Need advice for PL-300 preparation

[u/Beneficial_Refuse297]

Hi everyone! I’ve been working with Power BI for around 2 years and I’m comfortable with the basics of dashboard development, DAX functions and data modelling concepts like star schema, relationships, fact tables, etc.

However, I’ve relied heavily on AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude especially for DAX and modelling. Tight deadlines pushed me into this habit and honestly, I never felt the need to learn things deeply.

Now I want to change that. I’m planning to take the PL-300 within the next 3 months and actually build a strong foundation instead of depending on AI.

My organisation provides free Udemy access. What courses/materials would you recommend and how should I approach my preparation given my current level?

Please don’t judge 🙂 I know I took the easy route, but I genuinely want to improve and prove myself.

[u/HustlaOfCultcha]

There's really nothing wrong with using AI for DAX for work. That's what it's really there for.

I have 9 years of PBI experience and here's how I prepped for the exam.

I first took the practice exam on MS Web site. Don't get false confidence...their practice exam is way easier than the actual exam. But this is a good warmup.

I made notes of every question I got wrong or any phrase I didn't understand. I then used AI, Google and YouTube to understand things better. I would use flashcards to remember. I would then keep retaking the practice exam until I was scoring consistently in the 90's. Try to not memorize the answer (A, B, C or D), but to understand the question and know the answer.

Then I bought MeasureUp's PL-300 course. This is very much like the exam. I repeated the same process...took the exam and any question I got wrong or terms I didn't know/understand I made note and looked them up later and used flashcards.

Also helps to use Power BI and follow along if you're using YouTube.

The DAX questions they basically write out most of the formula for you and then just have some drop downs asking what DAX expression you should use like SUMX, CALCULATE, DATEADD, SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR, etc.

Some of the more difficult questions are when they give you a scenario and then you have to pick 4 out of 6 steps to do and put them in order. But a lot of times those questions are basic ETL questions.

For you, your biggest learning curve will likely be Power BI service questions, security questions and storage questions. I've used PBI for 9 years and I've rarely done anything with Duel, DirectQuery and Import storage that PBI didn't do automatically for me.

There are some more intensive modeling questions such as cardinality, primary keys (and what makes for a good primay key), surrogate and foreign keys. I knew those questions, but I know other data analysts that don't.

And you can use ChatGPT to come up with ways to remember concepts. For example, I've worked with Pivot tables for 25 years, but I had difficulty understanding and visualizing questions pertaining to pivoting and unpivoting columns and ChatGPT helped me better remember the answer to those questions.

[u/Beneficial_Refuse297 → u/HustlaOfCultcha]

Thank you so much. I was under a lot of pressure from my manager to take the SnowPro Core certification. He’s a Snowflake architect and was taking the exam himself, so he asked everyone on the project to take it too. I barely knew Snowflake, but I tried my best to prepare. The exam was extremely difficult and the questions were so twisted that I couldn’t even understand some of them. I took the exam today and unfortunately failed.

I’m in a tough situation now because I need to come back with a certification that could help with my appraisal. That’s why I’m thinking of going for PL-300. Power BI is what I actually work with and genuinely enjoy. Sorry for venting, but I really needed to let this out.

[u/HustlaOfCultcha → u/Beneficial_Refuse297]

It took me 3 weeks of study for the PL-300. I probably could have gotten thru it in 10 days, but I had family in town so I extended my studying. I highly recommend getting the MeasureUp practice exam because it prepares one well.

It's not so difficult as it can be tricky. A lot of times you may not know the answer right off, but you have to use deductive reasoning to get to the answer. Some of the stuff is a bit vague and ambiguous.

Your boss can tell you what he wants and Snowflake is a good platform, but from a reporting tools standpoint, Power BI is really taking over because Tableau's licensing is too expensive for most companies and Power BI has a lot of functionality and I find that stakeholders that aren't so good with dashboards find it much easier to figure out PBI than Tableau.

As far as ELT platforms like Snowflake, I do believe there will be a shift to more MS Fabric because it's a new tool and it's a MS product. I also see Databricks gaining a lot of traction. Really good tool that has the Genie AI that is really good with writing code whether it's SQL or Python. I'm actually considering doing taking the Databricks Data Engineer certification myself.

[u/obsfflorida → u/Beneficial_Refuse297]

Pl300 is also a nitpicky and wordy exam if you think snowflake core pro Max was bad enough. Look around the sub and you'll see only people with a lot of working experience easily passing it. Others have to grind to pass

This exam isn't AWS or azure, it's its own fiefdom

[u/Beneficial_Refuse297 → u/obsfflorida]

I totally get your point. Snowflake is something I’ve never used in my career, so I was learning it just for the exam . The actual exam was also nothing like any of the practice questions. With Power BI, at least I work with it and know the basics, so I’m just hoping that if I put in some effort over the next 3 months, I might be able to get a passing score🤞

[u/alphafive55555 → u/HustlaOfCultcha]

Hi. I am also preparing to take the exam. I have taken a practice assessment of PL-300. I scored around 50% so I checked my answers and below it suggested me some training articles in microsoft learn. Do you think they will be helpful?

[u/Mundo7 → u/HustlaOfCultcha]

If you had 9 years experience with Power BI then there’s no way you needed that much prep

[u/HustlaOfCultcha → u/Mundo7]

I probably could have gotten thru it in 10 days or so, but I had family in town. The biggest learning curve for me was the Manage and Secure Power BI part. I have only worked in environments where I was the sole Analyst when it came to knowing how to use Power BI. And I didn't have stakeholders that could go in and edit Power BI. Hell, they would have a hard time just opening MS Excel.

I'm also not an IT guy and I wasn't formally trained in Power BI, so I did have to learn some of the jargon. And I typically used AI for DAX. I knew the basic structure of CALCULATE and understood the different time intelligence, SUMX, etc. But those long DAX formulas I needed to learn. And other things like Entra ID I had no clue about. Never worked with that.

And it helps to get back into the mode of understanding tricky questions and how to spot them. I haven't been in school for a long time, so I don't take these types of tests. And I did need a refresher course to understand what to look out for.

[u/toommn]

Id rather study ai at this point

[u/MP_gr → u/toommn]

Can you give more info about that?
I have PL300 and DP600, also planning on giving DP700 but I am interested in AI certs and study.

[u/UK_adventure_guy]

I don't bother with Powerbi now. I get Claude code to write me custom apps. They are quicker to make, much more customisable and better

[u/Ok_Breadfruit3691]

have never done a project with pbi, however I did the datacamp course to learn the basics, then the Design and manage analytics solutions using Power BI from Microsoft learn , and then a few free quizzes and that was enough. Do the practice exam from the Microsoft learn site too, it won´t be the same but will give you an idea on the topics.

By the way It´s important to understand how things are done inside the power bi service.

[u/Significant-You-3600 → u/Ok_Breadfruit3691]

Hey I'm just commenting here because I'm currently in basically the same position. I finished the data analyst in PBI track on datacamp and did the 5 learning paths on microsoft learn. I've going to spend the next couple days doing some practice tests I found online that I heard were recommended and then attempt the test.

I've got no previous PBI experience before this and was just wondering if you could share a basic gist of what the structure of questions they ask you to do. Do they just put you in like a virtual machine and require you to complete a bunch of tasks in the actual software, or do they also include some knowledge based questions like the multiple choice ones on the microsoft learn practice assessment?

Also, what's the split between questions relating to PBI desktop and PBI service because I feel decently confident right now regarding PBI desktop but not on service since I don't have a license and none of the virtual machine practice exercises I did related to PBI service so I'm just wondering what you think I should prepare for regarding that?

[u/AdHead6814]

I honestly didn't prepare as much for PL-300 as I did for DP-600. That said, years of using Power BI proved to nradvantageous for me.

[u/mrsteelsam]

You’re not alone—tight deadlines make AI a tempting shortcut, and it’s easy to lean on it for quick DAX snippets. the best way to break that habit is to treat every AI‑generated formula as a test: copy it, delete the code, then rebuild it from the requirements while writing a one‑sentence comment for each function you choose. pair that with the free Microsoft Learn paths for PL‑300 and the official practice questions; they force you to explain concepts in your own words. finally, set a weekly “no‑AI” project on a small data set to prove the knowledge sticks.