Power BI Interview Questions PDF By ScholarHat

Power BI Interview Questions (Most Asked
in Interviews 2024)
Power BI Interview Questions
Are you keen to learn business intelligence tools? Do you see yourself as a business analyst in
your career? If you are or want to become a business analyst, today's tutorial is meant for you.
Do you know that Microsoft Power BI is one of the top business intelligence platforms available
today? As businesses highly depend on data-driven decision-making, the demand for
proper data visualization and analytic tools emerges. In this scenario, Power BI has given
fruitful results. Hence, it's in high demand.
This tutorial will discuss the highly relevant Power BI interview questions and answers. Our
interview experts have collected these questions from various sources, so they'll at least help
you get a direction for your interview preparation.

Power BI Interview Questions & Answers for
Freshers
1. Describe Power BI's main components.
The following are some of the main components of Power BI:
1. Power Query: It's a data extraction, preparation, and transformation engine within Power BI.
2. Power Pivot: It is a data modeling and analysis tool within Power BI.
3. Power View: It is a data visualization component in Power BI.
4. Power Map: It is a 3D data visualization tool for visual analysis of patterns, trends, and
correlations across locations.
5. Power BI Desktop: It lets you create interactive data visualizations and reports.
. Power Q&A: This allows you to create visuals using Power BI’s natural language processing
engine to interpret your question and get an answer from your data.
7. Power BI Website: It serves as the cloud-based hub for sharing, publishing, and
collaborating on Power BI content.
. Power BI Mobile Apps: All the reports and dashboards are available in the Power BI mobile
apps, whether they're on-premises or in the cloud.
9. Power BI Service: It's a cloud-based platform for sharing and collaborating on reports and
dashboards.

There are three critical connectivity modes in Power BI. They are:
10. Power BI Gateway: It connects Power BI cloud-based data analysis technology and the
data source on-premises.
Power BI has three types of filters:
1. Visual-level filters: Applied to only individual visualizations on a report page. Hence it
affects only the data presented in that particular chart or graph.
2. Page-level filters: Applied to all visualizations on any particular report page. To add this
filter, no visual must be selected on the canvas.
3. Report-level filters: Applied to all visualizations across all the pages in the report.
1. Direct Query: It fetches data directly from the source each time a user interacts with the
report. It can be used only when you choose to connect to specific data sources and stores
metadata exclusively
2. Live Connection: It is supported by specific data sources like SQL Server Analysis Services,
Azure Analysis Services, and Power BI Datasets. It will not store data in Power BI. It will
2. What are the types of filters in Power BI?
3. What connectivity modes can you access in Power BI?

Features
Pricing
Power BI
Freemium
Cloud Services
Easier
Extensive
(Desktop),
Learning Curve
Data
Connectivity
Source
Customization
Collaboration
Moderate
Strong integration
Microsoft Teams
High
with Moderate
TABLEAU
Primarily
Licenses
Steeper
Extensive
Paid
High
Moderate
QLIKVIEW
Paid
Licenses
Moderate
Extensive
Paid
query the data source every time.
3. SQL Server Import: Import mode retrieves the data from the SQL Server database and
stores it in the Power BI model. Here you can query the data more quickly, but it also
requires more disk space on your machine.
You can connect databases like Access, Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, Teradata, and PostgreSQL
to Power BI.
6. Describe the common workﬂow in Power BI.
5. Compare Power BI with other BI tools like TABLEAU and
QLIKVIEW.
4. Which type of data sources can you connect to Power BI?
HTML to PDF

Parameters
Purpose
Data
Modeling
Visualization
Data Sources
Data Handling
Rich and interactive visualizations Basic
tools
charting and visualization
Power BI
Business
Visualization
Large datasets, optimized for big
data
Excel
General-purpose spreadsheet and
data analysis
Intelligence and Data
Smaller datasets, suitable for
personal use
Connects to various data sources,
databases
Robust data modeling capabilities
Primarily relies on manual data entry
or import
Basic data modeling features
1. Import the data to the Power BI Desktop, clean and manipulate it, and create a report.
2. After that, you have to publish the report to the Power BI Service and build dashboards.
3. Share the dashboards with your peer groups like colleagues, managers, or shareholders.
4. Interact with ﬁnal dashboards and reports in Power BI Mobile apps to extract business
insights.
7. Differentiate between Power BI and Excel.

Sharing
Real-
time
Data
Cost
Automation
Collaboration
Data Analysis
GetData is a feature of Power BI that enables the user to import data from its source.
There are three types of relationships in Power BI:
1. One-to-one: Here both columns have unique values. A record in one table corresponds to a
single record in another table.
2. One-to-many: Here, only one column has unique values. A record in one table corresponds
to multiple records in another table.
3. Many-to-many: No columns on either side have unique values. Multiple records in one
table correspond to multiple records in another table.
Dashboards are also known as canvas. It contains visualisations. You can monitor or track
your business through the most important metrics in a single watch. The visualizations on a
dashboard can come from one underlying semantic model or many and from one underlying
report or many. A dashboard combines on-premises and cloud data, providing a
consolidated data view. The end users of Power BI dashboards can access them from
various devices
Online sharing and collaboration
features
Designed for team collaboration
Limited sharing, often through email
or ﬁle
Collaboration is limited compared to
Power BI
Supports macros and scripting for
automation
Limited automation capabilities
Advanced analytics, DAX language
for formulas
Formulas and functions for data
analysis
Limited real-time data capabilities
Real-time
analysis
Subscription-based pricing model
data streaming and
One-time purchase or part of
Microsoft 365
9. What is GetData?
10. What is a dashboard?
8. What are the types of relationships in Power BI?

This model contains data writes, tables, sections, and table relations. These data tables help
you to develop for holding data for a business substance.
Text referred to as a data string
Boolean or logical, also called a true or false type.
Number, with which users can carry out several functions, such as ﬁnding the average or a
fraction of the data
Date and time, used to extract data such as time, year, and month
(including mobile phones), interact with them to extract valuable business insights and grasp
the big picture of the business or project (and the relationships between different parts of the
whole).
DAX is Data Analysis Expressions. It's a collection of functions, operators, and constants used
in formulas to calculate and return values. In other words, it helps you create new info from
data you already have. DAX supports various data types: whole and decimal numbers, Boolean,
text, date, currency, and N/A.
Power BI has three main versions:
1. Power BI Desktop: It is a free application for individual data analysis and report creation.
2. Power BI Service: The cloud-based platform for sharing reports, collaborating with others,
and managing access.
3. Power BI Mobile: Mobile apps for viewing reports and dashboards on the go.
There are also Pro and Premium versions within the Power BI Service.
13. What is DAX?
14. What is the Power Pivot Data Model?
11. List some data category types used in Power BI.
12. What are the versions of Power BI? What are they?
15. What are the different types of visuals in Power BI?

Bar charts, line charts, pie charts, tables, maps, cards, etc.
The on-premise gateway acts as a bridge that helps you transfer the data, which is on-premise
(not on the cloud) safely and securely.
These are pre-built solutions built for popular services as a major part of the Power BI
experience. They are a package of Power BI interrelated documents like dashboards, reports,
and datasets stored as a group. In Power BI, there are two types of such packages:
17. What are content packs?
16. What is an on-premise gateway?

No, we can’t set multiple active relationships in Power BI.
Connect to a data source
Load the data into Power BI
Shape and transform the data as needed.
Create relationships between tables.
Design the report layout - add titles, tables, charts, and filters.
Develop any required DAX calculations.
Add formatting, colors, and images as needed.
Publish the report to the Power BI service to share.
A measure table is a table that contains calculated measures. It’s often used to organize and
manage measures efficiently.
In Power BI, you can restrict the access to data of certain users. This is achieved through the
row security option, which works specifically at the row level.
1. service content packs from service providers like Google Analytics, Marketo, MailChimp, or
Twilio that we can access by typing our account data.
2. organizational content packs created by the users of our company and shared with the
entire organization or a selected group.
18. What is row security?
20. What is a measure table in Power BI?
22. Where is the data stored in Power BI?
21. List out the steps to create a simple report in Power BI
Desktop.
19. Is it possible to create multiple active relationships in Power
BI?
Power BI Interview Questions & Answers for
Intermediate

Given below are some common DAX functions:
SUM: It calculates the total of a numeric column.
AVERAGE: It calculates the average of a numeric column.
COUNT: It counts the number of rows in a table or the number of non-blank values in a
column.
MIN and MAX: They return the minimum and maximum values in a column.
CALCULATE and CALCULATETABLE: They modify existing calculations or create new
filtered tables.
DATE and TIME: Work with dates and times for various manipulations.
Logical functions: They perform logical operations like AND, OR, and IF.
The data in Power BI is stored in the form of either fact tables (quantitative, usually non-
normalized data) or dimension tables (the attributes and dimensions related to the data
in a fact table) in one of the two cloud repositories:
1. Microsoft Azure Blob Storage: contains the data uploaded by the users
2. Microsoft Azure SQL Database: contains all the metadata and the artifacts of the system
Visualization: It is a visual representation of the underlying data designed to provide
business context and insights that would be difficult to discern from a raw table or text
data. Power BI has bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, gradient-colored maps, bubble maps,
etc. Datasets: A dataset is a collection of data fetched from different data sources, used to
create visualizations and reports. Datasets can be Excel sheets, CSV files, Oracle or SQL
server tables, etc. Reports: A report is a set of interrelated visualizations arranged together
on one or more pages to showcase various business insights extracted from the same
dataset. Some examples are product sales reports, marketing campaign reports, and sales
by company branch reports. Dashboards: A dashboard is a combination of the most
compelling visuals from the report
on one page.
Tiles: A tile is an individual visual in a rectangular block surrounded by other tiles in a report
or a dashboard.
23. Explain the DAX functions.
24. What are the building blocks of Power BI?

29. What is z-order in Power BI?
Z-order is a design strategy used for arranging visuals over shapes. It can be defined as an
implementation method that can be applied whenever reports have multiple elements.
25. What is the M language in Power BI?
The M language, or M-Code, is a functional, case-sensitive programming language used in the
Power Query Editor of Power BI to filter and combine the data through queries.
28. Explain the different stages in the working of Power BI.
There are three stages in Power BI working:
26. What are the most common techniques for data shaping?
27. How will you embed Power BI reports into an application?
You can do this in the following ways:
Adding indexes
Applying a sort order
Removing columns and rows
Use Power BI Embedded to integrate reports into your app using JavaScript or .NET SDK.
Utilize Power BI Embedded Azure capacity for dedicated resource allocation.
Call Power BI REST APIs from your app to retrieve data and definitions.
Use Embed tokens to embed reports, changing tokens periodically securely.
Implement Row Level Security to restrict data access.
Handle licensing appropriately, either pay-per-user or Power BI Premium.
Data Integration: Here, we establish a successful connection with the data source and
integrate it to extract data for processing. After integration, the data is converted into a
standard format and stored in a common area called the staging area.
Data Processing: Here, the BI tool interprets the missing values and inaccurate data for
processing in the data processing stage. After the data is transformed, it is stored in data
warehouses.
Data Presentation: This is the final stage where the BI tool analyzes the source data. It then
presents the insights in the form of graphs and interactive dashboards.

32. What is Bookmark?
Bookmarking in Power BI lets you capture the configured view of a report page at a specific
time. This includes filtering and the state of the visual, which can use a shortcut to come
back to the report that you can add as a bookmark.
30. Who uses Power BI?
34. How to secure data in Power BI?
31. How will you create a map in Power Map?
33. What do you understand by self-service business intelligence
(SSBI)?
SSBI is a set of approaches and tools that enable end users including those without any
background in BI (e.g., sales or marketing teams, product developers, etc.) to access,
manipulate, analyze, and visualize the data to make strategic, data-driven business
decisions.
Project managers
Business analysts
Data analysts
Data scientists
IT specialists
Data administrators
Developers
Report consumers
Row Level Security can restrict data access at the row level based on filters.
Object-level security can be defined via roles to limit access to reports.
Enable Data Encryption at rest and in transit.
1. Open an Excel workbook with relevant data.
2. Click Insert > Map.
3. Choose New Tour in Power Map.
4. Create a New Custom Map by adding a background picture (in .jpg, .bmp, or .png format).
5. Adjust X and Y coordinates.
. Explore and visualize data on the 3D globe.

Data imports to a new group
An option for managing parameters
The option to handle columns, rows, and groups
Column renaming and value replacement options
The option to execute R Queries
The option to use DAX formulas to add custom columns
Mask or anonymize sensitive data before sharing datasets.
Incremental refresh can limit the exposure of full data to the service.
Enable SSAS and Import mode to retain data on-premises.
Restrict Power BI access to permitted users only.
Utilize read-only sharing whenever possible.
A slicer is a visual that allows users to filter and slice data by selecting specific values.
Uses of slicers:
Display commonly used or important filters on the report canvas for easier access.
Parameters Calculated Column Calculated Table
Creation
location
Data
modification
Scope
usage
Data View Model View
Modifies existing data within a table Creates a new table based on a
DAX formula
Primarily used in measures for
specific calculations
of Used throughout the model for further
calculations and visualizations
37. What is a slicer in Power BI?
35. What are the functions of the Power BI Query editor?
36. How do calculated columns differ from calculated tables in
Power BI?
Advanced Power BI Interview Questions & Answers
for Experienced

Operation
Example
Case
Aesthetic
Integration
Parameters
Purpose
Use Frequency
Complexity
User Interaction
Impact on Visuals
The following is the step-by-step procedure to perform Dynamic Filtering in Power BI:
Once all the data are set up, publish a detailed report to Power BI
Publish it to the group workspace.
Create a filter link
Create a DAX-calculated column.
Public overview report
Make it easier to see the current filtered state without having to open a drop-down list.
Filter by columns that are unneeded and hidden in the data tables.
Create more focused reports by putting slicers next to important visuals.
Slicers
Visual interaction for specific
values.
Click-based selection for visual
changes.
Alters visuals immediately upon
selection.
Filters
Data refinement at the dataset
level.
Condition-based
inclusion/exclusion.
Influences all visuals using the
dataset.
Intuitive and user-friendly. Requires
conditions
Rarely used.
defining specific
Frequently used
Straightforward and simple to
use.
Can involve complex logical
expressions.
Use Selecting months to view sales
trends.
Adds to report aesthetics.
Excluding
products.
Works behind the scenes.
low-performing
38. How can you perform Dynamic filtering in Power BI?
39. Differentiate between slicers and filters in Power BI.

42. What is the embed code?
The embed code is used and produced when you want to provide a link and share it with other
users. These links are available for publishing data on the Web and are provided by Power BI.
They correspond to the Power BI report.
41. Why use the selection pane in Power BI?
The Selection Pane in Power BI is a tool that helps users manage the visibility and layering of
report elements on a page. It allows you to show or hide visuals and control their order on the
canvas.
43. Explain the gateway execution ﬂow in Power BI.
40. List the various refresh options and their functions.
Power BI offers different refresh options to update data in your reports:
Scheduled refresh: Automatically refreshes data at speciﬁed intervals.
Manual refresh: Allows users to trigger a data refresh manually.
Incremental refresh: Updates only the portion of data that has changed since the last
refresh, improving performance for large datasets.
Push refresh: Enables external applications to trigger data refresh in Power BI Service.

The ﬂow of execution for the Power BI gateway is as follows:
Gateway installed on a machine in the on-premises domain. During this installation,
credentials are stored in local and Power BI services.
Credentials entered for the data source in Power BI are encrypted and then stored in the
cloud. Only the gateway can decrypt the credentials.
Power BI service kicks off a dataset refresh; this happens through a Scheduler service in
Power BI.
Data Movement Service analyses the query and pushes it to the appropriate service bus
instance.
There is a queue of requests on the service bus. Gateway pulls the bus for pending
requests.
Gateway gets the query and executes it on the data source.
After getting the result, the gateway pushes that back to Power BI.
Grouping in Power BI is a feature that allows you to combine data into groups or categories,
making it easier to analyze and visualize data in your reports. Grouping in Power BI offers
44. What is grouping in Power BI?

The only prerequisite before connecting to a database is that the user needs to configure a
firewall setting to allow remote connections.
Geographic Properties: Tables must contain geographic properties (e.g., city names, zip
codes, longitudes, latitudes).
X and Y Coordinates: Data should have X and Y coordinates for mapping.
Custom Maps: You can create custom maps by importing images (e.g., floor plans, transit
route maps) and associating them with data.
numerous benefits like:
Enhanced organization: Grouping allows for better organization and categorization of data
elements based on shared characteristics or attributes.
Simplified analysis: With grouping, data can be aggregated and summarized within
specific categories, making it easier to identify trends and patterns.
Improved visualizations: By grouping related data, visualizations can provide a more
comprehensive and coherent representation of the data.
Streamlined reporting: Grouping enables the creation of summary reports that offer a high-
level overview of the data, saving time and effort in generating detailed reports.
Paginated reports are designed to be printed or shared. They're called paginated because
they're formatted to fit well on a page. They display all the data in a table, even if the table
spans multiple pages. You can control their report page layout exactly. Power BI Report
Builder is the standalone tool for authoring paginated reports for the Power BI service.
You can view your paginated report in the Power BI service in a browser and in the Power BI
mobile apps. From the Power BI service, you can export the report to several formats, such as
HTML, MHTML, PDF, XML, CSV, TIFF, Word, and Excel.
48. What is query folding in Power BI?
46. What are paginated reports in Power BI?
47. What are the main criteria for a table to be utilized in Power
Map?
45. What is the only prerequisite for connecting to a database in
Azure SQL Database?

There are two approaches:
1. Manual: by using primary and foreign keys
2. Automatic: the relationships are identiﬁed automatically if the autodetect feature is
switched on
The world today runs on data. Therefore, it becomes necessary to properly process
unprocessed or raw data and extract useful information from it. Power BI is a cloud-based
business intelligence and data visualization software with numerous advantages. If you desire
to remain up-to-date with the latest trends, learn trending skills and technology.
Yes. However, it is good practice to use separate gateways for import and direct query
connections. Direct query connections can place a lot of strain on the gateway-installed
machine. Using separate gateways can also avoid delays or potential issues as you scale the
number of reports and the number of users for those reports.
Query folding is the ability of a Power Query query to generate a single query statement that
retrieves and transforms source data.
49. Can a gateway contain both import and direct query
connections?
50. How can we deﬁne the relationships between two tables in a
data model on the Power BI Desktop?
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