Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. In Power BI, what does the 'Spotlight' feature do when activated from a visual's context menu? → It focuses attention on one visual by dimming all other visuals on the report page
2. What is the Decomposition Tree visual in Power BI primarily designed for? → Breaking down a metric across multiple dimensions interactively to identify contributors
3. What SQL clause should be used to copy every row from one table to another? → SELECT - INTO
4. Which DAX function returns the number of rows in a table or the number of non-blank values in a column? → COUNTROWS
5. What kind of database would work best for an organizational chart? → graph
6. Which Power BI visual type is best suited for displaying trends over a continuous time period? → Line chart
7. What does publishing a Power BI report from Desktop to the Service do? → Uploads the report and its dataset to a Power BI workspace
8. Automatically scaling a program to make sure it has the resources required to satisfy user demands is an example of . → Elasticity
9. What does the 'Is Hidden' property do when applied to a table or column in Power BI? → Hides it from the Fields pane in report view but keeps it in the model
10. What does the EARLIER function do in DAX? → References an outer row context within a nested row context iteration
11. How can you reference a parameter in a Power Query M expression? → By typing the parameter name directly as a value in the expression
12. What does the CALCULATE function do in DAX? → Evaluates an expression in a modified filter context
13. What happens when you have an ambiguous relationship path between tables in Power BI? → Power BI requires you to use USERELATIONSHIP in DAX to specify which path to use
14. What does the 'Conditional Column' feature in Power Query allow you to do? → Add a new column with values determined by if/then/else rules without writing M code
15. What is the purpose of the VAR keyword in DAX? → To declare a variable and store an expression result for reuse within a formula
16. Which relationship cardinality type is most commonly used between fact tables and dimension tables in a star schema? → One-to-many
17. Which type of cloud service gives you the most control over the equipment used to run applications? → Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
18. In Power BI, which visual feature allows report users to type questions about their data in natural language and receive an automatic visualization? → Q&A visual
19. What function does Power BI's Row Level Security (RLS) serve? → Restricting data access for the given users ( By assigning users to roles)
20. Which Power BI chart type displays hierarchical data as nested rectangles where each rectangle's size represents its proportional value? → Treemap
21. To support customer equipment, you employ Dynamics 365 Field Service. Which feature can you employ to offer preventative service? → Connected Field Service
22. What is the purpose of the drill-through feature in Power BI reports? → To navigate to a detail report page filtered to a selected data point
23. What does the Selection Pane in Power BI allow report developers to manage? → The visibility and layer order (z-order) of visuals on a report page
24. What is the primary purpose of slicers in Power BI reports? → To filter data visually on a report page
25. You must create a low-code application that has web forms for gathering and displaying user data. Which should you employ? → Power Apps
26. What is context transition in DAX? → The process where CALCULATE converts a row context into an equivalent filter context
27. What three characteristics distinguish analytical data workloads? Each accurate response provides a complete solution. Select each appropriate response. → Over time, they compute business metrics.
28. The term "_______________" refers to the process of quickly deploying and configuring cloud-based services as business requirements alter. → Agility
29. How often can a Power BI dataset be scheduled to refresh with a Pro license? → Up to 8 times per day
30. What is a Power Query function? → A reusable M query that accepts parameters and returns a value or table