Why Study with PlanetCert?
The Latest Questions
Practice questions and exam topics aligned with the current exam objectives.
Detailed Explanations
Go beyond the answer. Master the material with comprehensive learning and professional explanations for every concept.
AI-Powered Insights
Personalized preparation guidance that adapts to your performance and identifies weak spots automatically.
Exam Information
Official specifications published by Microsoft
Exam Format
Registration
Validity
Skills this practice test covers
- Connect to data sources or a shared semantic model, and choose between DirectQuery and Import.
- Profile, clean and reshape data in Power Query, including merges, appends and unpivots.
- Model fact and dimension tables with the right cardinality, cross-filter direction and date table.
- Write DAX measures with CALCULATE, time intelligence, calculation groups and semi-additive logic.
- Build reports with bookmarks, drill through, custom tooltips, and mobile and accessible layouts.
- Secure workspaces with roles, row-level security and sensitivity labels, and schedule refreshes.
Explore related topics
PL-300 exam content
4 domains · 48 topics · 204 of 261 questions are written for PL-300
Prepare the data45 questions
This domain covers getting data into shape before modeling. Candidates connect to sources, set credentials and privacy levels, profile and clean the data, and transform it in Power Query into fact and dimension tables.
Skills tested
- Choose between DirectQuery and Import for a data source.
- Change data source settings, including credentials and privacy levels.
- Resolve null values, inconsistent data and import errors found while profiling.
- Pivot, unpivot, merge and append queries, and create fact and dimension tables.
- Decide when to use a reference query or a duplicate query.
Questions by topic
- Choose between DirectQuery and Import4
- Merge and append queries5
- Create and transform columns9
- Convert semi-structured data to a table3
- Resolve inconsistencies, unexpected or null values, and data quality issues5
- Identify when to use reference or duplicate queries and the resulting impact4
- Get or connect to data6
- Pivot, unpivot, and transpose data4
- Optimize model performance2
- Create fact tables and dimension tables3
Model the data58 questions
This domain builds the model that reports query. Candidates set table and relationship properties, create a common date table, write DAX measures, and improve performance with Performance Analyzer and DAX query view.
Skills tested
- Define relationship cardinality and cross-filter direction, and implement role-playing dimensions.
- Write measures with CALCULATE, time intelligence and basic statistical functions.
- Create semi-additive measures, quick measures and calculation groups.
- Find slow visuals and measures with Performance Analyzer, then remove unneeded rows and columns.
Questions by topic
- Implement role-playing dimensions4
- Optimize model performance7
- Create model calculations by using DAX11
- Create semi-additive measures4
- Design and implement a data model4
- Create calculated tables or columns4
- Define a relationship's cardinality and cross-filter direction4
- Configure table and column properties4
- Implement time intelligence measures6
- Create a common date table4
- Create calculation groups5
- Choose between DirectQuery and Import1
Visualize and analyze the data55 questions
This domain turns the model into reports people can use. Candidates choose and format visuals, add navigation and interactions, design for mobile devices and accessibility, and use analytics features to find patterns.
Skills tested
- Select an appropriate visual, and apply themes and conditional formatting.
- Configure bookmarks, drill through navigation, custom tooltips and sync slicers.
- Decide when a paginated report suits a need better than an interactive report.
- Use the Analyze feature, grouping, binning, clustering and AI visuals to find trends and outliers.
Questions by topic
- Create custom tooltips4
- Configure drill through navigation4
- Identify patterns and trends3
- Configure export settings4
- Design and configure Power BI reports for accessibility4
- Use grouping, binning, and clustering5
- Apply slicing and filtering4
- Use AI visuals7
- Configure bookmarks4
- Design reports for mobile devices5
- Edit and configure interactions between visuals5
- Optimize model performance1
- Select an appropriate visual4
- Enhance reports for usability and storytelling1
Manage and secure Power BI46 questions
The smallest domain covers what happens after publishing. Candidates manage workspaces, apps, distribution and refreshes, and control who can see which items and rows.
Skills tested
- Create a workspace, publish items to it and update a workspace app.
- Choose a distribution method, and configure subscriptions and data alerts.
- Identify when a gateway is required, and schedule a semantic model refresh.
- Assign workspace roles, and implement row-level security roles and group membership.
- Apply sensitivity labels, and promote or certify content.
Questions by topic
- Implement row-level security roles5
- Identify when a gateway is required5
- Publish, import, or update items in a workspace3
- Configure subscriptions and data alerts4
- Assign workspace roles4
- Configure and update a workspace app4
- Choose a distribution method6
- Apply sensitivity labels4
- Configure a semantic model scheduled refresh4
- Secure and govern Power BI items3
- Promote or certify Power BI content3
- Optimize model performance1
Requirements
- No formal prerequisites: anyone can book the exam.
- Recommended: proficiency in Power Query and DAX, which Microsoft names for this role.
- Recommended: experience with data modeling and with report design that follows visualization best practices.
- Recommended: Azure Data Fundamentals or a similar grounding for those who are new to data concepts.
About the PL-300 exam
Microsoft's PL-300 exam tests whether a data analyst can prepare, model, visualize and secure data in Power BI. Microsoft expects candidates to be proficient in Power Query and Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). The analyst it describes works with business stakeholders on requirements and with data engineers on getting the data. Passing earns Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate. The certification renews each year through a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn.
Model the data has the most questions in the PlanetCert practice test, and DAX calculations are its biggest topic. The explanations show how a filter reaches a measure, for example why CALCULATE replaces a filter on one column while other filters stay in place. Study Mode suits the DAX and relationship questions, and Flashcard Mode suits feature names such as sync slicers, workspace roles and sensitivity labels. Brainy AI Assistant can compare DirectQuery with Import for a scenario, or explain context transition in a calculated column.
How to earn the certification
- Earns
- Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst AssociateAssociate
The certification lasts one year and renews through a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn.
- Before
- DP-900 Azure Data Fundamentals
Optional. Microsoft's fundamentals exam on core data concepts.
- DP-900 Azure Data Fundamentals
- After
- DP-600 Fabric Analytics Engineer
Microsoft's associate exam for analytics engineers who build data solutions in Microsoft Fabric.
- DP-600 Fabric Analytics Engineer
How to prepare for PL-300
- 1
Shape a messy file in Power Query
Load a raw CSV file or workbook, profile its columns, fix data types, unpivot and merge tables, and resolve the import errors. This exercises the Prepare the data objectives.
- 2
Model with facts and dimensions
Split the data into fact and dimension tables, set cardinality and cross-filter direction, and add a common date table. Make one relationship inactive to practise role-playing dimensions.
- 3
Write DAX until filter context is clear
Model the data has the most questions in the PlanetCert practice test. Write measures with CALCULATE, time intelligence, a semi-additive balance and a calculation group, and check each result in a matrix visual.
- 4
Publish and secure a workspace
Publish the report to a workspace, build an app, add row-level security roles and test them. Then schedule a refresh through a gateway and apply a sensitivity label.
- 5
Finish with timed practice runs
Microsoft's free practice assessment and exam sandbox show the question style. Then take the PL-300 practice test in Timed Mode, and ask Brainy AI Assistant to explain any DAX answer that still feels unclear.
Start a timed PL-300run
Microsoft's course is PL-300T00-A: Design and manage analytics solutions using Power BI. Its learning paths run from Get started with Microsoft data analytics to Manage and secure Power BI.
Who PL-300 is for
- Data analysts who build Power BI reports and models for business teams.
- Business intelligence professionals who want a Microsoft credential for their Power BI work.
- Report developers who publish and secure content in Power BI workspaces.
- Business analysts and data engineers who are moving into analytics roles.
Typical job titles: Power BI developer · Data analyst · Business intelligence analyst · Reporting analyst · Analytics consultant
PL-300 glossary
18 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.
- Bookmarks
- Saved states of a report page, such as its filters and visible visuals, that users can return to with one click.
- Calculation groups
- A model feature that applies one piece of DAX logic, such as year to date, to many measures at once.
- Cross-filter direction
- The relationship setting that decides whether a filter flows from one table to the other in one direction or in both.
- DAX (Data Analysis Expressions)
- The formula language of Power BI, used to write measures, calculated columns and calculated tables.
- DAX query view
- A Power BI Desktop view for writing and running DAX queries against the model.
- DirectQuery
- A connection mode that leaves the data in the source and queries it whenever a visual needs it, instead of importing a copy.
- Drill through
- Navigation from a data point on one report page to a detail page that is filtered to that item.
- Gateway
- Software that lets Power BI in the cloud reach and refresh data from sources inside a private network.
- Paginated report
- A report with an exact page layout, built to print or export across many pages, such as a long invoice list.
- Performance Analyzer
- A Power BI Desktop pane that records how long each visual takes to query and to display.
- Power Query
- The Power BI tool for connecting to data and for cleaning and reshaping it before it loads into the model.
- Quick measures
- Ready-made calculations that Power BI writes in DAX from a few choices in a dialog box.
- Role-playing dimensions
- One dimension table, such as a date table, that relates to a fact table in more than one way, for example by order date and by ship date.
- Row-level security (RLS)
- Rules, set up as roles in the model, that filter which rows of data each user can see.
- Semantic model
- The published Power BI model of tables, relationships and measures that reports read from.
- Semi-additive measures
- Measures that can be added up across some dimensions but not across time, such as an account balance.
- Sync slicers
- A setting that makes one slicer's selection apply on several report pages.
- Time intelligence
- DAX functions that total or compare values over periods, such as year to date or the same period last year.