PL-300 practice test: 4 free Power BI questions, DAX and Power Query included

PL-300 at a glance, with the source for every line

Every row below is quoted from a document published by Microsoft and carries the date we checked it. Where Microsoft publishes nothing, the row says so instead of quoting a number from somewhere else.

Time limit

100 minutes.Source: Microsoft Learn, Power BI Data Analyst Associate, verified 7 August 2026

Passing score

700 or greater, on a scale to 1,000.Source: Microsoft Learn, Exam PL-300 study guide, verified 7 August 2026

How long it lasts

Renewal frequency is 12 months. Microsoft Associate certifications expire annually and renew free through an unproctored online assessment on Microsoft Learn.Source: Microsoft Learn, Power BI Data Analyst Associate, verified 7 August 2026

Prerequisites

None enforced. Microsoft expects proficiency with Power Query and DAX.Source: Microsoft Learn, Exam PL-300 study guide, verified 7 August 2026

Format

Proctored, and it may include interactive components.Source: Microsoft Learn, Power BI Data Analyst Associate, verified 7 August 2026

Skills measured as of

20 April 2026.Source: Microsoft Learn, Exam PL-300 study guide, verified 7 August 2026

Cost

Microsoft publishes no single figure. Its PL-300 page states: “Price based on the country or region in which the exam is proctored.” You see yours at booking.Source: Microsoft Learn, Power BI Data Analyst Associate, verified 7 August 2026

If you fail

You can retake it 24 hours after the first attempt. Microsoft states that for subsequent retakes the amount of time varies.Source: Microsoft Learn, Power BI Data Analyst Associate, verified 7 August 2026

AZ-900, for comparison

AZ-900 is a Microsoft Fundamentals certification. Microsoft states that Fundamentals certifications do not expire, while its Associate certifications renew every 12 months.Source: Microsoft Learn, certification renewal, verified 7 August 2026

Question count

Not published by Microsoft. Microsoft does not publish a question count for PL-300. It publishes the 100-minute duration and the skills measured, and item counts vary between forms.Checked against: Microsoft Learn, Power BI Data Analyst Associate, verified 7 August 2026

Pass rate

Not published by Microsoft. Microsoft does not publish a pass rate for any of its certification exams.Checked against: Microsoft Learn, Power BI Data Analyst Associate, verified 7 August 2026

Always verify: Microsoft updates the PL-300 skills measured periodically, prices the exam by the country it is proctored in, and expires this certification annually. Confirm details at learn.microsoft.com before you book.

What Microsoft publishes as the official PL-300 blueprint

These weights are Microsoft's, quoted from the source below. They are the only weights on this page that describe the real exam.

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

Source: Microsoft Learn, Exam PL-300 study guide, verified 7 August 2026.

What our PL-300 question bank covers

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

What actually trips people up on PL-300

Query folding breaks silently, and Index Column is a common cause

Folding pushes your steps down to the source as SQL. Add Index Column has no SQL equivalent, so folding stops there and every later step runs client-side against the full unfiltered table. Refresh time jumps and nothing warns you. Put non-foldable steps last, after filtering.

ALLEXCEPT is not ALL, and the difference is the whole question

For a percentage-of-category-total measure you need to clear product-level filters while keeping Category. ALLEXCEPT(Products, Products[Category]) does that in one step. ALL on a single column clears only that column and leaves other product attributes filtering, and ALL on the fact table strips Category too, which is exactly what you were trying to keep.

Star beats snowflake, and you should know why

Flattening a snowflaked dimension into one table removes relationship hops, so VertiPaq propagates filters faster and your DAX stops chaining RELATED lookups. The cost is redundant repeated values. It changes neither storage mode nor fact table grain.

The drill buttons do three different things

Drill down affects only the data point you clicked. Go to the next level moves the whole visual down and flattens the parent grouping away. Expand all down one level, the double arrow, breaks out every member at once and keeps the parent grouping. Questions describe the outcome and expect you to name the button.

Manage and secure is the smallest domain and the easiest to skip

At 15–20% it is the lightest, which is why people leave it out. Workspace roles, app distribution, gateways, scheduled refresh, row-level security and sensitivity labels are a finite list, and row-level security shows up more than its weighting suggests.

A 5-week study plan

Five weeks, with Power BI Desktop open the whole time. Our PL-300 bank holds 651 questions across the four official domains, and the explanations walk through the expression rather than just naming the right button.

Week 1: prepare the data

25–30%. Connectors and parameters, profiling and cleaning, transformations, and query folding: what breaks it and how to see that it broke.

Weeks 2–3: model the data

25–30%, and the domain that carries the most DAX. Relationships and cardinality, star schema design, CALCULATE and filter context, time intelligence, and performance tuning with Performance Analyzer. Write every measure yourself rather than copying one: filter context only becomes intuitive once you have watched CALCULATE override a slicer and then watched ALLEXCEPT put part of it back.

Week 4: visualize and analyze

25–30%. Choosing visuals, formatting and themes, bookmarks and drillthrough, the drill actions and what each one does, plus accessibility settings and the AI visuals.

Week 5: manage and secure, then simulate

15–20%: workspaces, apps, gateways, refresh, row-level security and sensitivity labels. Then sit 100-minute simulations and drill whichever domain the breakdown flags.

Is PL-300 hard?

PL-300 is hard in one specific way: it assumes you have actually used Power BI. Three of its four areas sit at 25–30% each, so there is no dominant recall topic to lean on, and the questions describe outcomes in the product rather than definitions from a book. You get 100 minutes and the bar is 700 on a scale to 1,000.

DAX and Power Query fluency is the dividing line. Knowing that ALLEXCEPT keeps Category while clearing every other product filter, or that adding an Index Column silently breaks query folding and pushes all later work client-side, is the difference between a comfortable pass and a narrow fail. Neither fact is discoverable by reading; both are obvious once you have hit them in the tool.

It is also the only certification on our tech pages that expires after 12 months, though renewal is a free unproctored assessment on Microsoft Learn rather than a resit. Microsoft publishes no pass rate.

Our own bank of 651 questions puts 204 at difficulty 3 and 192 at difficulty 4, split evenly between preparing and modeling data at 182 questions each, matching the exam’s near-even weighting.

How the PL-300 differs from the exams beside it

PL-300 is the only exam in our Tech family that expires after a single year, because it is a Microsoft Associate certification rather than a Fundamentals one like AZ-900. It is also the most tool-dependent: you cannot answer the DAX questions without having written DAX. Three of its four domains are near-equal at 25–30% each, so there is no dominant topic to lean on, and the questions assume fluency in both Power Query’s M transformations and DAX. Reading about it does not work.

Questions people actually ask about the PL-300

How long is the PL-300 exam?

100 minutes. Microsoft publishes the duration but not a question count, and the exam is proctored and may include interactive components.

What score do you need to pass PL-300?

A scaled 700 on Microsoft’s 1,000-point scale, the same bar it sets across its certification exams. It is not a raw percentage, and Microsoft does not publish how many items that represents.

Does PL-300 expire?

Yes, annually. Microsoft lists a 12-month renewal frequency for this certification, and you renew free by passing a short unproctored assessment on Microsoft Learn before it expires.

Is PL-300 hard without using Power BI?

Very. Three domains sit at 25–30% each and all of them assume working fluency in Power Query and DAX. There is no dominant recall topic to carry you, and the questions describe outcomes in the tool rather than definitions.

How much DAX do you need for PL-300?

Enough to write and read filter-context measures: CALCULATE, ALL and ALLEXCEPT, time intelligence, semi-additive measures and calculation groups. Modeling is the domain where DAX concentrates.

What happens if you fail PL-300?

You can retake it 24 hours after the first attempt, with longer waits for later retakes. Each attempt is a fresh booking.

How long should you study for PL-300?

Five weeks with the tool open the whole time: one week on preparation, two on modeling and DAX, one on visuals, one on managing and securing plus timed runs. Reading about Power Query is the least efficient way to prepare for this one.

Are these real PL-300 exam questions?

No. The 651 PL-300 questions are original, written from Microsoft’s published skills-measured list. Microsoft’s exam agreement prohibits reusing live items and can revoke a certification over it. Ours cover Power Query and DAX at the depth the skills list sets, and each explanation walks through the expression.