DA0-002 Visualization and Reporting Practice Question
A data analyst has built a dashboard tracking daily website sessions. The product owner wants to know which acquisition channel contributed the largest share of sessions over the past quarter, and how those shares shifted month by month. Which chart type is MOST appropriate?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is choosing a line chart because the data spans time, overlooking that the question asks about share of a whole rather than absolute trend.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
A stacked bar chart with one bar per month and segments for each acquisition channel.
The question combines a part-to-whole comparison with a time progression, which is precisely what a stacked bar chart handles: each monthly bar totals the sessions while its segments show each channel's contribution, and a 100% stacked form isolates share. Line charts emphasize absolute trends, scatter plots require two continuous variables, and waterfalls imply sequential deductions that do not exist here.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
A stacked bar chart with one bar per month and segments for each acquisition channel.
Why this is correct
Stacked bars show both the total per month and each channel's contribution as a segment, so the reader can see share composition and how it changes across the quarter. When comparing shares across months, a 100% stacked variant makes the proportion comparison even cleaner. This directly answers both parts of the product owner's question.
- ✗
A line chart with one line per acquisition channel plotting sessions against time.
Why it's wrong here
Lines excel at showing trends in absolute values and are poor at conveying part-to-whole share, especially when the total itself is moving. The reader would have to mentally sum the lines for each month and divide to estimate shares. It answers how each channel trended, but not which channel held the largest share of the monthly total.
- ✗
A waterfall chart starting from total quarterly sessions and subtracting each channel's contribution.
Why it's wrong here
A waterfall is designed for sequential additive effects, such as a financial bridge from opening to closing balance, where the order of steps carries meaning. Acquisition channels are not sequential deductions from a total, so the chart would imply a false order of events and still would not show month-by-month share shifts.
- ✗
A scatter plot of sessions against channel with each point representing one day.
Why it's wrong here
A scatter plot examines the relationship between two continuous variables. Acquisition channel is categorical, so plotting it as a scatter dimension produces an unreadable cloud with no meaningful correlation to interpret, and no part-to-whole information is conveyed. It is the wrong tool for both share and month-over-month composition.
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Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
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