PL-900 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Apps Practice Question
You are designing a Power Apps solution for a global sales team. The app must display data in the user's local time zone. The data is stored in Dataverse in UTC. What is the best practice for time zone handling?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is thinking that manual conversion or storing local time is necessary; candidates often overlook that Dataverse and Power Apps automatically handle UTC-to-local conversion when the correct behavior is set, and manual conversion introduces bugs.
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
✓
Store times in UTC and let Power Apps handle conversion automatically
Best practice for time zone handling in Power Apps with Dataverse is to store all datetime values in UTC and let the platform handle conversion to the user's local time zone automatically. Dataverse stores datetime fields in UTC and the Power Apps client automatically converts them to the user's local time zone based on their device settings or user profile. This ensures consistency and avoids errors from manual conversions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Convert UTC to each time zone using Power Fx formulas
Why it's wrong here
Manual Power Fx conversion duplicates logic across screens and ignores daylight saving and user locale settings, producing inconsistent offsets. It is tempting because Power Fx offers TimeZoneOffset and conversion functions, but it would be correct only for isolated display tweaks where Dataverse's built-in local time rendering is unavailable.
- ✓
Store times in UTC and let Power Apps handle conversion automatically
Why this is correct
Dataverse stores DateTime values in UTC, and Power Apps converts them to the signed-in user's local time zone for display and back to UTC on save. Storing UTC and relying on this automatic conversion satisfies the requirement to show each global sales user their own local time.
- ✗
Store local time in the database based on user's location
Why it's wrong here
Storing local time discards the UTC baseline, so records become ambiguous across regions and break when users travel or daylight saving shifts. It is tempting because it appears to match each user's clock directly, but it would be correct only for single-time-zone solutions where no cross-region reporting is required.
- ✗
Use a Power Automate flow to convert time zones
Why it's wrong here
A Power Automate flow runs asynchronously on triggers or schedules, so it cannot convert timestamps at the moment a user opens a form or view. It is tempting because flows handle Dataverse data transformations, but it would be correct for background record processing, not real-time per-user time zone display.
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Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
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