dataset was deleted from the workspace

Question 14

Based on the exhibit, what is the result of the TotalQuantity measure?

Accepted Answer

45. The TotalQuantity measure uses the SUM function on the Quantity column, which aggregates all numeric values in that column. Given the data in the exhibit, the sum of the Quantity values (10, 15, 5, 15) equals 45, making option D correct.

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15

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50

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30

Question 15

You are a Power BI administrator for a large retail company. The company has a Power BI workspace that contains a dashboard named 'Sales Overview'. The dashboard is shared with the sales team. Recently, users have reported that the dashboard is loading slowly, and some visuals show 'Data is not available' errors. The dashboard uses a DirectQuery connection to an on-premises SQL Server database. The database team confirms that the server is not under heavy load. You need to troubleshoot and resolve the issue. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Check the on-premises data gateway performance and logs for errors. Option A is correct because the on-premises data gateway is the critical bridge between Power BI and the on-premises SQL Server when using DirectQuery. Slow loading and 'Data is not available' errors often stem from gateway performance issues, connectivity problems, or errors logged by the gateway service. Checking the gateway logs and performance metrics is the first logical troubleshooting step before making architectural changes.

Answer

Replace the DirectQuery connection with an Import connection

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Ask the database team to add more indexes to the SQL Server tables

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Increase the scheduled refresh frequency to every 15 minutes