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PL-300 · topic practice

Model the data practice questions

Practise Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst PL-300 Model the data practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.

Courseiva uses original exam-style practice questions designed for learning and revision. The goal is to understand the concepts, recognise exam patterns, and improve through explanations — not memorise copied exam dumps.

Reviewed byJohnson Ajibi· MSc IT Security
20 questionsDomain: Model the data
Practice 10 questionsBrowse domain →

What the exam tests

What to know about Model the data

Model the data questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.

How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.

Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.

How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.

How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.

Watch out for

Common Model the data exam traps

  • ▸Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
  • ▸Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
  • ▸Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
  • ▸Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.

Practice set

Model the data questions

20 questions · select your answer, then reveal the explanation

Question 1easymultiple choice
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A company has a Power BI dataset that contains a date table with columns: Date, Year, Month, Quarter, Day. The data model also includes a sales fact table with a SalesDate column. To enable time intelligence functions like TOTALYTD, what is the minimum requirement for the relationship between these tables?

Question 2mediummultiple choice
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A Power BI developer creates a star schema with a fact table Sales and dimension tables Customer, Product, Date. The relationship between Sales and Date is active. The developer wants to create a measure that calculates the total sales for the previous month relative to any selected month. Which DAX expression should the developer use?

Question 3hardmultiple choice
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A Power BI data model includes a table 'Orders' with columns OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate, SalesAmount. The model also has a 'Date' table and a 'Customer' table. The relationships are: Orders[CustomerID] -> Customer[CustomerID] (many-to-one, single direction) and Orders[OrderDate] -> Date[Date] (many-to-one, single direction). A user creates a measure that sums SalesAmount and then filters by a slicer on Customer[City]. The slicer works correctly. However, when the user adds another slicer on Date[Year], the measure does not respect both slicers simultaneously. What is the most likely cause?

Question 4easymultiple choice
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A Power BI developer needs to model data from two sources: an on-premises SQL Server database and a cloud-based Salesforce instance. The developer wants to create a star schema in Power BI. Which approach should the developer use to combine the data?

Question 5mediummultiple choice
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A Power BI developer has a fact table that contains sales data at the transaction level. The table includes columns: TransactionID, ProductID, CustomerID, DateKey, Quantity, UnitPrice, Discount, and SalesAmount. The developer wants to create a measure for total sales after discount. Which approach is best for performance and accuracy?

Question 6hardmulti select
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A Power BI developer is designing a data model for sales analysis. The model includes a Sales fact table and dimension tables: Product, Customer, Date, and Store. Which TWO design considerations are best practices for optimizing query performance?

Question 7mediummulti select
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A Power BI developer is building a data model that includes a table 'Orders' with columns: OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate, ShipDate, SalesAmount. The developer wants to analyze orders by both order date and ship date. Which THREE actions should the developer take to properly model this scenario?

Question 8easymultiple choice
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A company has a Power BI semantic model that uses DirectQuery to a SQL Server database. The model contains a large fact table with sales data. Users report that reports using this model are slow. Which design change would most improve query performance?

Question 9mediummultiple choice
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A data analyst is designing a star schema in Power BI. The model includes a table named 'Orders' with columns: OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate, ProductID, Quantity, and SalesAmount. Which column should NOT be included in the fact table to maintain a proper star schema?

Question 10hardmultiple choice
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A Power BI developer is troubleshooting a report that uses a calculated table. The calculated table is defined as: 'Sales Summary = SUMMARIZE(Sales, Sales[ProductID], "Total Sales", SUM(Sales[Amount]))'. Users report that the 'Total Sales' column shows incorrect values when slicers are applied to the report. What is the most likely cause?

Question 11easymultiple choice
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A company has a Power BI semantic model that uses Import mode. The model contains a table with 10 million rows. The data source is a SQL Server view that takes 5 minutes to execute. The scheduled refresh is set to every hour. What is the likely impact on refresh performance?

Question 12mediummultiple choice
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A data modeler is creating a Power BI semantic model for a retail company. The model includes a 'Products' dimension table with columns ProductID, ProductName, Category, and Subcategory. The 'Sales' fact table has columns ProductID, Date, Quantity, and Revenue. The modeler wants to ensure that users can filter by Category and Subcategory. Which relationship type should be created between Products and Sales?

Question 13mediummulti select
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A Power BI developer is designing a semantic model that will be used by multiple departments. The developer wants to ensure that the model follows best practices for performance and usability. Which TWO actions should the developer take?

Question 14hardmulti select
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A company has a Power BI semantic model that uses DirectQuery to a SQL Server database. The model includes a large fact table with 100 million rows. Users are experiencing slow report performance. Which THREE actions should the developer take to improve query performance?

Question 15mediummultiple choice
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What is the most likely cause of the error in the DAX query shown in the exhibit?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

Exhibit: DAX query from Performance Analyzer
EVALUATE
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS(
    'Date'[Year],
    'Product'[Category],
    "Total Sales", [Sales Amount]
)
ORDER BY 'Date'[Year], 'Product'[Category]

This query returns the following error: "The expression references multiple columns. Multiple columns cannot be converted to a scalar value."
Question 16hardmultiple choice
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After loading the data using the Power Query M code shown in the exhibit, the model contains a table with 10,000 rows. However, when users filter by OrderDate in a report, the filter does not affect the aggregated TotalDue values. What is the most likely reason?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

Exhibit: Power Query M code snippet
let
    Source = Sql.Database("Server01", "AdventureWorks"),
    Sales = Source{[Schema="Sales",Item="SalesOrderHeader"]}[Data],
    #"Filtered Rows" = Table.SelectRows(Sales, each [OrderDate] >= #date(2020,1,1)),
    #"Grouped Rows" = Table.Group(#"Filtered Rows", {"CustomerID"}, {{"TotalDue", each List.Sum([TotalDue]), type nullable number}}),
    #"Sorted Rows" = Table.Sort(#"Grouped Rows",{{"TotalDue", Order.Descending}})
in
    #"Sorted Rows"
Question 17easymultiple choice
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A company has a fact table with sales data and multiple dimension tables. They want to create a measure that calculates the total sales amount for the current year, but the measure returns incorrect results when used in a visual with a date hierarchy. What is the most likely cause?

Question 18mediummultiple choice
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A data model contains a table 'Sales' with columns: Date, ProductID, Quantity, Amount. There is a 'Products' table with columns: ProductID, ProductName, CategoryID. A measure 'Total Sales' = SUM(Sales[Amount]) returns correct values. However, when a user creates a visual with CategoryID from 'Products' and 'Total Sales', some categories show blank. What is the most likely cause?

Question 19hardmultiple choice
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A Power BI report uses a DirectQuery data source. The model includes a calculated column that uses the RELATED function to bring a value from another table. The report is performing slowly. What design change would most improve performance without compromising functionality?

Question 20easymultiple choice
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A data model has a table 'Orders' with columns: OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate, Amount. There is a 'Customers' table with columns: CustomerID, CustomerName. To analyze orders by customer, what is the best practice for modeling the relationship?

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Frequently asked questions

What does the PL-300 exam test about Model the data?
Model the data questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How should I use these practice questions?
Select your answer before revealing the explanation. Then read why each option is right or wrong — this active recall approach builds retention far faster than re-reading notes.
Can I practise just Model the data questions in a focused session?
Yes — the session launcher on this page draws every question from the Model the data domain. Use a 10-question session first to gauge your baseline, then move to 20 or 30 once the weak spots are clear.
Where can I practise other PL-300 topics?
Use the topic links above to move to related areas, or go back to the PL-300 question bank to see all topics.
Are these real exam questions or dumps?
These are original practice questions written to test the same concepts the PL-300 exam covers. They are not copied from any real exam or dump site.