Microsoft Power BI Practice Test
Updated October 2026
David ChenMicrosoft Power BI Certification Practice Test 2026
Introducing Microsoft Power BI, it is a business analytics service. Its goal is to give dynamic visualizations and business intelligence capabilities through an easy-to-use interface that allows end users to construct their own reports and dashboards. It’s a component of Microsoft’s Power Platform. Microsoft Power BI–Business data analytics/Initial Power BI launch date was year 2014.
Power BI is a set of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to transform disparate data sources into logical, visually immersive, and interactive insights.
Your data could be in the form of an Excel spreadsheet or a collection of hybrid data warehouses that are both cloud-based and on-premises. Power BI makes it simple to connect to your data sources, visualize and uncover what matters, and share your findings with whomever you choose.
Free Microsoft Power BI Practice Test Online
Power BI Parts
- Power BI Desktop – a desktop application for Windows.
- Power BI service – a SaaS (Software as a Solution) online service.
- Power BI mobile apps – available for Windows, iOS, and Android.
- Power BI Report Builder – allows you to create paginated reports that you can distribute using the Power BI service.
- Power BI Report Server – on-premises report server that allows you to publish Power BI reports that you’ve created in Power BI Desktop.
Who uses Power BI?
Despite the fact that Power BI is a self-service BI solution that allows employees to access data analytics, it is mostly used by data analysts and business intelligence specialists who construct data models before disseminating reports throughout the organization. Those without an analytical experience, on the other hand, can use Power BI and create reports.
Both department reps and management use Microsoft Power BI, with reports and projections prepared to assist sales and marketing reps, as well as statistics for management on how the department or individual employees are performing toward their goals.
Power BI Components
Power BI’s various components are designed to allow users to create and share business insights in a way that is appropriate for their role. Several components in Power BI assist users in creating and sharing data reports.
- Power Query – a data transformation and mashup tool
- Power Pivot – a memory tabular data modeling tool
- Power View – a data visualization tool
- Power Map – a 3D data visualization tool for geospatial data
- Power Q&A – a natural language question and answer engine
Power BI Fundamentals
- Recognize data normalization.
- Using Power Query, automate the transformation of complex CSV files.
- Create interactive dashboard displays that are both impressive and clear.
- Any time period can be used to slice your analysis.
- Learn how to use basic DAX formulas like compute, filter, and all.
- Make tables with time data.
- Add geospatial and category attributes together.
- Learn how to compare eras using DAX time-intelligence.
- Explore features that will make it easier for users to navigate.
- Learn how to distribute your dashboards to others.
Power BI Cost
How much does Microsoft Power BI cost?
Users can choose from three versions of Power BI: Power BI Desktop, Power BI Pro, and Power BI Premium. The desktop version is free, while the Pro edition costs $14 per user per month (Microsoft raised Pro pricing from $9.99/$10 in 2024) — confirm current pricing on Microsoft's official Power BI pricing page. The cost of Power BI Premium is determined by the size of the deployment and the number of users.
Best Microsoft Power BI Training Classes
The 7 Best BI Training Online Courses to Learn Power BI fast in 2026 are listed here.
- Microsoft Power BI — A Complete Introduction.
- Power BI A-Z: Hands-On Advanced Power BI Training For Data Science!
- Getting Started with Power BI — Pluralsight.
- Microsoft Power BI — Up & Running With Power BI Desktop.
- Basics of Power BI — edX.
Power BI Data Analyst Certification
The 5 Most Data Analyst Power BI certification for Becoming a Certified Data Analyst:
- Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate.
- Google Data Analytics Certificate.
- Cloudera Certified Associate Data Analyst.
- Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)
- Springboard Data Analytics Certification.
Power BI Test Format
Exam PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst
The old Microsoft DA-100 exam was retired by Microsoft; the current credentialing exam for Power BI is PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst, part of the Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification.
- Per Microsoft's official PL-300 exam page, you have 100 minutes to complete the exam.
- The exam uses multiple-choice and multiple-response questions, plus interactive question types.
- Microsoft does not publish an exact question count; community estimates put it around 40-60 questions, but treat that as an estimate.
- Exam pricing is set per country/region by Microsoft and is not a single fixed USD price — check Microsoft's current pricing for your region before registering.
Power BI Exam Policy
Per Microsoft's official retake policy, you can retake a failed exam 24 hours after your first attempt, with longer waiting periods for subsequent retakes. For rescheduling or cancellation windows, check Microsoft's current exam policy on learn.microsoft.com, since these terms can change.
Power BI Exam Result
Results are typically available shortly after the exam. Microsoft uses a scaled score (out of 1,000) rather than a published raw percentage; a passing score around 700/1,000 is commonly cited, though Microsoft does not officially disclose the exact cutoff. Good planning and using current, official study resources matter more than chasing an unofficial number. Get Power BI Certified!
Power BI Study Guide
Here’s the beginners guide to Power BI:
- Guided learning for Power BI by Microsoft
- Blog
- Webinar
- Official Power BI Community
- Course by Edx
- Course by Udemy
- Power Pivot and Power BI reference card
- Book by Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo
- Webinars at SQLBI
- Microsoft YouTube Power BI online training
Best books on Power BI:
- Mastering Microsoft Power BI
- Power BI MVP Book
- Power BI: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
- Microsoft Power BI Dashboard: Step-by-Step
- Power BI: An Advanced Power BI Guide to Learn the Advanced Realms of Power BI
Power BI System Requirements
To run Power BI Desktop, here’s the minimum Power BI requirements:
- Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2, or later
- NET 4.5
- Internet Explorer 9 or later
- Memory (RAM): At least 1 GB available, 1.5 GB or more recommended.
- Display: At least 1440×900 or 1600×900 (16:9) recommended. Lower resolutions such as 1024×768 or 1280×800 are not recommended, as certain controls (such as closing the startup screen) display beyond those resolutions.
- Windows Display settings: If your display settings are set to change the size of text, apps, and other items to more than 100%, you may not be able to see certain dialogs that must be closed or responded to in order to proceed using Power BI Desktop. If you encounter this issue, check your Display settings by going to Settings > System > Display in Windows, and use the slider to return display settings to 100%.
- CPU: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster x86- or x64-bit processor recommended.
Microsoft Power BI PDF
Almost anyone, even you, may learn Power BI. Learning Power BI takes 4-6 weeks. This time frame is required to generate a wide range of data visualizations in Power BI. The time it takes to learn depends on your past data visualization experience, whether you use structured learning tools, and how many hours you devote to studying each day. You’ve come to the right site if you want to learn Microsoft Power BI. If you’re looking for data analysis with Microsoft power BI PDF, introducing Microsoft power BI PDF, Microsoft power BI quick start guide PDF, or Microsoft power BI training PDF, you’ve come to the right place. We recommend taking the Microsoft power BI da-100 exam advanced 2026 practice test for the best preparation.
Microsoft Power BI Questions and Answers
Microsoft Power BI is a set of software services, apps, and connections that work together to help you produce, distribute, and consume business insights in the most efficient way possible for you and your company. The Microsoft Power BI service (app.powerbi.com), often known as Power BI online, is the SaaS (Software as a Service) component of Power BI. Dashboards enable you keep an eye on the pulse of your business in the Power BI service. Dashboards show tiles that you may click to open reports for further investigation. Dashboards and reports are linked to databases, which collect all essential data in one place.
Power BI is an acronym that stands for Power Business Intelligence. Business intelligence is defined as the capacity to make sense of large amounts of data in pure English.
Microsoft’s Power BI is an interactive data visualization software aimed mostly at business intelligence. It’s a part of Microsoft’s Power Platform.
As an administrator, open the Power BI Desktop Application.
- You’ll be asked to enter your login credentials. Simply enter your work email address and click “Done.” You’ll be requested to sign in after clicking done. The process of registering and creating an account will be covered.
- In the top right corner of your Power BI desktop window, click Sign in.
- Enter your email address in the text field and click sign in if you already have a Power BI account linked to your company’s email address. Click Need a Power BI account? if you’re creating one for the first time or aren’t sure if you already have one. Try it out for free. Then click Sign Up and provide your company’s email address. You’ll either be asked to continue the signup procedure or a notification will appear confirming that you already have a Power BI account.
- If you receive a notice stating that you already have a Power BI account, sign in to your Power BI Online Service account.
- Once you’ve logged in to your Power BI online account. To host and share your dashboard, you’ll need to create a workspace.
Power BI is not an ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) tool, although it does follow ETL principles. In simple terms, Power BI is a Microsoft-developed Business Intelligence and Analytics Services that is much more than ETL.
A BI developer is someone who develops either one of these components: Business intelligence project seek to make sense of business data in connection to particular metrics of a company and offer that data in formats that are ideal for higher management.
Both department reps and management use Microsoft Power BI, with reports and projections prepared to assist sales and marketing reps, as well as statistics for management on how the department or individual employees are performing toward their goals.
Power BI Premium is a software-as-a-service (SaaS).
Power BI Desktop is always available for free. Both free and paid licenses are available for the Power BI service. Microsoft Power BI Pro, Power BI Premium, and Power BI Premium Per User are paid alternatives (PPU).
A business intelligence (BI) platform is software that assists companies in gathering, analyzing, and visualizing data. It is the foundation of a company’s business intelligence strategy, which is how it uses data to make better decisions.
A Power BI developer is someone who is well-versed in the Power BI technology. A Power BI developer is in charge of the creation and administration of BI tools, as well as having a thorough understanding of the BI system.
Microsoft Power BI Desktop is a data analysis and reporting application that a user can install on a computer to create dashboards and live reports. The user can also share these reports with decision-makers and stakeholders using Power BI Service to assist them understand the current state of the business.
Since Power BI isn’t compatible with Macs, here are some suggestions for running Power BI free on Macintosh devices.
- Set up and run Power BI on a Virtual Machine, then log in remotely to that machine.
- Install and execute Power BI on a PC, then control it with a remote viewer.
- Use a different BI system.
- Using Boot Camp, install Windows on a Mac.
- At the bottom of the nav pane, click Get Data.
- Select Get in the Services box.
- Select Office365Mon > Get
- Select oAuth2 > Sign In for Authentication Method. When prompted, enter your Office365Mon admin credentials and follow the authentication process.
- You’ll see a new dashboard, report, and dataset in the nav pane when Power BI imports the data. Select the Office365Mon entry, which is highlighted with a yellow asterisk *.
When you embed Power BI material in an app, you use a configuration object to define the content that you’re embedding and to specify the content’s parameters. The object is then passed to the API.
Use a configuration object of type IDashboardLoadConfiguration when embedding a dashboard.
Power BI Report Server is an on-premises report server that includes a web site for viewing and managing reports and KPIs. It comes with tools for creating Power BI reports, paginated reports, mobile reports, and KPIs, among other things. Your users can access those reports in numerous ways: seeing them in a web browser or mobile device, or as an email in their in-box.
Selecting and opening a workspace is one way to open a dashboard. You’ll see the following icon if the workspace has a dashboard. Once you’ve identified a dashboard, open it by selecting it and the dashboard will fill your Power BI canvas.
Microsoft Power BI student licenses are free for students who only need limited access to Power BI, but they must be requested through ServiceNow by their department.
No — Power BI is proprietary software developed by Microsoft, not an open-source tool (a small number of individual custom visuals are open-sourced on GitHub, but the core product is closed-source).
When you log in to the Power BI Service, click to the gear icon and select Manage personal storage to see if you have a Pro account.
To find the Power BI Desktop version you are running, click on the Help menu and select About.
Power BI Report Builder is a tool for authoring paginated reports that you can publish to the Power BI service. When you construct a paginated report, you’re creating a report definition that describes what data to retrieve, where to acquire it, and how to display it.
Power BI from eight components. These components can also be used individually. The components are:
- Power Query: Mix and transform data.
- Power Pivot: Useful for data modeling.
- Power View: Data visualization tool.
- Powermap: Useful for 3D viewing of geomaps.
- Power Q & A: Helps support natural language. Answering machine.
- Power BI service: A companion tool for Power BI.
- Data Management Gateway: Connects your data to the cloud.
- Data Catalog: Restore and reuse queries.
Microsoft Power BI is a free self-service business intelligence cloud service that provides non-technical business users with the tools to aggregate, analyze, visualize, and share data.
Yes. Power BI desktop is free, however you will have access to the minimal features of Power BI.
Microsoft Power BI is easy to use and very much flexible while Microsoft Excel is not very handy to use. Power BI is mostly used for large-scale data visualizations and dashboard sharing, whereas Microsoft Excel is primarily used for in-depth driver analysis. Power BI is a more powerful tool comparing Microsoft Excel.
Microsoft now provides Power BI Desktop for free, and it is an excellent tool for a single data analyst. Microsoft Power BI Pro is $14 per user per month (Microsoft's current published price, up from $9.99/$10 pre-2024).
Download the version of Power BI Desktop that matches the architecture (x86 or x64) of your Windows OS. Run the EXE installer and follow the setup procedures.
Power BI is now included in the Office 365 Enterprise E5 edition.
Microsoft Power BI Desktop is a free tool you install on your local computer that enables you connect to, transform, and visualize your data.
Power BI for Office 365 is a new self-service business intelligence (BI) product that enables businesses to extract insights from their data in powerful new ways in Excel and Office 365.
Microsoft Power BI Pro is a cloud-based program that currently costs $14 per user per month (Microsoft raised Pro pricing from $9.99/$10 in 2024).
