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CCNA Power Bi Questions

19 questions · Power Bi topic · All types, answers revealed

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1
MCQeasy

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

A.Export the report to PDF on a desktop computer
B.Use the Power BI mobile app and download the report for offline viewing
C.Share the report via email
D.Subscribe to the report to receive email updates
AnswerB

The mobile app supports offline access by downloading reports.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may confuse email subscriptions (Option D) or PDF exports (Option A) with true offline mobile access, not realizing that only the Power BI mobile app's download feature provides interactive, cached offline viewing.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because exporting a report to PDF on a desktop computer creates a static, non-interactive file that does not support Power BI's interactive features like cross-filtering or drill-through, and it is not a mobile offline solution. Option C is wrong because sharing a report via email sends a link or attachment that requires an internet connection to open the live report or, if a static snapshot, lacks interactivity and offline access. Option D is wrong because subscribing to a report sends periodic email snapshots, which are static images or PDFs and do not provide interactive offline viewing on a mobile device.

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2
Matchingmedium

Match each AI Builder model type to its use case.

Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.

Concepts
Matches

Extract text from forms

Identify objects in images

Categorize text into predefined classes

Extract specific data from text

Classify text into categories

Why these pairings

AI Builder provides prebuilt AI models.

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3
Multi-Selecthard

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

Select 3 answers
A.An on-premises data gateway
B.A dataset
C.A report
D.A dataflow
E.A dashboard canvas
AnswersB, C, E

A dataset is the source of data for the dashboard.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

Microsoft often tests the misconception that a data gateway or dataflow is a prerequisite for dashboard creation, when in fact they are optional components for specific connectivity or data preparation scenarios.

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4
MCQhard

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?

A.The dataset uses DirectQuery mode
B.Incremental refresh is configured incorrectly
C.The scheduled refresh has failed for the past two days
D.The on-premises data gateway is offline
AnswerC

A failed refresh means the data remains from the last successful refresh, causing staleness.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may confuse a failed scheduled refresh with gateway issues or DirectQuery mode, but the key clue is the specific timeframe of two days of stale data, which points directly to repeated refresh failures rather than a connectivity or configuration problem.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because DirectQuery mode does not rely on scheduled refresh; it queries the source directly on each report interaction, so stale data would not persist for two days. Option B is wrong because incorrect incremental refresh configuration would typically cause missing or incomplete data for specific time ranges, not a complete failure to refresh all data for two days. Option D is wrong because an offline on-premises data gateway would prevent any refresh from occurring, but the dataset still shows data from two days ago, meaning the last successful refresh happened two days ago—if the gateway were offline, the refresh would have failed immediately and no data would be available, or the error would be more recent.

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5
MCQeasy

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?

A.Give each partner a Power BI Pro license
B.Use Publish to web (public embedding)
C.Embed the dashboard in a SharePoint Online page
D.Share the report link directly via email
AnswerB

This creates a public embed code accessible to anyone without a license.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'Publish to web' with embedding in SharePoint or sharing a link, not realizing that only 'Publish to web' completely removes the license requirement for viewers, while the other options still require either Pro licenses or Premium capacity.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because assigning each partner a Power BI Pro license incurs significant per-user costs ($10/user/month) and is not the recommended approach for sharing with external partners who do not need to author or edit reports. Option C is wrong because embedding a dashboard in a SharePoint Online page requires either Power BI Pro licenses for all viewers or a Power BI Premium capacity license, neither of which applies to unlicensed external partners. Option D is wrong because sharing a report link directly via email requires each recipient to have a Power BI Pro license (or the report must be hosted in Premium capacity) to view the dashboard, which the external partners lack.

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6
Drag & Dropmedium

Drag and drop the steps to create a custom connector in Power Automate in the correct order.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps
Order

Why this order

Custom connectors start from blank, define info, configure endpoints, test, then create.

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7
MCQmedium

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

A.Import
B.DirectQuery
C.Composite model
D.Push dataset
AnswerD

Push datasets allow real-time data ingestion via API.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse DirectQuery with real-time capabilities, but DirectQuery is for querying large datasets on demand, not for ingesting streaming data pushed from Azure Stream Analytics.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because Import requires a scheduled refresh to pull data from a source, which cannot achieve true real-time updates from Azure Stream Analytics. Option B is wrong because DirectQuery issues queries directly to the source for each visual interaction, but it does not support streaming data from Azure Stream Analytics and is not optimized for real-time push scenarios. Option C is wrong because Composite models combine Import and DirectQuery but still rely on those underlying connection types, not supporting the push-based streaming required for real-time data from Azure Stream Analytics.

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8
MCQhard

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?

A.The dataset was deleted from the service
B.The user does not have permission to view the measure
C.The time zone settings in the service differ from Desktop
D.The scheduled refresh is not configured
AnswerC

Year-over-year calculations often depend on date functions that are sensitive to time zone.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often assume blank values are caused by missing data or permissions, but the real issue is the subtle difference in time zone handling between Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service, which is a frequent source of confusion in PL-900 exam questions.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because if the dataset were deleted from the service, the report would not load at all or would show a data source error, not just blank values in a specific measure. Option B is wrong because permission settings control access to the report or dataset, not the visibility of individual measures; if a user lacks permission, they would typically see an error or be unable to open the report, not blank measure values. Option D is wrong because scheduled refresh affects data freshness, not the correctness of measure calculations; a measure that works in Desktop will still compute correctly in the service even without refresh, as long as the data is present.

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9
Matchingmedium

Match each Common Data Service (Dataverse) term to its description.

Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.

Concepts
Matches

Logical structure that stores data

Field that holds a specific type of data

Individual record in a table

Link between tables

Container for apps, flows, and data

Why these pairings

These are fundamental Dataverse concepts.

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10
MCQmedium

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?

A.Hierarchy
B.Drill-through
C.Bookmarks
D.Slicers
AnswerA

Hierarchy allows users to drill down from year to quarter to month in a visual.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse drill-down (hierarchy-based expansion within a visual) with drill-through (page-level navigation), leading them to select drill-through when the question explicitly asks for drilling down from year to quarter to month.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because drill-through is used to navigate from one report page to another filtered by a specific data point, not to drill down within a single visual across hierarchical levels. Option C is wrong because bookmarks capture a specific state of a report page (e.g., filters, slicers, visual selections) for navigation or storytelling, but they do not create a hierarchical drill-down path. Option D is wrong because slicers are visual filters that allow users to filter data by selecting values, but they do not provide a drill-down capability from year to quarter to month within a chart.

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11
MCQmedium

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

A.Append Queries
B.Merge Queries
C.Pivot Column
D.Group By
AnswerB

Merge Queries joins tables based on a common column, similar to SQL JOIN.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates confuse Append (stacking rows) with Merge (joining columns), often choosing Append because they think 'combining' always means adding rows, not realizing the requirement is to align data horizontally on a shared key.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because Append Queries stacks rows from two tables on top of each other, requiring identical column structures, and does not combine data based on a common column. Option C is wrong because Pivot Column transforms unique values from a column into new columns, aggregating data, not merging two separate tables on a key. Option D is wrong because Group By aggregates rows based on a column, creating summary statistics, and does not combine data from two different tables.

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12
Multi-Selectmedium

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

Select 3 answers
A.Create measures
B.Change data types
C.Merge queries
D.Remove columns
E.Create relationships between tables
AnswersB, C, D

Power Query Editor allows changing data types.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates confuse the Power Query Editor's data transformation role with the data modeling and DAX capabilities of Power BI Desktop, leading them to incorrectly select options like creating measures or relationships.

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13
Multi-Selecteasy

Which TWO are valid Power BI visualization types?

Select 2 answers
A.Waterfall chart
B.Gantt chart
C.Scatter map
D.Funnel chart
E.Treemap
AnswersD, E

Funnel chart is a standard visual for stages.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'Scatter map' with 'Scatter chart' or 'Map' visuals, or assume Gantt charts are native because they are common in project management, but Power BI does not include them as default visualizations.

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14
MCQhard

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?

A.Check the on-premises data gateway performance and logs for errors
B.Replace the DirectQuery connection with an Import connection
C.Ask the database team to add more indexes to the SQL Server tables
D.Increase the scheduled refresh frequency to every 15 minutes
AnswerA

Slow load and data errors often indicate gateway issues.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates assume the issue is database-side (indexes or load) or try to change the connection mode (Import) without first verifying the gateway, which is the most common point of failure in hybrid Power BI deployments.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because replacing DirectQuery with Import would change the data architecture entirely, requiring a full data refresh and potentially breaking real-time reporting needs; it is a drastic solution, not a first troubleshooting step. Option C is wrong because the database team confirmed the server is not under heavy load, so adding indexes would not address the reported symptoms and is a premature optimization. Option D is wrong because scheduled refresh frequency is irrelevant for DirectQuery connections, which query the source live and do not use scheduled refreshes; increasing refresh frequency would have no effect on DirectQuery performance.

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15
MCQhard

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?

A.The DAX formula was edited to multiply by 1.2 instead of 1.1
B.The dataset was refreshed in Import mode instead of DirectQuery
C.The data type of 'Sales Amount' changed from decimal to integer
D.The source column name changed from 'Sales Amount' to 'SalesAmt'
AnswerA

Changing the multiplier would produce different results.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may assume a data type change or refresh mode is the cause, but the question specifically describes a consistent scaling error, which points directly to a formula change rather than structural or data source issues.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because Import mode vs. DirectQuery affects how data is retrieved and queried, not the logic of a calculated column; both modes would still apply the same DAX formula. Option C is wrong because changing the data type from decimal to integer would cause truncation or rounding errors, not a consistent 10% increase discrepancy.

Option D is wrong because if the source column name changed from 'Sales Amount' to 'SalesAmt', the calculated column would break entirely with a column-not-found error, not produce incorrect values.

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16
Multi-Selectmedium

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

Select 2 answers
A.Q&A visuals
B.Bookmarks
C.Drill-through
D.Row-level security (RLS)
E.Sensitivity labels
AnswersD, E

RLS restricts data access based on user roles.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates confuse features for data exploration or navigation (Q&A, bookmarks, drill-through) with actual security controls, leading them to select options that enhance user experience rather than protect data.

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17
Drag & Dropmedium

Drag and drop the steps to build a model-driven app in Power Apps in the correct order.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps
Order

Why this order

Model-driven apps require first setting up Dataverse tables, then designing forms/views, then building the app with sitemap, and finally publishing with security roles.

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18
MCQhard

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

A.The scheduled refresh failed due to credentials
B.The on-premises data gateway is offline
C.The dataset was deleted from the workspace
D.The data source connection in the service was modified
AnswerD

This error indicates the dataset cannot find the data source.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse a data source connection modification error with a gateway offline error, because both can prevent data loading, but the gateway error is specific to on-premises connectivity while the connection modification error occurs even with cloud data sources.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because a scheduled refresh failure due to credentials would produce a specific 'Credentials are invalid' or 'Refresh failed' error in the refresh history, not a generic 'Couldn't load the data' error on the report canvas. Option B is wrong because an offline on-premises data gateway would generate a 'Gateway not reachable' or 'Gateway offline' error message, not a data source connection error. Option C is wrong because if the dataset were deleted from the workspace, the report would show a 'Dataset not found' or 'We couldn't find the dataset' error, not a data loading failure that implies the dataset exists but cannot connect.

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19
MCQmedium

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

A.15
B.50
C.30
D.45
AnswerD

10+20+15 = 45.

Why this answer

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.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may confuse SUM with COUNT or average the values, leading them to pick 15 (a single row value) or 30 (a partial sum), rather than correctly aggregating all rows.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because 15 is the value of a single row, not the sum of all rows. Option B is wrong because 50 would result from an incorrect aggregation, such as counting rows instead of summing values. Option C is wrong because 30 might come from summing only a subset of rows or misreading the data.

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