PL-900 Practice Question: Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate
A company wants to automate sending a welcome email to new employees after they are added to a SharePoint list. Which type of trigger should be used in the Power Automate flow?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse manual triggers (like 'For a selected item') with event-driven triggers, or mistakenly think a scheduled trigger (Recurrence) can achieve real-time automation, when only a creation trigger directly responds to the SharePoint list event.
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
✓
When an item is created - SharePoint
The 'When an item is created - SharePoint' trigger is the correct choice because it initiates the flow automatically whenever a new item (in this case, a new employee record) is added to the specified SharePoint list. This event-driven trigger eliminates the need for manual intervention, making it ideal for automating the welcome email process immediately upon creation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
For a selected item - SharePoint
Why it's wrong here
For a selected item requires a user to manually run the flow against a chosen SharePoint row, so new employees are never welcomed automatically on creation. It fits on-demand tasks, such as letting a manager trigger processing for one record from the SharePoint interface.
- ✗
Recurrence
Why it's wrong here
A Recurrence trigger fires on a fixed schedule, so it cannot react to a row being added and would miss or delay welcomes until the next interval. It suits polling scenarios, such as nightly synchronisation jobs, where no event notification exists to initiate the flow.
- ✗
Start and wait for an approval
Why it's wrong here
Start and wait for an approval pauses a running flow pending a human decision; it is an action, not a trigger, and cannot detect a new SharePoint list item. It belongs mid-flow where a document or request needs sign-off before continuing.
- ✓
When an item is created - SharePoint
Why this is correct
The SharePoint 'When an item is created' trigger fires automatically whenever a new list item is added, which is exactly the event that represents a new employee. This event-driven trigger initiates the flow so the welcome email is sent without manual intervention.
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