Power BI Interview Questions and Answers

Q1 : What is Power BI?
A : 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).
Q2 : What are the parts of Power BI?
A :
  • Power BI – Power BI is a cloud-based business service. It enables the client to imagine and interpret information with a higher rate, and execution.
  • Excel  BI Tool Kit – In the core of Microsoft’s Power BI is the Excel BI Toolkit. This comprises of Excel and four add-ins that enable us to transfer, shape, create, and show our analyses. These components are as per the following,
  • Power Query – It Easily investigates, access, and change public and internal information sources.
  • Power Pivot – It Perform information modeling for in-memory analytics.
  • Power View – It Analyzes and represents data as an interactive data visualization utilizing Power View.
  • Power Map – It helps in Bringing information to existence with interactive visualization.

Q3 : What are Building Blocks in Power BI?
A: 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, TreeMap, 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.

Q4 : What are content packs in Power BI?
A : 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 Salesforce.com, 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.

Q5 : What are the different components of Power BI?
A :
  • Power BI Service
  • Power Query
  • Power Pivot
  • Power View
  • Power Map
  • Data Management Gateway
  • Power BI Q & A
  • Data Catalog
Q6 : What is DAX ?
A :
In order to do data analysis on data and for calculation in power pivot, Data Analysis Expression (DAX) is used.

  • Dax works on column values
  • We can modify or insert data using DAX
  • The calculated columns can  be calculated but the same cannot be done for rows using DAX

Q7 : What are the connectivity modes available in Power BI?
A : Mainly there are two types of connectivity modes

  • Import
  • DirectQuery
Q8 : What is Power Pivot?
A :
Power Pivot helps in analyzing our data so as to settle on convenient business choices without needing IT support. It empowers us to import large scale of data from numerous data sources into a single Excel sheet. It gives us a chance to make connections between complex data. It helps us to create Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts.

Q9 : What are benefits of using variables in DAX?
A : Variables can make more unconstrained DAX expressions which are more consistent to interpret.They can’t be shared among queries or be characterized at the model level. When it is declared,the variables can be reused for various circumstances in a DAX expression, in this way staying away from extra queries of the reference or source database.

Q10 : What are the types of Data Refresh in Power BI?
A : Mainly there are four different types of refresh that can happen in Power BI. They are:

  • Package refresh
  • Model or data refresh
  • Tile refresh
  • Visual container refresh
Q11 : What is Power BI Desktop?
A :
Power BI Desktop works well with Power BI service by giving the most advanced data visualization, modeling, and report creation with profoundly interactive visualizations. You can spare your work to a document, and distribute your information and reports ideal to your Power BI site to impart to others.
Q12 : What are the distinctive sorts of channels in Power BI Reports?
A : Power BI gives an assortment of choice to channel report, data and perception. The accompanying are the rundown of Filter writes.
Visual-level Filters: These channels chip away at just an individual perception, decreasing the measure of data that the representation can see. In addition, visual-level channels can channel the two data and computations.
Page-level Filters: These channels work at the report-page level. Distinctive pages in a similar report can have diverse page-level channels.
Report-level Filters: There channels chip away at the whole report, sifting all pages and representations incorporated into the report.
We realize that Power BI visual have cooperations include, which makes sifting a report a breeze. Visual associations are valuable, yet they accompany a few constraints:
The channel isn’t spared as a feature of the report. At whatever point you open a report, you can start to play with visual channels yet there is no real way to store the channel in the spared report.
The channel is constantly noticeable. Now and again you need a channel for the whole report. However, you don’t need any visual sign of the channel being connected.

Q13 : What are a few advantages of utilizing variables in DAX?
A : Below is a portion of the advantages:
By announcing and assessing a variable, the variable can reuse in different circumstances in a DAX articulation, in this manner staying away from extra inquiries of the source database.
Factors can make DAX articulations more instinctive/consistent to decipher.
Factors are just perused to their measure or question, they can’t share among measures, inquiries or characterize at the model level.

Q14 : What are the distinctive Excel BI include?
A : Below is the most critical BI include to Excel:

  • Power Query: It helps in discovering, altering and stacking outer data.
  • Pivot: Its fundamentally utilized for data displaying and investigation.
  • View: It utilizes to plan visually and intelligently reports.
  • Map: It shows bits of knowledge on 3D Map.

Q15 : What is Power Pivot Data Model?
A : It is a model that comprises data writes, tables, sections, and table relations. These data tables regularly develop for holding data for a business substance.

Q16 : What is Power Query?
A : Power inquiry is an ETL Tool use to shape, clean and change data utilizing instinctive interfaces without using coding. It encourages the client to:
Import Data from an extensive variety of sources from documents, databases, huge data, internet-based life data, and so on. Join and add data from various data sources. Shape data according to necessity by evacuating and including data.

Q17 : What are inquiry parameters and Power BI layouts?
A : Query parameters can utilize to give clients of a nearby Power BI Desktop report with an incite, to indicate the qualities they’re keen on.

  • The parameter choice would then able to utilize by the inquiry and estimations.
  • PBIX records can trade as Templates (PBIT documents).
  • Formats contain everything in the PBIX with the exception of the data itself.

Parameters and formats can make it conceivable to share/email littler layout records and breaking point the measure of data stacked into the nearby PBIX documents, enhancing preparing time and experience.

Q18 : What is Power Map?
A : Power Map is an Excel include that furnishes you with a great arrangement of instruments to enable you to envision and pick up knowledge into expansive arrangements of data that have a geo-coded part. It can enable you to create 3D representations by plotting up to a million data focuses as segment, warmth, and air pocket maps over a Bing map. In the event that the data time stamp, it can likewise create intelligent perspectives that show, how the data changes over space and time.

Q19 : What are some of the contrasts in data displaying between Power BI Desktop and Power Pivot for Excel?
A : Here is a portion of the distinctions:
Power BI Desktop underpins bi-directional cross sifting connections, security, figured tables, and Direct Query choices.
Power Pivot for Excel has single bearing (one to many) connections, ascertained segments just, and underpins import mode as it were. Security parts can’t characterize in Power Pivot for Excel.

Q20: What are the distinctive Excel BI include?
A : Below is the most critical BI include to Excel:

  • Power Query: It helps in discovering, altering and stacking outer data.
  • Pivot: Its fundamentally utilized for data displaying and investigation.
  • View: It utilizes to plan visually and intelligently reports.
  • Map: It shows bits of knowledge on 3D Map.