In this blog for Power BI, we will be discussing top questions to help you with your interview. Power BI was released in 2013 where Microsoft decide to combine multiple Excel add-ons together to create a completely independent tool. This tool is taken as the major contributing factor in the growth of Microsoft in BI or data visualization domain. Before you read this blog, it would be great if you can brush up the Power BI basics first. So, let us focus on a list of popular Power BI questions that are frequently asked by interviewers.

Basic Power BI Interview Questions

Advanced Power BI Interview Questions

Basic Power BI Interview Questions and Answers

Q1). Name the part of self-service BI solution.

There are two major parts of self-service BI solutions. These are –

Excel BI Toolkit

Power BI

Q2). What do you understand by the self-service BI (business intelligence)?

SSBI is a powerful approach to data analytics that enables business users to analyze, segment, or filter data without any deeper knowledge of the statistical analysis and the BI. With SSBI, this is always easy to access or visualize the data for better business insights. Also, SSBI approach helps users in creating powerful intuitive business reports and shareable dashboards too.

Q3). What do you mean by the Power BI?

This is a cloud-based data sharing environment where anyone can visualize or analyze data with great efficiency, speed, and understanding. It also helps in creating easy to use dashboards, interactive dashboards, compelling visualizations etc.

Q4). What do you mean by the Power BI Desktop?

Power BI desktop is a free application that can be installed on to your computer and used on cohesion with Power BI for advanced Data exploration, data modeling, report generation, data shaping and more. It allows you to store complete data in a single file that can be further shared with other users.

Q5). Name the possible number of data sources that can be connected with the Power BI.

These are the files, content packs, and connector etc. that can be quickly connected with the Power BI. Data is usually imported from multiple sources like Excel, CSV files, or desktop files etc.

Q6). How can you define different building blocks in Power BI?

The building blocks or we can say components in Power BI could be given as – Visualizations, datasets, Reports, Dashboards, or Tiles etc.

Q7). Name the different type of filters in Power BI reports.

Filters in Power BI are majorly divided into three major categories that are discussed below –

Visual-level filters - These are the filters working on independent visualization only and they can filter data and visualizations both.

- These are the filters working on independent visualization only and they can filter data and visualizations both. Report-level filters – As the name suggests, these filters are applicable to the entire report.

– As the name suggests, these filters are applicable to the entire report. Page-level filters - These filters are working on the page-level in reports. So, one report could have multiple page filters based on requirements.

Q8). Define the meaning of content packs on Power BI.

Content packs are pre-built solutions that can be connected with Power BI to see the data or reports live through dashboards

Q9). What do you mean by the excel BI toolkit?

With the help of Excel BI toolkit, you could always create highly interactive reports by multiple range of sources and model data based on requirements.

Q10). Can you explain the costs for Power BI?

Both Power BI and Power BI desktop are free of cost. At the same time, Power BI pro demand for $9.99 subscription once the 60-days trial is complete.

Q11). How will you differentiate the Power BI and Power BI pro?

Power BI is a powerful tool for analyzing or sharing the data in a completely new way. This is available free of costs to complete the basic data analysis work.

On the other hand, Power BI pro has more additional like scheduling data, refreshing them on daily basis, more interactivity, and excellent storage capacity etc. Power BI pro demand for $9.99 subscription once the 60-days trial is complete.

Q12). What is the difference between Power BI and Tableau?

Tableau and Power BI are both data management tools with solid footprints in the Business Intelligence domain. Power BI by Microsoft is much younger than Tableau but taken as a close competitor to Tableau in 2018. Both have their own pros and cons, they can be used as per the requirement.

Difference Between Power BI and Tableau Features Power BI Tableau Best Use Case Dashboards Ad-hoc Analysis Best User Average Joe/Jane Analysts Data Established 2013 2003 Infrastructure SaaS Only Any Investment Required Low High Licensing Rigid Flexible Overall Functionality Very Good Very Very Good Performance With Large Datasets Good Very Good Support Level Low (Or Through Partner) High

Q13). What are prerequisites for using Power BI?

For using Power BI, you must have a web browser and work email address. Any email address ending with .gov and .mil are not supported currently.

Q14). Why there is a need of work email for using Power BI?

The tool will not support email addresses as given by the telecommunication providers, so you should always signup with a work email only.

Q15). Do you know the email extensions that are supported by Power BI?

Two supported email extensions by Power BI include .org and .edu etc.

Advanced Power BI Interview Questions and Answers

Q16). Do Power BI supports mobile devices too?

Yes, Power BI gives extensive support to mobile devices too like IOS, Windows 10, or Android etc. The Power BI apps are available from multiple sources to download like Google Play, Windows Store, and Apple Store etc.

Q17). Name the different Power BI add-ons.

These are Power Query, Power Pivot, Power View, and Power Map etc. Let us discuss them one by one in brief below –

Power Query – This add-on is needed to load, or find the external data.

Power Pivot – It will give you data modeling details.

Power View – It is used to design interactive and visual reports.

Power Map – It is used to display the insights in the 3D view.

Q18). How to get started with Power BI?

To get started with, there are multiple options available and you can choose any of them like –

Read an Article.

Take help from well-written blogs.

Check videos on YouTube.

Check webinars.

Join Community etc.

Q19). How can you buy the Power BI pro? Is there any specific process to follow?

It can be purchased from the official site of Power BI or you can take help from Microsoft assistance to complete the process.

Q20). Do on-premise access is possible in case of Power BI?

No, this is not possible to access Power BI services on private or internal service cloud. However, with the help of Power BI desktop, you can always connect with the on-premise data sources.

Q21). Name the language that is used to calculate the number of columns in Power Pivot.

This is DAX (Data Analysis Expression) language that can be used to calculate the number of columns in Power Pivot.

Q22). What do you understand by DAX in Power BI?

This is formula language to find the calculated fields or columns. It is generally required for the basic data analysis and calculation in Power Pivot. The language supports column values but it is not able to modify or insert values. Also, we cannot use DAX for calculating row values.

Q23). Explain the data model for the Power Pivot add-on.

This is a model that is made up of data types, tables, table relations, or columns etc. These data types are generally programmed to store data for multiple business entities.

Q24). What do you understand by the Power Query?

This is an ETL tool for shaping, cleaning, or transforming data into meaningful insights and intuitive interfaces too without any code.

You can use multiple sources for data import from files to databases.

You could join or append data from a wide range of sources.

You can also shape the data by necessary additions or deletions.

Q25). Name the programming language that is used along Power Query.

This is M-code programming language that is easy to use and highly case -sensitive too.

Q26). What are the data destinations for the Power Query?

There are two data destinations that are used with Power Query. These are –

Load to table in a worksheet

Load to Excel data model

Q27). Who is a Power BI designer?

He is the person who is responsible for designing power BI apps and upload the same to the Power BI official site. There is no requirement for Excel in that case. This is a perfect combination of the Power Query, Power View, and the Power Pivot etc.

Q28). Can we refresh data reports that are uploaded to the cloud?

Yes, this is possible to refresh the data reports that are uploaded to the cloud. You could take help from data management gateway and Power BI person gateway for the same.

Q29). How data management gateway and Power BI person gateway are different?

Power BI personal gateway is required to see reports that are deployed to official power BI site. At the same time, data management gateway is an application that is installed into data machines to help the reports to deploy on SharePoint and access them with an automatic update.

Q30). How will you differentiate the older and newer Power BI?

The newer version has more powerful features and it is famous with the name Power BI desktop. This is a standalone designer using Power Query, Power View, and the Power Pivot in the backend. At the same time, older Power BI has multiple add-ins for Excel and graph features are also available for better visualizations.



