Top 60 Power Bi Interview Questions And Answers For 2023

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Power BI Interview Questions
1. What is Power BI?
Power BI is a business analytics service provided by Microsoft. It allows users to create reports and dashboards based on various data sources, such as Excel, databases, and online services. With Power BI, users can visualize and analyze their data, and share their insights with others in their organization. Power BI offers a range of features, including data modeling, data visualization, reporting, and collaboration. It is available as a standalone service, or as part of various Office 365 plans. Power BI is designed to be user-friendly, so that people with little or no technical expertise can use it to gain insights from their data.
2. Why use Power BI?
Power BI provides a simple setup to connect, transform, and visualize the raw business data from multiple sources. Even non-technical users can extract valuable information from their business data and use it to make better decisions. It provides a secure cloud service that enables the user to view dashboards, reports and share them with other business users and stakeholders in real-time analysis.
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... Power BI provides AI features in the form of Power Query and Power Q&A. With Power Query, you can create the dashboards by simply typing in the columns and the visuals you want to include. While Power Q&A allows you to analyze your data by giving voice commands.
Small businesses can use Power BI Desktop to visualize their business data without spending their time and money in maintaining a separate team for data analysis.
3. What is the difference between Managed Enterprise BI and Self-service BI?
The limitations of Managed Enterprise BI led to the birth of Self-service BI. There are significant differences that separate them.
Self-service BI
Managed Enterprise BI
This enables companies to ingest data from any data source, seamlessly. Companies take in data from any source in any format.
Here, data flows in from a plethora of sources and, for this reason, there is no order in which companies ingest and manage their data sources.
With data ingestion falling into order, companies are able to process data and, consequently, conduct business operations with ease.
Companies fail to conduct their business operations, effectively, as they are not able to report and analyze data and collaborate for collecting valuable insights from it.
Analyzing data is easy, and it is done implicitly. Time constraints are hence alleviated.
There are time constraints and a lack of proper information when it comes to analyzing data.
There is no need for third-party vendors anymore and all associated constraints are eradicated.
Third-party vendors are employed to help companies make the most out of their data sources, leading to budget problems and slow productivity.
Users could generate intuitive and actionable dashboards almost instantaneously without executing complex programming codes.
Complex programming skills are necessary for generating reports.
4. What exactly is Self-service BI?
Self-service BI or Self-service Business Intelligence (SSBI) is an approach to data analytics, reporting, and visualization that enables users to generate easy-to-understand, intuitive, and actionable dashboards, almost instantaneously.
The most striking feature of SSBI is the fact that users are not required to be adept at technical expertise when it comes to data reporting. Using available filters and data manipulation options, they can influence data as per their business needs and further create reports. There are two parts to Microsoft SSBI:
 Excel BI toolkit
 Power BI
5. Why are you interested in Power BI? What makes you think that Power BI would be a great career option?
As an AI, I don’t have personal preferences or career goals. I am a language model designed to provide information and answer questions to the best of my ability based on the knowledge and information I have been trained on.
Power BI is a tool used for data visualization and business intelligence. It allows users to create interactive dashboards and reports based on data from a variety of sources. It is a popular tool in the field of data analysis and can be a valuable skill for professionals in a variety of industries. Some people may find working with Power BI to be a rewarding and fulfilling career option due to the potential to make an impact through the use of data and visualization in decision-making.
6. Mention the important features of Power BI.
Features of Power BI are many. The most notable ones are:
 It allows users to transform data into visuals and share those visuals with colleagues.
 It allows users to explore and analyze data from all sources (in an all-in-one view).
 It allows users to scale across organizations with built-in governance and security.
 Once an output is generated, users can display the same in multiple devices that are compatible with the Power BI application.
 With Power BI natural language processing or Power BI Q&A, users can perform queries on reports using simple English words.
7. Is Power BI free to use?
Power BI is available in three versions: Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service, and Power BI Mobile.
Power BI Desktop is a free desktop application that you can download from the Microsoft website. It allows you to create and publish reports and dashboards to the Power BI Service or to SharePoint.
Power BI Service is a cloud-based service that includes all the features of Power BI Desktop, plus additional collaboration and sharing capabilities. It is available as a free service or as part of a paid subscription to Microsoft 365.
Power BI Mobile is a free app that allows you to access and interact with your Power BI dashboards and reports on your mobile device.
In summary, Power BI Desktop and Power BI Mobile are free to use, while the Power BI Service is available as a free service or as part of a paid subscription to Microsoft 365.
8. What are the versions of Power BI?
Power BI currently comes in three versions:
 Microsoft Power BI Free/Desktop – This version is for users who want to get business insights from their data with visualizations.
 Microsoft Power BI Pro – This is the full version of Power BI. It allows users unlimited reporting, sharing, and viewing of reports.
 Microsoft Power BI Premium – This version provides a license for all users in an organization.
9. What is Power BI Desktop?
There are five different components of Power BI.
 Power Pivot: Fetches and cleans data and loads on to Power Query
 Power Query: Operates on the loaded data
 Power Q&A: Makes it possible for users to interact with reports using simple English language
 Power View: Lets users create interactive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals
 Power Map: Enables the processing of accurate geographic locations in datasets
10. What are the major components of Power BI?
There are five different components of Power BI.
 Power Pivot: Fetches and cleans data and loads on to Power Query
 Power Query: Operates on the loaded data
 Power Q&A: Makes it possible for users to interact with reports using simple English language
 Power View: Lets users create interactive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals
 Power Map: Enables the processing of accurate geographic locations in datasets
Career Transition
11. What is the purpose of the ‘Get Data’ icon in Power BI?
When users click on the Get Data icon in Power BI, a drop-down menu appears and it shows all data sources from which data can be ingested.
Data can actually be directly ingested from any source including files in Excel, CSV, XML, JSON, PDF, and SharePoint formats and databases such as SQL, Access, SQL Server Analysis Services, Oracle, IBM, MySQL, and much more. Also, Power BI datasets and Power BI data flows are compatible. Data can also be taken in from Azure and other online sources.
12. How can we filter data in Power BI?
Data can be filtered using various filters that are available in Power BI, implicitly. There are basically three types of filters, namely, Page-level filters, Drillthrough filters, and Report-level filters.
 Drillthrough filters: With Drillthrough filters in Power BI Desktop, users can create a page in their reports that focuses on specific entities such as suppliers, customers, or manufacturers.
 Page-level filters: These are used to filter charts that are present on individual pages.
 Report-level filters: They are used to simultaneously filter charts that are present on all pages of a report.
13. How is Power BI different from other BI tools?
Power BI provides better features and data manipulation tools as compared to other BI tools like Tableau. A single user can connect with multiple data sources without any experience in coding and data analytics. As a product of Microsoft, Power BI is closely integrated with other Microsoft tools such as Office 365, SharePoint, and Bing.
In the free version of Power BI Desktop, the user can analyze datasets of up to 1GB in storage along with 10,000 rows of data steaming every hour. Moreover, it provides features like Power Query which allows the user to easily visualize the datasets by giving the command in the natural English language.
14. MSBI vs Power BI
Below are the key differences between the MSBI and Power BI:
Here is a comparison of Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence (MSBI) and Microsoft Power BI in table form:

MSBI
Power BI
Purpose
Build BI solutions
Access, analyze, and visualize data
Target user group
IT professionals and developers
Business users
Included tools and technologies
ETL tools, reporting tools, dashboard tools
Data visualization tools, data connectors, reporting tools
Deployment
On-premises or in the cloud
Cloud-based
Pricing
Included with certain versions of Microsoft SQL Server
Free and paid versions available (Power BI Pro)
Overall, MSBI is a suite of tools and technologies that is used to build BI solutions, while Power BI is a cloud-based BI platform that provides a range of tools and features for accessing, analyzing, and visualizing data. Both MSBI and Power BI can be used to gain insights from data and make better informed decisions, but they are designed for different purposes and target different user groups.
15. Power BI vs Tableau
Here is a comparison of Microsoft Power BI and Tableau in table form:

Power BI
Tableau
Purpose
Access, analyze, and visualize data
Access, analyze, and visualize data
Target user group
Business users
Business users
Included tools and technologies
Data visualization tools, data connectors, reporting tools
Data visualization tools, data connectors, reporting tools
Deployment
Cloud-based
On-premises or in the cloud
Pricing
Free and paid versions available (Power BI Pro)
Free and paid versions available (Tableau Desktop, Server)
Both Power BI and Tableau are BI tools that are designed to help users access, analyze, and visualize data. Both tools include a range of features and capabilities, such as data visualization tools, data connectors, and reporting tools. However, there are some differences between the two tools in terms of deployment and pricing. Power BI is a cloud-based tool that is available as a free or paid service, while Tableau can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud, and it is available in both free and paid versions.
16. What are the essential applications of Power BI?
Power BI is used by the following professionals and departments:
 Project Management Office: Power BI is used by project managers to identify the current situation of various business units. It helps them to see the overall performance of the team and track the progress of various projects.
 Business and Data Analysts: Business Analysts use Power BI to analyze the raw business data at greater speeds and efficiency. They prepare the data by cleaning and transforming it based on specific requirements and prepare live reports to express the raw in the form of visual insights.
 Database Administrators: By using PowerShell or Microsoft 365, the database administrator can increase the Power BI embedded capacity and assign the roles to different team members. With Power BI, the Database Administrators can set the passwords and decide who can access the reports and dashboards in Power BI.
 IT Professionals: IT professionals can use Power BI to create stunning visualizations and dashboards to track their performance and visualize various log files for the meetings. It also helps them to find out the areas where the team needs to work on and improve their performance.
 Reports for the consumer: With Power BI, the business user can add custom reports to various applications designed from the consumer’s perceptive. For example, you can create a report that shows your daily sales down in different countries and add it to your social media profiles, websites, and applications. This will show the consumer your product’s popularity and will motivate him to buy it.
17. Advantages of using Power BI?
Here are a few advantages of using Power BI over other applications:
 ETL/Data Recovery Suite: Power BI has a robust set of tools for implementing the ETL(extraction, transformation, and loading the datasets) capabilities. Data preparation and transformation are very important before moving to the visualization part. Power BI allows the user to directly build reporting datamarts and remove any ambiguities present in the datasets.
 Custom Visualization: Power BI provides you the flexibility of creating custom visualizations and adding them to your dashboards and live reports. Custom reports help the planners and decision-makers to identify the problems and make the best decision to improve their performance in the market.
 Q&A Capability: Power BI is capable of executing natural language queries with the help of Power Query and Power Q&A. Power Bi use AI and Natural Language Processing(NLP) algorithms to process the commands given by the user and produce the desired results.
 Easy to use: You don’t need to be an expert to visualize your data and create reports in Power BI. It has a simple interface that allows even a non-technical user to transform the raw data into visually interactive dashboards and reports.
 Price: Compared to other BI and data visualization tools, Power BI is highly affordable. Small businesses can use power BI for free and take smart decisions to improvise their performance in the market. Moreover, Power BI Pro comes with an array of features for just $10 a month.
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18. What are the building blocks of Power BI?
Below are the building blocks of Power BI:
 Visualizations: These are the visual representations of the raw data collected from varied data sources. Visualizations can be different types such as line graphs, donut charts, pie charts, bar graphs, maps, etc.
 Datasets: It’s a collection that Power BI uses to create visualizations and reports. Datasets in Power BI can be of different types such as Excel sheets, CSV files, Oracle tables, and more.
 Reports: A report in Power BI is a collection of visualizations bought together on a single or multiple pages. Each visualization in a report shows the specific aspect of the data based on the requirements. For example, profit by-products, sales by country, city report, etc.
 Dashboards: Dashboards are single-layer presentations with one or more visualizations embedded on a single page. Dashboards can be shared on various platforms like Power BI Apps to provide live information.
 Tiles: Tiles are the single visualizations in a dashboard or report. For example, a pie chart, line graph, or any other visualization is a single tile in Power BI.
Next up on this top Power BI interview questions and answers, let us check out some of the top Power BI questions that come under the intermediate category.
19. What is Power BI Dashboard?
A Power BI dashboard is a single page, interactive visualization of data from multiple sources. It is a way to display and analyze data in a visual format, allowing users to quickly understand trends and patterns in the data.
Power BI dashboards are created using Power BI Desktop or the Power BI Service and can include a variety of visualizations, such as charts, graphs, maps, and tables. They can be connected to a variety of data sources, including Excel spreadsheets, SQL databases, and cloud-based data sources.
Users can interact with Power BI dashboards by clicking on elements to drill down into the data or by using filters to focus on specific data sets. Power BI dashboards can also be shared with others, allowing users to collaborate and make data-driven decisions together.
20. What are formats in Power BI?
The different formats in Power BI are as follows:
 Power BI Desktop – Power BI Desktop can be downloaded and installed on your PC. You can connect it to the data source, transform the data, and analyze and visualize it with the help of templates.
 Power BI Services – Power BI Services is a Service-as-a-platform or a cloud based service.
 Power BI Mobile App – The Power BI App is available for iOs, Android, and Windows.

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