PL-300 On-premises data gateway Practice Question
You manage a Power BI workspace that contains a dataset refreshed daily from an on-premises SQL Server. Users report that the report shows data from two days ago. You verify that the scheduled refresh ran successfully this morning. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates may assume a successful refresh guarantees current data, but misconfiguration of the data source (e.g., wrong connection string pointing to a backup) can cause the refresh to load outdated data without failure.
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
✓
The on-premises data source is misconfigured, causing the refresh to load data from an outdated source.
The most likely cause is that the on-premises data source is misconfigured (e.g., pointing to a stale backup or snapshot). This results in the scheduled refresh loading data from an outdated source, making it appear successful yet yielding old data. The gateway does not cache data; the issue lies in the data source reference.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The on-premises data source is misconfigured, causing the refresh to load data from an outdated source.
Why this is correct
Correct. A misconfigured on-premises data source in the Power BI service — such as a gateway data source entry pointing to the wrong server, database, or folder, or using credentials for a different environment — can cause the refresh engine to successfully connect to and load data from an outdated or unintended location. Because the refresh completes without error, the service reports success even though the dataset is populated from the wrong source. This perfectly matches the scenario: a successful refresh that yields stale data.
- ✗
The refresh took longer than expected and timed out.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. If the refresh had timed out, Power BI would record a failed refresh in the refresh history and the dataset would retain its previous data — it would not show a successful status. A timeout is an error condition, not a silent success, so it cannot explain a refresh that completed this morning while loading stale data. This option mistakes a possible cause of refresh failure for a cause of a successful-but-outdated load.
- ✗
The scheduled refresh is not set to refresh the dataset.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. If no scheduled refresh is configured for the dataset, Power BI will not automatically run any refresh at all; the refresh history would be empty or show only manual refreshes. The question states the refresh ran successfully this morning, which proves that some refresh mechanism — scheduled or manual — executed. A missing schedule cannot cause a refresh to run successfully yet load stale data; it would simply prevent the refresh from occurring.
- ✗
The on-premises data gateway is offline.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. An offline on-premises data gateway would make the connection to the on-premises source fail entirely, producing a refresh error such as 'Could not connect to the data source' or 'Gateway not reachable.' Since the refresh reportedly succeeded, the gateway must have been online and able to route the query. Thus an offline gateway could not result in a successful refresh with outdated data — it would result in no data load at all.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PL-300 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PL-300 exam.