Exam DA-100: Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft released the exam DA-100 (Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI) around early April 2020 which was in Beta until around the beginning of July. After the exam become out of Beta, I was wondering why do I want to take the exam DA-100? What is the benefit of passing this exam? And then some thoughts came to my mind 😊

• I enjoy spending my time studying, but I felt that I need to commit so I can focus on studying. At this stage, I decided to schedule the exam, so I had to pick the date and time. I believe I would not dedicate to my studies if I didn’t have the exam booked.
• I also enjoy teaching, and it is a good feeling when I am able to help someone. In simple words, taking the exam was my chance to learn, assure my skills, and my dedication to passing the exam would allow me to share my knowledge with others.
• I’ve been working with Power BI since it was in Preview, but Power BI is a huge topic, so at some point, a question crossed my mind: How can I measure my skills? For sure, passing the exam would answer it.
• Last but not least, if I am in an interview process with a candidate that has the same experience as myself and the only difference between us is, I have a Microsoft Certification, and the other candidate doesn’t, I think it could be a plus for me.

The exam contains 59 questions in total, and your score needs to be 700 or more.  The skills are measured as below:

• Prepare the data (20-25%)
• Model the data (25-30%)
• Visualize the data (20-25%)
• Analyze the data (10-15%)
• Deploy and maintain deliverables (10-15%)

In my exam, I had 2 case studies (the first and the last set of questions, were case studies). In the case studies, they provide you with a real-life scenario, such as reports with performance issues, reports with a high volume of data, and they also provide the requirements and data sources information.

After reading all this information, I had to answer around four or five questions. I had to go back a few times to understand the requirements, and I am sure my work experience helped me to answer most of them.

The exam also had a lot of multiple-choice questions, where some of them I had to choose only one answer and some I had to choose two answers. There were also some drag and drop questions with DAX and to add in the correct order.

I will list below some topics that I saw on my exam:

• Data Modelling/Relationship (one to many, many to many)
• Data Profiling in Power BI
• Column distribution, column quality
• Forecast
• RLS
• Measure and calculated column
• DAX (Related, Sum, SumX…)
• Merge and Append
• Security/Workspace roles: Admin, Member, Contributor, or Viewer. (They provide a scenario and ask what the correct role is).

For the exam skills outline go to: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/da-100

If you are looking to study for the exam, have a look at the Microsoft Learning Path:

Get started with Microsoft data analytics

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/data-analytics-microsoft/

Prepare data for analysis

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/prepare-data-power-bi/

Create and use analytics reports with Power BI

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/create-use-analytics-reports-power-bi/

Model data in Power BI

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/model-power-bi/

Consume data with Power BI

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/consume-data-with-power-bi/

Visualize data in Power BI

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/visualize-data-power-bi/

Data analysis in Power BI

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/perform-analytics-power-bi/

Manage workspaces and datasets in Power BI

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/manage-workspaces-datasets-power-bi/

Use DAX in Power BI Desktop

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/paths/dax-power-bi/

Some additional links:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/admin/service-admin-rls

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/collaborate-share/service-new-workspaces

https://radacad.com/append-vs-merge-in-power-bi-and-power-query

https://ssbipolar.com/2018/10/28/dataflows-and-data-profiling/

https://www.ayraanalytics.com.au/data-profiling-in-power-bi/#:~:text=During%20the%20process%20of%20data,desktop%20as%20a%20preview%20feature

https://radacad.com/sum-vs-sumx-what-is-the-difference-of-the-two-dax-functions-in-power-bi

https://exceleratorbi.com.au/use-sum-vs-sumx/

In summary, if you are looking to take this exam and you don’t have much experience with Power BI, I suggest you spend a considerable amount of time exploring Power BI. My work experience helped me a lot, and I had only to review a few concepts before the exam.

Hope it helps and good luck!

Sabrina