Contents

1 - Power BI Interview Questions – General Questions......................................................................3

1). What are the parts of Microsoft’s self-service business intelligence solution?.......................4
2). What is self-service business intelligence?.................................................................................4
3). What is Power BI?...........................................................................................................................5
4). How would you define Power BI as an effective solution?........................................................5
5). What are the major components of Power BI?...........................................................................6
6). What are the various Power BI versions?....................................................................................6
7). What is Power BI Desktop?...........................................................................................................7
8). What do we understand by Power BI services?.........................................................................7
9). What data sources can Power BI connect to?............................................................................7
10). What are the different connectivity modes in Power BI?.........................................................8
11). Where is the data stored in Power BI?.....................................................................................10
12). What are Building Blocks in Power BI?....................................................................................11
13). What is the comprehensive working system of Power BI?....................................................12
14). What are content packs in Power BI?......................................................................................12
15). What are the different types of filters in Power BI Reports?.................................................13
16). What is a dashboard?................................................................................................................14
17). What are the available views?...................................................................................................14
18). What are the available formats?...............................................................................................15
19). What are the types of visualizations in Power BI?..................................................................15
20). What are custom visuals in Power BI?.....................................................................................16
21). Why and how would you use a custom visual file?................................................................16
22). What are the various type of users who can use Power BI?................................................16
23).What are the critical components of the Power BI toolkit?.....................................................17
24). What is the maximum data limit per client for the free version of Power BI?......................17
25). Where do you reshape data in Power BI?...............................................................................17
26). How can you refresh data in PowerBI?....................................................................................17
27). Which is a single-page canvas that uses visualizations to depict a story?.........................17
28). Mention some advantages of Power BI?.................................................................................18
 29). List out some drawbacks/limitations of using Power BI.........................................................18
2 - Power BI Interview Questions – DAX.............................................................................................18
30). What is DAX?..........................................................................................................................19
31). What are the most common DAX Functions used?...........................................................19
32). What are the three fundamental concepts of DAX?...........................................................20
33). What are the purpose and benefits of using the DAX function?.......................................20
34). How is the FILTER function used?.......................................................................................20
35). What is the CALCULATE function in DAX?.........................................................................21
36). What is special or unique about the CALCULATE and CALCULATETABLE functions?
...........................................................................................................................................................21
37). What is the common table function for grouping data?......................................................21
38). What are some benefits of using Variables in DAX ?........................................................22
39). How would you create trailing X month metrics via DAX against a non-standard
calendar?.........................................................................................................................................22
40). What are the different Excel BI add-in?...............................................................................22
Power BI Interview Questions – Power Pivot......................................................................................22
41). What is Power Pivot?.............................................................................................................23
42). What is Power Pivot Data Model?........................................................................................23
43). What is xVelocity in-memory analytics engine used in Power Pivot?..............................23
44). What are some of differences in data modeling between Power BI Desktop and Power
Pivot for Excel?...............................................................................................................................23
45). Can we have more than one active relationship between two tables in data model of
power pivot?....................................................................................................................................23
3 - Power BI Interview Questions – Power Query..............................................................................24
46). What is GetData in Power BI?...............................................................................................24
47). What is Power Query?...........................................................................................................24
48). What are the data destinations for Power Queries?...........................................................24
49). What is query folding in Power Query?................................................................................24
50). What are some common Power Query/Editor Transforms?.............................................25
51). Can SQL and Power Query/Query Editor be used together?...........................................25
52). What are query parameters and Power BI templates?......................................................25
53). Which language is used in Power Query?...........................................................................25
 54). Why do we need Power Query when Power Pivot can import data from mostly used
sources?...........................................................................................................................................26
55). Name some commonly used tasks in the Query Editor.....................................................26
4 - Power BI Interview Questions – Power Map.................................................................................26
56). What is Power Map?...............................................................................................................26
57). What are the primary requirement for a table to be used in Power Map?.......................27
58). What are the data sources for Power Map?........................................................................27
5 - Power BI Interview Questions – Additional Questions.................................................................28
59). Difference between Power BI and Tableau?.......................................................................28
60). What is Power View?..............................................................................................................28
61). What is Power BI Designer?..................................................................................................29
62). Can we refresh our Power BI reports once uploaded to cloud (Share point or
[Link])?..................................................................................................................................29
63). What are the different types of refreshing data for our published reports?.....................29
64). Is Power BI available on-premises?.....................................................................................30
65). What are the data management gateway and Power BI personal gateway?.................30
66). What is Power BI Q&A?.........................................................................................................31
67). What happens when you click the Infocus mode of a tile on the PowerBI dashboard on
the browser?....................................................................................................................................31
68). How do you consolidate inquiries in Power BI?..................................................................31
69). What are some ways that Excel experience can be leveraged with Power BI?.............31
70). What is a calculated column in Power BI and why would you use them?.......................32
71). How is data security implemented in Power BI ?................................................................32
72). What are many-to-many relationships and how can they be addressed in Power BI ? 33
73). Why might you have a table in the model without any relationships to other tables?....33
74). What is the Power BI Publisher for Excel?..........................................................................33
75). What are the differences between a Power BI Dataset, a Report, and a Dashboard?. 34
76) What are the three Edit Interactions options of a visual tile in Power BI Desktop?.........34
77). What are some of the differences in report authoring capabilities between using a live
or direct query connection such as to an Analysis Services model, relative to working with a
data model local to the Power BI Desktop file?..........................................................................35
78). How does SSRS integrate with Power BI?..........................................................................35
1 - Power BI Interview Questions – General
Questions

1). What are the parts of Microsoft’s self-service business

intelligence solution?

Ans: Microsoft has two parts for Self-Service BI

Parts of Self-Service BI
It allows users to create an interactive report by importing data
Excel BI
from different sources and model data according to report
Toolkit
requirement.

It is the online solution that enables you to share the interactive

Power
reports and queries that you have created using the Excel BI
BI
Toolkit.

2). What is self-service business intelligence?

Ans: Self-Service Business Intelligence (SSBI)

 SSBI is an approach to data analytics that enables business users to

filter, segment, and, analyze their data, without the in-depth technical
knowledge in statistical analysis, business intelligence (BI).
 SSBI has made it easier for end-users to access their data and create
various visuals to get better business insights.
 Anybody who has a basic understanding of the data can create
reports to build intuitive and shareable dashboards.
3). What is Power BI?

Ans: Power BI is a cloud-based data-sharing environment. Once you have

developed reports using Power Query, Power Pivot, and Power View, you
can share your insights with your colleagues. This is where Power BI
enters the equation. Power BI, which technically is an aspect of SharePoint
online, lets you load Excel workbooks into the cloud and share them with a
chosen group of co-workers. Not only that, but your colleagues can interact
with your reports to apply filters and slicers to highlight data. They are
completed by Power BI, a simple way of sharing your analysis and insights
from the Microsoft cloud.

Power BI features allow you to:

 Share presentations and queries with your colleagues.

 Update your Excel file from data sources that can be on-site or in the
cloud.
 Display the output on multiple devices. This includes PCs, tablets,
and HTML 5-enabled mobile devices that use the Power BI app.
 Query your data using natural language processing (or Q&A, as it is
known)

4). How would you define Power BI as an effective solution?

Ans: PowerBI is a cloud based Business Intelligence tool to analyze and

visualize raw data that can be fetched from a wide range of data sources. It
consolidates business analytics with data visualization and helps any
organization to make business decisions based on [Link] is easy to work
with and the data is processed in such a way that it is easy to understand
and reliable. It can be accessed from different platforms and can be shared
across on-cloud participants. Thus it is an effective solution.
5). What are the major components of Power BI?

Ans: The major components of PowerBI are as follows :

Let’s discuss each component in brief:

Power Query: It is one of the most important components of PowerBI to

transform data. Power Query helps to extract data from different data
sources like Oracle, SQL, Text/CSV files, Excel, etc. and even delete data
from different sources.

Power Pivot : It is used for data modeling that uses DAX ( Data Analysis
Expression) functions for the calculations. Relationships between different
tables can also be created here and we can get values that can be shown
in Pivot Tables.

Power View: The Power View is used for providing an intuitive display of
the data and retrieving the metadata for data analysis. The views are
interactive in nature and slicers and filters can be used for slicing and
dicing the data.

Power BI Desktop: Power Desktop is an integration tool for Power Query,

Power View, and Power Pivot. It helps to create advanced queries, data
models, reports and dashboards and helps in developing your BI skills for
data analysis.

Power BI Mobile Application: It is available for the Operating systems

Android, iOS and even Windows. The App has an interactive display of the
dashboards which can be shared as well.

Power Map: It presents geo-spatial visualization of the data in 3

Dimensional Mode. The data can be highlighted based on the geographical
location which can be continent, state, city or even street address.

Power Q&A : It is used to provide answers to the questions asked by

users. It works with Power View and can be answered with representations
by Power Q&A.

6). What are the various Power BI versions?

Ans: PowerBI has three versions currently:

Microsoft PowerBI Free/ Desktop – It is for anybody who wants to see
their business insights from the data with visualizations.

Microsoft PowerBI Pro – It is the full version of PowerBI which enables

unlimited viewing, reporting and sharing of reports which PowerBI Desktop
doesn’t support.

Microsoft PowerBI Premium – The Power BI Premium licence is not a

per-user licence, it provides a dedicated unit of capacity for all users in the
organisation.

7). What is Power BI Desktop?

Ans: Power BI Desktop is a free desktop application that can be installed

right on your own computer. Power BI Desktop works cohesively with the
Power BI service by providing advanced data exploration, shaping,
modeling, and creating reports with highly interactive visualizations. You
can save your work to a file or publish your data and reports right to your
Power BI site to share with others.

8). What do we understand by Power BI services?

Ans: PowerBI Services is a cloud based service or SaaS (software as a

service). It helps to connect to your data, analyse, visualize and share
business insights with efficiency.

9). What data sources can Power BI connect to?

Ans: The list of data sources for Power BI is extensive, but it can be

grouped into the following:

 Files: Data can be imported from Excel (.xlsx, xlxm), Power BI

Desktop files (.pbix) and Comma Separated Value (.csv).
 Content Packs: It is a collection of related documents or files that are
stored as a group. In Power BI, there are two types of content packs,
firstly those from services providers like Google Analytics, Marketo, or
Salesforce, and secondly those created and shared by other users in
your organization.
 Connectors to databases and other datasets such as Azure SQL,
Database and SQL, Server Analysis Services tabular data, etc.
 

10). What are the different connectivity modes in Power BI?

Ans: There are three different connectivity modes in PowerBI which are:

Import Mode:

In PowerBI, Import Mode is the default mode since it is most frequently

used and delivers fast performance. It can integrate the data from a data
source as shown. Imported data is stored in the disk and it is fully loaded
while querying or refreshing.

Direct Query Mode

 

Direct Query Mode is another method of importing data with query to

retrieve data from a pre-existing data source. When the data volume is too
large, we use DirectQuery to avoid refreshing data as it can take a long
time.

Composite Mode
This mode is an amalgamation of both Import and DirectQuery modes. This
mode supports calculated tables which DirectQuery doesn’t. It delivers the
best of Import Query and DirectQuery modes.

11). Where is the data stored in Power BI?

Ans: Primarily, PowerBI uses two repositories to store its data: Azure Blob
Storage and Azure SQL Database. Azure Blob Storage typically stores the
data that is uploaded by the users. Azure SQL Database stores all the
metadata and artifacts for the system itself.
 

12). What are Building Blocks in Power BI?

Ans: The following are the Building Blocks (or) key components of Power
BI:

1. Visualizations: Visualization is a visual representation of data.

Example: Pie Chart, Line Graph, Side by Side Bar Charts, Graphical
Presentation of the source data on top of Geographical Map, Tree
Map, etc.
2. Datasets: Dataset is a collection of data that Power BI uses to create
its visualizations.
Example: Excel sheets, Oracle or SQL server tables.
3. Reports: Report is a collection of visualizations that appear together
on one or more pages.
Example: Sales by Country, State, City Report, Logistic Performance
report, Profit by Products report etc.
4. Dashboards: Dashboard is single layer presentation of multiple
visualizations, i.e we can integrate one or more visualizations into
one page layer.
Example: Sales dashboard can have pie charts, geographical maps
and bar charts.
5. Tiles: Tile is a single visualization in a report or on a dashboard.
Example: Pie Chart in Dashboard or Report.
13). What is the comprehensive working system of Power BI?

Ans. Power BI’s working system mainly comprises four steps:

Data Importing: The first step is to import the data and convert it into a
standard format and store it in a staging area.
Data Cleaning: After assembling the data, it requires transformation or
cleaning to remove unimportant values.
Data Visualization: Now the data is visually represented on the Power BI
desktop as reports and dashboards using powerful visualization tools.
Save and Publish: Finally when your report is ready you can save and
publish these reports that can be shared across users via mobile apps or
web.

14). What are content packs in Power BI?

Ans: Content packs for services are pre-built solutions for popular services
as part of the Power BI experience. A subscriber to a supported service,
can quickly connect to their account from Power BI to see their data
through live dashboards and interactive reports that have been pre-built for
them. Microsoft has released content packs for popular services such as
[Link], Marketo, Adobe Analytics, Azure Mobile Engagement,
CircuitID, comScore Digital Analytix, Quickbooks Online, SQL Sentry and
tyGraph. 

Organizational content packs provide users, BI professionals, and system

integrator the tools to build their own content packs to share purpose-built
dashboards, reports, and datasets within their organization.
15). What are the different types of filters in Power BI
Reports?

Ans: Power BI provides variety of option to filter

report, data and visualization. The following are the list of Filter types.

 Visual-level Filters: These filters work on only an individual

visualization, reducing the amount of data that the visualization can
see. Moreover, visual-level filters can filter both data and calculations.
 Page-level Filters: These filters work at the report-page level.
Different pages in the same report can have different page-level
filters.
 Report-level Filters: These filters work on the entire report,
filtering all pages and visualizations included in the report.

We know that Power BI visual has an interactions feature, which makes

filtering a report a breeze. Visual interactions are useful, but they come with
some limitations:

 The filter is not saved as part of the report. Whenever you open a
report, you can begin to play with visual filters but there is no way to
store the filter in the saved report.
 The filter is always visible. Sometimes you want a filter for the entire
report, but you do not want any visual indication of the filter being
applied.
16). What is a dashboard?

Ans: A PowerBI dashboard is a canvas which creates a story with

templates and visualizations for better understanding of the data. It is a
single-page report and contains the highlights of the data.

17). What are the available views?

Ans: The different views in PowerBI are:

Report View : It is the default view which shows the visualization of the
data in reports. You can create multiple report pages here with a wide
range of templates and visualizations.

Data View : Data view shows the transformed data in a table format with
columns and rows. It also allows you to create new calculated columns for
further insights.

Model View : Also called, Relationship View, helps to create relationships

between data models. All the models created in the data can be seen in
this view and accordingly you can compare or create diagrams based on
subsets of the model.
18). What are the available formats?

Ans: Power BI is available in different formats:

Power BI desktop: You can download and install PowerBI Desktop on

your personal computer where you can connect to the data source,
transform your data, analyze and visualize it with templates.

Power BI services: It is a cloud based service or SaaS (software as a

service). You can connect to data here as well but the modeling is limited.

Power BI mobile app: One can securely access dashboards and reports
on any device with the PowerBI app which is available for iOs, Android and
even Windows.

19). What are the types of visualizations in Power BI?

Ans: In PowerBI, we can represent the data in graphs and visualizations.

The visualization can be of any type, for example:

Bar and Column Charts: It is a standard visualization for looking at a

specific value across various categories.

Area Charts( Basic and Stacked ) : It is based on the line chart and the
area under the line. It depicts the magnitude of change over time.

Card: Card shows aggregate value of a certain datapoint, can be one or

more but one per row.

Doughnut and Pie Charts: They show the relation in parts of a whole.
Doughnut charts have a hollow in the centre while pie charts don’t.

Maps: To show categorical and quantitative data with spatial locations.

Matrix: It’s a type of table with easier display that shows aggregated data

Slicers: Slicer is used to filter other visuals on the page.

20). What are custom visuals in Power BI?

Ans: In PowerBI you can create your own visualizations from the library of
custom visualizations. A development project has to be created then test
the visual in PowerBI service. Once the visualization is customized, it is
thoroughly checked and tested before posting. After testing, the
visualization is saved in .pbiviz file format before sharing. But you need to
be a PowerBI Pro user in order to make custom visualizations.

21). Why and how would you use a custom visual file?

Ans: A custom visual file is used when none of the pre existing visuals fit
the business needs. Custom visual files are generally created by
Developers which can be used in the same way as prepackaged files.

22). What are the various type of users who can use Power
BI?

Ans: PowerBI can be used by anyone for their requirements but there is a
particular group of users who are more likely to use it:

Report Consumers: They consume the reports based on a specific

information they need

Report Analyst: Report Analysts need detailed data for their analysis from
the reports

Self Service Data Analyst: They are more experienced business data
users. They have an in-depth understanding of the data to work with.

Basic Data Analyst: They can build their own datasets and are
experienced in PowerBI Service
Advanced Data Analyst: They know how to write SQL Queries and have
hands-on experience on PowerBI. They have experience in Advanced
PowerBI with DAX training and data modeling.

23).What are the critical components of the Power BI toolkit?

Ans: The most important components of PowerBI are:

Power Query
Power View
Power Pivot
Power Map
Power Q&A
Power Desktop
Power Website
PowerBI Mobile App

24). What is the maximum data limit per client for the free
version of Power BI?

Ans: With a Power BI Free licence a user can use 10 GB of storage in the
cloud for hosting Power BI reports. The maximum size a Power BI report
can be used in the cloud is 1GB.

25). Where do you reshape data in Power BI?

Ans: The data can be reshaped in Data Editing of PowerBI.

26). How can you refresh data in PowerBI?

Ans: The data can be refreshed in the Gateway in PowerBI by scheduling

refresh.
27). Which is a single-page canvas that uses visualizations to
depict a story?

Ans: PowerBI service dashboard is a single-page canvas that uses

visualizations to depict a story.

28). Mention some advantages of Power BI?

Ans: Few advantages of using Power BI are :

 PowerBI can input a huge quantity of data

 Information can be visualized using powerful templates and
visualizations
 Users get cutting edge intelligence technologies and powerful
algorithms that are updated regularly
 User can have personalised dashboards which are easy to access
and understand
 Users can perform queries on reports using DAX language

29). List out some drawbacks/limitations of using Power BI.

Ans: Some disadvantages of PowerBI are:

Complex in nature:
One major drawback of PowerBI is it is designed in a complex manner.
One needs complete knowledge of PowerBI in order to start working with
PowerBI.

Large data:
PowerBI cannot handle large supply of data and might time out while
processing a large data.
PowerBI cannot process data more than 1 GB.

Limited Sharing of Data:

Reports can be shared only with users who have the same domain or have
their emails listed in the Office 365.
Limited data Source:
PowerBI can connect to real time data sets but there are very limited data
sources that allow real-time connection to the PowerBI dashboards.

2 - Power BI Interview Questions – DAX

30). What is DAX?

Ans: To do basic calculation and data analysis on data in power pivot, we

use Data Analysis Expression (DAX). It is a formula language used to
compute calculated column and calculated field.

 DAX works on column values.

 DAX can not modify or insert data.
 We can create calculated column and measures with DAX  but we
can not calculate rows using DAX.

Sample DAX formula syntax:

For the measure named Total Sales, calculate (=) the SUM of values in the
[SalesAmount] column in the Sales table.

A- Measure Name
B- = – indicate beginning of formula
C- DAX Function
D- Parenthesis for Sum Function
E- Referenced Table
F- Referenced column name
31). What are the most common DAX Functions used?

Ans: Below are some of the most commonly used DAX function: 

 SUM, MIN, MAX, AVG, COUNTROWS, DISTINCTCOUNT

 IF, AND, OR, SWITCH
 ISBLANK, ISFILTERED, ISCROSSFILTERED
 VALUES, ALL, FILTER, CALCULATE,
 UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPT, NATURALINNERJOIN,
NATURALLEFTEROUTERJOIN,
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS, ISEMPTY,
 VAR (Variables)
 GEOMEAN, MEDIAN, DATEDIFF

32). What are the three fundamental concepts of DAX?

Ans: Three fundamental concepts of DAX are:

Syntax: Syntax is the formula which includes the functions. If a Syntax is

incorrect, it will result in an error.

Functions: Functions are arguments with specific orders to perform. It helps

to calculate any particular order as required.

Context: Context are of two types: Row Context and Filter Context. Row
Context is used when a formula has a Function that applies a filter to
identify a row in a table. Filter Context is used when one or more filters are
used to get a value.

33). What are the purpose and benefits of using the DAX
function?

Ans: DAX or Data Analysis Expression is a functional language which can

create calculated columns and/or measures for smarter calculations to limit
the data the dashboard has to fetch and visualize.

34). How is the FILTER function used?

Ans: The FILTER function returns a table with a filter condition applied for
each of its source table rows. The FILTER function is rarely used in
isolation, it’s generally used as a parameter to other functions such as
CALCULATE. 

 FILTER is an iterator and thus can negatively impact performance

over large source tables.
 Complex filtering logic can be applied such as referencing a measure
in a filter expression.
o FILTER(MyTable,[SalesMetric] > 500)

35). What is the CALCULATE function in DAX?

Ans: The CALCULATE function measures the sum of a column from any
table and can be modified with Filters.
Syntax:
CALCULATE ( <Expression> [, <Filter> [, <Filter> [, … ] ] ] )

Expression: The expression to be evaluated.

Filter: A boolean (True/False) expression or a table expression that defines
a filter.

36). What is special or unique about the CALCULATE and

CALCULATETABLE functions?

Ans: These are the only functions that allow you modify filter context of
measures or tables.

 Add to existing filter context of queries.

 Override filter context from queries.
 Remove existing filter context from queries.

Limitations:

 Filter parameters can only operate on a single column at a time.

 Filter parameters cannot reference a metric.

37). What is the common table function for grouping data?

Ans:  SUMMARIZE()
  Main groupby function in SSAS.
 Recommended practice is to specify table and group by columns but
not [Link] can use ADDCOLUMNS function.

 SUMMARIZECOLUMNS

 New group by function for SSAS and Power BI Desktop; more

efficient.
 Specify group by columns, table, and expressions.

38). What are some benefits of using Variables in DAX ?

Ans: DAX or Data Analysis Expression is a functional language which can

create calculated columns and/or measures for smarter calculations to limit
the data the dashboard has to fetch and visualise.

39). How would you create trailing X month metrics via DAX
against a non-standard calendar?

Ans:  The  solution will involve:

1. CALCULATE function to control (take over) filter context of measures.

2. ALL to remove existing filters on the date dimension.
3. FILTER to identify which rows of the date dimension to use.

Alternatively, CONTAINS may be used:

 CALCULATE(FILTER(ALL(‘DATE’),…….))

40). What are the different Excel BI add-in?

Ans: Below are the most important BI add-in to Excel:

 Power Query: It helps in finding, editing and loading external data.

 Power Pivot: Its mainly used for data modeling and analysis.

 Power View: It is used to design visual and interactively reports.

 Power Map: It helps to display insights on 3D Map.

Want to upskill yourself to get ahead in your career? Check out this video
 

Power BI Interview Questions – Power Pivot

41). What is Power Pivot?

Ans: Power Pivot is an add-in for Microsoft Excel 2010 that enables you to
import millions of rows of data from multiple data sources into a single
Excel workbook. It lets you create relationships between heterogeneous
data, create calculated columns and measures using formulas, build
PivotTables and PivotCharts. You can then further analyze the data so that
you can make timely business decisions without requiring IT assistance.

42). What is Power Pivot Data Model?

Ans: It is a model that is made up of data types, tables, columns, and table
relations. These data tables are typically constructed for holding data for a
business entity.

43). What is xVelocity in-memory analytics engine used in

Power Pivot?

Ans: The main engine behind power pivot is the xVelocity in-memory
analytics engine. It can handle large amount of data because it stores data
in columnar databases, and in memory analytics which results in faster
processing of data as it loads all data to RAM memory.

44). What are some of differences in data modeling between

Power BI Desktop and Power Pivot for Excel?

Ans: Here are some of the differences:

 Power BI Desktop supports bi-directional cross filtering relationships,

security, calculated tables, and Direct Query options.
 Power Pivot for Excel has single direction (one to many)
relationships, calculated columns only, and supports import mode
only. Security roles cannot be defined in Power Pivot for Excel.
45). Can we have more than one active relationship between
two tables in data model of power pivot?

Ans: No, we cannot have more than one active relationship between two
tables. However, can have more than one relationship between two tables
but there will be only one active relationship and many inactive
relationships. The dotted lines are inactive and the continuous line is active.

3 - Power BI Interview Questions – Power

Query
46). What is GetData in Power BI?

With “Get Data” in PowerBI, you connect to different data sources to import
data for analysis and visualization. You can select from a range of various
data sources to import the desired data.
Eg. Text/CSV, Excel, PDF, JSON, Amazon Redshift, SQL Server
database, Access database, SAP HANA database, IBM, MySQL, Oracle
database, Impala, Google BigQuery,etc.

47). What is Power Query?

Ans: Power query is a ETL Tool used to shape, clean and transform data
using intuitive interfaces without having to use coding. It helps the user to:

 Import Data from wide range of sources from files, databases, big
data, social media data, etc.
 Join and append data from multiple data sources. 
o Shape data as per requirement by removing and adding data.

48). What are the data destinations for Power Queries?

Ans: There are two destinations for output we get from power query:

1. Load to a table in a worksheet.

2. Load to the Excel Data Model.
49). What is query folding in Power Query?

Ans: Query folding is when steps defined in Power Query/Query Editor are

translated into SQL and executed by the source database rather than the
client machine. It’s important for processing performance and scalability,
given limited resources on the client machine.

50). What are some common Power Query/Editor

Transforms?

Ans: Changing Data Types, Filtering Rows, Choosing/Removing Columns,

Grouping, Splitting a column into multiple columns, Adding new
Columns ,etc.

51). Can SQL and Power Query/Query Editor be used

together?

Ans: Yes, a SQL statement can be defined as the source of a Power

Query/M function for additional processing/logic. This would be a good
practice to ensure that an efficient database query is passed to the source
and avoid unnecessary processing and complexity
by the client machine and M function.

52). What are query parameters and Power BI templates?

Ans:Query parameters can be used to provide users of a local Power BI

Desktop report with a prompt, to specify the values they’re interested in.

 The parameter selection can then be used by the query and

calculations.
 PBIX files can be exported as Templates (PBIT files).
 Templates contain everything in the PBIX except the data itself.

Parameters and templates can make it possible to share/email smaller

template files and limit the amount of data loaded into the local PBIX files,
improving processing time and experience.
53). Which language is used in Power Query?

Ans: A new programming language is used in power query called M-Code.

It is easy to use and similar to other languages. M-code is case-sensitive
language.

54). Why do we need Power Query when Power Pivot can

import data from mostly used sources?

Ans: Power Query is a self-service ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool

which runs as an Excel add-in. It allows users to pull data from various
sources, manipulate said data into a form that suits their needs and load it
into Excel. It is most optimum to use Power Query over Power Pivot as it
lets you not only load the data but also manipulate it as per the users
needs while loading.

55). Name some commonly used tasks in the Query Editor.

Ans: Some commonly used tasks in the Query Editor are:

Connect to Data: Get Data from various sources and Transform data.
Shape Data: Transform your data according to requirement to clean and
shape it
Group Rows: You can group the values of many rows into one single value
by summarizing
Pivot Columns: Pivot columns and create a table with aggregated values
Create Custom Columns: You can use custom formulas to create new
columns in your table
Advanced Editor: You can make modifications to the data using Advanced
Query Editor with query.

4 - Power BI Interview Questions – Power

Map
56). What is Power Map?

Ans: Power Map is an Excel add-in that provides you with a powerful set of
tools to help you visualize and gain insight into large sets of data that have
a geo-coded component. It can help you produce 3D visualizations by
plotting upto a million data points in the form of column, heat, and bubble
maps on top of a Bing map. If the data is time stamped, it can also produce
interactive views that display, how the data changes over space and time.

57). What are the primary requirement for a table to be used

in Power Map?

Ans: For a data to be consumed in power map there should be location

data like:

 Latitude/Longitude pair
 Street, City, Country/Region, Zip Code/Postal Code, and
State/Province, which can be geolocated by Bing

The primary requirement for the table is that it contains unique rows. It
must also contain location data, which can be in the form of a
Latitude/Longitude pair, although this is not a requirement. You can use
address fields instead, such as Street, City, Country/Region, Zip
Code/Postal Code, and State/Province, which can be geolocated by Bing.

58). What are the data sources for Power Map?

Ans: The data can either be present in Excel or could be present

externally. To prepare your data, make sure all of the data is in Excel table
format, where each row represents a unique record. Your column headings
or row headings should contain text instead of actual data so that Power
Map will interpret it correctly when it plots the geographic coordinates.
Using meaningful labels also makes value and category fields available to
you when you design your tour in the Power Map Tour Editor pane.

To use a table structure that more accurately represents time and

geography inside Power Map includes all of the data in the table rows, and
use descriptive text labels in the column headings, like this:
In case you wish to load your data from an external source:

1. In Excel, click Data > the connection you want in the Get External

Data group.
2. Follow the steps in the wizard that starts.
3. On the last step of the wizard, make sure Add this data to the Data
Model is checked.

5 - Power BI Interview Questions –

Additional Questions
59). Difference between Power BI and Tableau?

Ans: Both PowerBi and Tableau are business intelligence tools for
generating reports and data visualization but they do have a few significant
differences.

Data Source:
PowerBI does not have as wide access to data sources as Tableau when
compared. Tableau has a wider range of access to various data sources.
Data Capacity:
Maximum of 10 GB of data can be handled in each workspace in PowerBI
or else it needs to be stored in the cloud.
While in Tableau, we can fetch billions of rows for each column as it works
on columnar based structure which stores unique values.
Machine Learning:
PowerBI has integration with Microsoft Azure which helps in analyzing the
data.
Tableau has in-built Python machine learning capacities which make it
efficient to perform ML Operations on datasets.
Performance:
PowerBI can handle a limited amount of data while Tableau can work with
a huge volume of data with ease.
Pricing:
PowerBI is cheaper compared to Tableau. Tableau needs to be paid more
when third party applications are connected.
60). What is Power View?

Ans: Power View is a data visualization technology that lets you create
interactive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals which bring your data to
life. Power View is available in Excel, SharePoint, SQL Server, and Power
BI.

The following pages provide details about different visualizations available

in Power View:

 Charts 
 Line charts 
 Pie charts 
 Maps
 Tiles 
 Cards 
 Images
 Tables
 Power View
 Multiples Visualizations 
 Bubble and scatter charts 
 Key performance indicators (KPIs) 

61). What is Power BI Designer?

Ans: It is a stand alone application where we can make Power BI reports

and then upload it to [Link], it does not require Excel. Actually, it is a
combination of Power Query, Power Pivot, and Power View.

62). Can we refresh our Power BI reports once uploaded to

cloud (Share point or [Link])?

Ans: Yes we can refresh our reports through Data Management

gateway(for sharepoint), and Power BI Personal gateway(for [Link])
63). What are the different types of refreshing data for our
published reports?

Ans: There are four main types of refresh in Power BI. Package refresh,
model or data refresh, tile refresh and visual container refresh.

 Package refresh

This synchronizes your Power BI Desktop, or Excel, file between the Power
BI service and OneDrive, or SharePoint Online. However, this does not pull
data from the original data source. The dataset in Power BI will only be
updated with what is in the file within OneDrive, or SharePoint Online.

 Model/data refresh

It refers to refreshing the dataset, within the Power BI service, with data
from the original data source. This is done by either using scheduled
refresh or refresh now. This requires a gateway for on-premises data
sources.

 Tile refresh

Tile refresh updates the cache for tile visuals, on the dashboard, once data
changes. This happens about every fifteen minutes. You can also force a
tile refresh by selecting the ellipsis (…) in the upper right of a dashboard
and selecting Refresh dashboard tiles.

 Visual container refresh

Refreshing the visual container updates the cached report visuals, within a
report, once the data changes.

64). Is Power BI available on-premises?

Ans: No, Power BI is not available as a private, internal cloud service.

However, with Power BI and Power BI Desktop, you can securely connect
to your own on-premises data sources. With the On-premises Data
Gateway, you can connect live to your on-premises SQL Server Analysis
Services and other data sources. You can also schedule refresh with a
centralized gateway. If a gateway is not available, you can refresh data
from on-premises data sources using the Power BI Gateway – Personal.

65). What are the data management gateway and Power BI

personal gateway?

Ans: Gateway acts a bridge between on-premises data sources and Azure

cloud services.

Personal Gateway:

 Import Only, Power BI Service Only, No central monitoring/managing.

 Can only be used by one person (personal); can’t allow others to use
this gateway.

On-Premises Gateway:

 Import and Direct Query supported.

 Multiple users of the gateway for developing content.
 Central monitoring and control.

66). What is Power BI Q&A?

Ans: Power BI Q&A is a natural language tool that helps in querying your
data and getting the results you need from it. You do this by typing into a
dialog box on your Dashboard, which the engine instantaneously generates
an answer similar to Power View. Q&A interprets your questions and shows
you a restated query of what it is looking from your data. Q&A was
developed by Server and Tools, Microsoft Research, and the Bing teams to
give you  a complete feeling of truly exploring your data.

67). What happens when you click the Infocus mode of a tile
on the PowerBI dashboard on the browser?

Ans: When you click the Infocus mode of a tile on the PowerBI dashboard
on the browser, the selected tile expands and takes the full space
68). How do you consolidate inquiries in Power BI?

Ans: Join Queries are used to consolidate inquiries in Power BI.

69). What are some ways that Excel experience can be

leveraged with Power BI?

Ans: Below are some of the ways through which we can leverage Power
BI:

 The Power BI Publisher for Excel:

o Can be used to pin Excel items (charts, ranges, pivot tables) to
Power BI Service.
o Can be used to connect to datasets and reports stored in
Power BI Service.
 Excel workbooks can be uploaded to Power BI and viewed in the
browser like Excel Services.
 Excel reports in the Power BI service can be shared via Content
Packs like other reports.
 Excel workbooks (model and tables) can be exported to service for
PBI report creation.
 Excel workbook Power Pivot models can be imported to Power BI
Desktop models.

70). What is a calculated column in Power BI and why would

you use them?

Ans: Calculated Columns are DAX expressions that are computed during

the model’s processing/refresh process for each row of the given column
and can be used like any other column in the model.

Calculated columns are not compressed and thus consume more memory
and result in reduced query performance. They can also reduce
processing/refresh performance if applied on large fact tables and can
make a model more difficult to maintain/support given
that the calculated column is not present in the source system.
71). How is data security implemented in Power BI ?

Ans:  Power BI can apply Row Level Security roles to models.

 A DAX expression is applied on a table filtering its rows at query time.

 Dynamic security involves the use of USERNAME functions in
security role definitions.
 Typically a table is created in the model that relates users to specific
dimensions and a role.

72). What are many-to-many relationships and how can they

be addressed in Power BI ?

Ans: Many to Many relationships involve a bridge or junction table

reflecting the combinations of two dimensions (e.g. doctors and patients).
Either all possible combinations or those combinations that have occurred.

 Bi-Directional Cross filtering relationships can be used in PBIX.

 CROSSFILTER function can be used in Power Pivot for Excel.
 DAX can be used per metric to check and optionally modify the filter
context.

73). Why might you have a table in the model without any
relationships to other tables?

Ans: There are mainly 2 reasons why we would have tables without
relations in our model:

 A disconnected table might be used to present the user with

parameter values to be exposed and selected in slicers (e.g. growth
assumption.)
o DAX metrics could retrieve this selection and use it with other
calculations/metrics.
 A disconnected table may also be used as a placeholder for metrics
in the user interface.
o It may not contain any rows of data and its columns could be
hidden but all metrics are visible.
74). What is the Power BI Publisher for Excel?

Ans:  You can use Power BI publisher for Excel to pin ranges, pivot tables
and charts to Power BI.

 The user can manage the tiles – refresh them, remove them, in
Excel.
 Pinned items must be removed from the dashboard in the service
(removing in Excel only deletes the connection).
 The Power BI Publisher for Excel can also be used to connect from
Excel to datasets that are hosted in the Power BI Service.
 An Excel pivot table is generated with a connection (ODC file) to the
data in Azure.

The Publisher installs all necessary drivers on local machine to establish

connectivity.

75). What are the differences between a Power BI Dataset, a

Report, and a Dashboard?

Ans:  Dataset: The source used to create reports and visuals/tiles.

 A data model (local to PBIX or XLSX) or model in an Analysis

Services Server
 Data could be inside of model (imported) or a Direct Query
connection to a source.

Report: An individual Power BI Desktop file (PBIX) containing one or more

report pages.

 Built for deep, interactive analysis experience for a given dataset

(filters, formatting).
 Each Report is connected to atleast one dataset 
 Each page containing one or more visuals or tiles.

Dashboard: a collection of visuals or tiles from different reports and,

optionally, a pinned.

 Built to aggregate primary visuals and metrics from multiple datasets.

76) What are the three Edit Interactions options of a visual
tile in Power BI Desktop? 

Ans: The 3 edit interaction options are  Filter, Highlight, and None.

Filter: It completely filter a visual/tile based on the filter selection of another

visual/tile.

Highlight: It highlight only the related elements on the visual/tile, gray out
the non-related items.

None: It ignore the filter selection from another tile/visual.

77). What are some of the differences in report authoring

capabilities between using a live or direct query connection
such as to an Analysis Services model, relative to working
with a data model local to the Power BI Desktop file?

Ans: With a data model local to the PBIX file (or Power Pivot workbook),
the author has full control over the queries, the modeling/relationships, the
metadata and the metrics.

With a live connection to an Analysis Services database (cube) the user

cannot create new metrics, import new data, change the formatting of the
metrics, etc – the user can only use the visualization, analytics, and
formatting available on the report canvas.

With a direct query model in Power BI to SQL Server, for example, the
author has access to the same features (and limitations) available to SSAS 
Direct Query mode.

 Only one data source (one database on one server) may be used,
certain DAX functions are not optimized, and the user cannot use
Query Editor functions that cannot be translated into SQL statements.

78). How does SSRS integrate with Power BI?

Ans: Below are some of the way through which SSRS can be integrated
with Power BI: 
  Certain SSRS Report items such as charts can be pinned to Power
BI dashboards.
 Clicking the tile in Power BI dashboards will bring the user to the
SSRS report.
 A subscription is created to keep the dashboard tile refreshed.
 Power BI reports will soon be able to be published to SSRS portal

Ref- [Link]
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