PL-900 Practice Question: Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate
You are a Power Platform administrator for a large enterprise. You have created a Power Automate cloud flow that sends an approval email to the manager whenever a new employee is added to the HR system. The flow uses a SharePoint list as the trigger and a Common Data Service (CDS) connector to update the employee record. Recently, the flow has been failing intermittently with the error: 'The request failed due to a network error. The server returned an error: GatewayTimeout'. You check the flow run history and see that the error occurs on the CDS update action. The SharePoint trigger and approval actions complete successfully. The flow runs with a concurrency setting of 10. The CDS environment is in another region. You need to resolve the timeout issue. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse a timeout error with a performance bottleneck, leading them to reduce concurrency or split the flow, rather than recognizing that the default action timeout is the direct cause of the GatewayTimeout.
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
✓
Increase the timeout setting for the CDS update action in the flow.
The GatewayTimeout error indicates that the CDS update action is taking longer than the default timeout (typically 2 minutes) to complete, especially given the cross-region latency. Increasing the timeout setting for the CDS action allows the flow to wait longer for the response, resolving the intermittent failure without altering the flow's logic or concurrency.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Increase the timeout setting for the CDS update action in the flow.
Why this is correct
The GatewayTimeout error indicates the CDS action is taking longer than the default timeout (typically 2 minutes). Increasing the timeout allows the action to complete.
- ✗
Split the flow into two: one for the SharePoint trigger and one for the CDS update, and trigger the second via HTTP request.
Why it's wrong here
Splitting the flow adds complexity and does not address the timeout on the CDS action; the underlying timeout issue remains.
- ✗
Restart the CDS environment to clear any temporary issues.
Why it's wrong here
Restarting is disruptive and unlikely to resolve a persistent timeout; the issue is more likely due to timeout settings.
- ✗
Reduce the concurrency setting to 1 to prevent multiple simultaneous requests.
Why it's wrong here
Reducing concurrency may reduce load but won't fix the underlying timeout issue; the CDS action still has a limited timeout.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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