PL-900 Practice Question: Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate
You are a Power Platform administrator at Contoso Ltd. The company uses a Power Automate flow that monitors a SharePoint list for new items. When a new item is added, the flow retrieves data from an external CRM system via an HTTP request, then updates a second SharePoint list. Recently, the flow has been failing with a '400 Bad Request' error from the HTTP action. The CRM API endpoint and authentication are correct. The flow works for some items but fails for others. You need to identify the root cause and fix the flow. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
PL-900 often tests the misconception that retrying or changing endpoints fixes HTTP 400 errors, when the real cause is usually malformed input data that must be sanitized before the request.
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
✓
Add a 'Compose' action to sanitize the input data before the HTTP request
The '400 Bad Request' from the HTTP action occurs intermittently, meaning the API endpoint and authentication are correct but the payload sent for certain items is malformed — often due to special characters, null values, or incorrect data types from the SharePoint list. Adding a Compose action to sanitize or transform the input data before the HTTP request ensures the JSON payload is valid for all items, resolving the intermittent failures.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Change the HTTP action to use a different API endpoint
Why it's wrong here
Swapping the endpoint abandons a working API and cannot explain why only some items fail; the 400 stems from specific payloads violating the CRM schema, such as missing required fields. Changing endpoints is correct when the API version is deprecated or the service has moved.
- ✓
Add a 'Compose' action to sanitize the input data before the HTTP request
Why this is correct
The HTTP action returns 400 when the request body contains characters the CRM API rejects, such as unescaped quotes or ampersands from certain list items. A Compose action sanitising that input before the request prevents the malformed payload.
- ✗
Add a 'Condition' to check if the item already exists
Why it's wrong here
A condition checking whether the item already exists does not address the 400 Bad Request, which stems from malformed or missing values in the HTTP request body for certain items. Conditions are for branching logic, and would be the right choice when the flow must skip processing for duplicate records.
- ✗
Increase the retry count for the HTTP action
Why it's wrong here
Retrying the HTTP action resends the identical malformed request, so the 400 recurs; retries suit transient faults such as timeouts or 429 throttling. A 400 signals invalid request content, so the payload must be corrected rather than the retry policy adjusted.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
This PL-900 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-900 exam.