DP-600 - Power BI Desktop and Service
Quick Navigation
Power BI Overview
Power BI is Microsoft's business analytics service. It consists of:
- Power BI Desktop - free Windows app for building reports and models
- Power BI Service (app.powerbi.com) - cloud platform for publishing, sharing, and managing content
- Power BI Mobile - iOS/Android app for consuming reports
- Power BI Report Builder - tool for authoring paginated reports
Power BI Desktop
Power BI Desktop has three views:
| View | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Report View | Build visuals, add filters and slicers |
| Data View | Browse table data, add calculated columns |
| Model View | Define relationships, manage star schema layout |
Key ribbon areas: Home, Insert, Modeling, View, Help.
Power Query Editor (Transform Data) is opened from the Home ribbon to clean and shape data before loading it into the model.
Visuals and Interactions
Common visuals and their use cases:
| Visual | Use Case |
|---|---|
| Bar / Column Chart | Compare categories |
| Line Chart | Trends over time |
| Pie / Donut Chart | Part-to-whole (use sparingly) |
| Matrix | Tabular data with subtotals, drill-down |
| Table | Flat row data, no hierarchy |
| Card | Single KPI number |
| KPI | Metric vs goal comparison |
| Map / Filled Map | Geographic distribution |
| Scatter Chart | Correlation between two measures |
Cross-filtering: Clicking a visual element filters other visuals on the same page. Controlled via Format -> Edit Interactions (filter, highlight, or none).
Drill-down: Enable drill mode on a visual to navigate hierarchy levels (e.g., Year -> Quarter -> Month -> Day).
Calculated Columns vs Measures
| Aspect | Calculated Column | Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluation | Row-by-row at refresh time | On demand at query time |
| Storage | Stored in model (increases size) | Not stored - computed dynamically |
| Filter context | Uses row context | Uses filter context from visuals/slicers |
| Use case | Categorization, flags, lookup results | Aggregations: SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, DISTINCTCOUNT |
| DAX example | Margin = Sales[Price] - Sales[Cost] | Total Sales = SUM(Sales[Amount]) |
Filters and Slicers
Power BI has three filter scope levels in the Filters pane:
- Visual-level filter - applies to one visual only
- Page-level filter - applies to all visuals on the page
- Report-level filter - applies across all pages
Slicers are interactive filter visuals that allow users to filter the report. They can be set to single-select, multi-select, or dropdown mode. Syncing slicers across pages is done via View -> Sync Slicers.
Drill-through filters allow navigation from a summary page to a detail page whilst passing the selected context as a filter.
Publishing to Power BI Service
To publish a .pbix file: Home -> Publish -> select destination workspace. This uploads both the semantic model (dataset) and the report.
After publishing:
- Configure data source credentials in the dataset settings (Service cannot use Windows auth)
- Set up scheduled refresh - up to 8 times/day on Pro, 48 times/day on Premium/Fabric
- Assign roles for RLS in the dataset settings
- Manage sensitivity labels for data classification
Workspaces and Apps
Workspaces are containers for Fabric/Power BI content. There are four roles:
| Role | Can Do |
|---|---|
| Admin | Full control; add/remove all roles; delete workspace |
| Member | Publish all content; add Members/Contributors/Viewers; create apps |
| Contributor | Create/edit/delete own content; cannot manage members or settings |
| Viewer | Read-only access to workspace items |
Power BI Apps are packaged collections of dashboards and reports distributed from a workspace. The workspace is the authoring area; the app is the consumption layer. Apps support a separate audience with view-only access.
Data Refresh
In the Power BI Service, refresh options include:
- Scheduled refresh: automatic at configured times (requires an on-premises data gateway for local sources)
- On-demand refresh: manual click on Refresh Now
- Incremental refresh: refreshes only the newest date partitions (reduces refresh time for large fact tables); configured in Power BI Desktop
- Direct Lake: no refresh needed - reads data directly from OneLake Delta files on demand
← Take DP-600 Practice Tests | Back to Study Topics