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Free PL-300 Practice Questions

10 free, exam-style Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300) (PL-300) practice questions with answers and explanations. No signup required. Work through them below, then take the full free PL-300 practice test to study every exam domain.

The PL-300 exam has 60 questions and runs 1 hour 40 minutes.

These 10 free PL-300 questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300) blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.

Domain 1: Prepare the data (25-30%)

Question 1

A report must show near-real-time data from a 4-billion-row sales table in an Azure SQL database. Company policy forbids copying this data into the model. Which storage mode meets these requirements?

  1. DirectQuery
  2. Import
  3. Dual
  4. Live connection to a shared model
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - DirectQuery

Question 2

In Power Query, you need to combine twelve monthly sales files that all share the same columns into a single table containing every row from all files. Which operation should you use?

  1. Merge the files on a shared key column
  2. Group the combined rows by month
  3. Append the queries to stack all rows
  4. Transpose the tables
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Append the queries to stack all rows

Question 3

A source table stores one column per month (Jan, Feb, Mar, ...) with a sales value in each. To load it as a fact table for a star schema, you need a tall table with a single 'Month' column and a single 'Sales' column. Which transformation does this?

  1. Unpivot the month columns
  2. Pivot the month columns
  3. Transpose the whole table
  4. Group the table by month
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - Unpivot the month columns

Question 4

A query cleans and standardizes a customer table. Several other queries should build on that cleaned output so any future fix to the cleaning logic automatically flows to all of them. Which approach achieves this?

  1. Duplicate the cleaning query for each one
  2. Reference the cleaning query from each one
  3. Paste the applied steps into each one
  4. Merge the cleaning query into each one
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - Reference the cleaning query from each one

Domain 2: Model the data (25-30%)

Question 5

A model reports on both an Order Date and a Ship Date but keeps a single Date dimension. Only one relationship between Sales and Date can be active. To calculate 'Sales by Ship Date' in a measure, what should you do?

  1. Set both relationships active and filter both ways
  2. Change the Ship Date relationship to many-to-many
  3. Duplicate the Date table for the second date
  4. Use USERELATIONSHIP inside CALCULATE
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - Use USERELATIONSHIP inside CALCULATE

Question 6

You need a value that responds to whatever filters a user selects in slicers and visuals, recalculating on the fly, and that is NOT stored row-by-row in the model. Which object should you create?

  1. A measure evaluated at query time
  2. A calculated column stored per row
  3. A calculated table
  4. A Power Query custom column
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - A measure evaluated at query time

Question 7

You need a measure returning each category's sales as a percentage of the total across ALL categories, so the denominator must ignore any filter currently applied to the Product table. Which function provides that denominator inside CALCULATE?

  1. RELATED to pull the total
  2. KEEPFILTERS to retain filters
  3. ALL to remove the filters
  4. FILTER to add a condition
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - ALL to remove the filters

Question 8

A Total Sales measure returns correct numbers, but the equivalent TOTALYTD measure returns blanks. The model has a dedicated calendar table with contiguous dates related to the fact table. What is the most likely cause?

  1. TOTALYTD works only on calculated columns
  2. The calendar table is not Marked as a Date Table
  3. The relationship uses a single cross-filter direction
  4. The measure is missing a SUMX iterator
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - The calendar table is not Marked as a Date Table

Question 9

Which statement correctly describes the difference between row context and filter context in DAX?

  1. Row context comes from slicers; filter context comes from relationships
  2. Row context applies only to measures; filter context only to calculated columns
  3. Row context is the current row in iteration; filter context is the applied filters
  4. They are two names for the same evaluation behavior in the engine
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Row context is the current row in iteration; filter context is the applied filters

Question 10

Inventory 'On Hand' quantity is recorded daily. A monthly total wrongly sums every day's balance into an inflated figure. Which kind of measure correctly reports the closing value for the period instead?

  1. A semi-additive measure
  2. A distinct count measure
  3. An iterator measure using SUMX
  4. A calculated column using RELATED
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - A semi-additive measure

The rest of the PL-300 blueprint

The PL-300 exam also covers these domains. Drill them in the full free practice test:

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