PL-900: Microsoft Certified Power Platform Fundamentals

The PL-900’s Purpose

The PL-900 Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals is a great certification to get you started on your Power Platform journey. Its primary purpose is to introduce you to the various products within the platform and test your overall fundamental knowledge. It’s specifically targeted at individuals wanting to start a career within Power Platform, without directing them down any specific product or service.

What it Covers

The exam itself covers a range of basic Power Platform content, such as its components, products and an introduction to using the platform itself. The exam will also measure various skills across the all the products. You may be measured on the business value and basic building skills as well as being tested on your ability to describe the products business value.

Skills Measured

As per the latest Microsoft Learn site for the PL-900 exam, Microsoft have outlined the key areas the exam will focus on.

• Describe the business value of Microsoft Power Platform (20–25%)
• Identify the core components of Microsoft Power Platform (10–15%)
• Demonstrate the capabilities of Power BI (20–25%)
• Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Apps (25–30%)
• Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate (10–15%)
• Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Virtual Agents (1–5%)

The Power Platform

The skills measured within the business value of the Power Platform refer to identifying how the products offer business value, ie, how would a Power BI report help the business with their reporting and how would building a Power Apps application will help streamline processes and reduce time wastage. Being able to describe these values is crucial to your journey as it will demonstrates your structural knowledge within the platform. This skill also tests your basic knowledge of extending the Power Platform to work with other apps such as Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 and other services. This does play an important role in your journey as you will most likely be integrating with these services at some point in the future. To wrap up the business value side of things, you will also be tested on the platform’s security. This will range from understanding security roles, managing users and apps, as well as identifying required data policies.

Identifying the core components of the platform focuses on understanding the platforms’ base structure. When I refer to its base structure, I’m mostly talking about Dataverse, Data Connectors and AI Builder. The PL-900 will validate your knowledge on Dataverse and how it’s different from other database. It will also test your understanding of Dataverse tables, relationships, data flows and security. Another focus in this area will be on Data Connectors and being able to describe how they are beneficial and when to use prebuilt connectors vs custom connectors.

Power BI

Within the Power BI section, you will need to describe the business value of Power BI reports and dashboards as well as differentiate between Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service. Alongside identifying the common Power BI components, you will also be tested on loading data in Power BI. This will include connecting to various data-sources, following ETL processes, using Power Query and DAX and applying permissions to the datasets within the report, such as RLS. Lastly, you will also need to know how to create a basic Power BI Report with a Dashboard whilst being able to publish and share it across workspaces and users.

Power Apps

The PL-900 will require you to be able to identify between Canvas Apps and Model-Driven Apps whilst providing business values for both. You will also need to understand how to build a basic Canvas app connecting to various data-sources as well as a Model-Driven app built on Dataverse. The exam will test your knowledge on sharing both types of applications as well as embedding Canvas Apps into Microsoft Teams.

Power Automate

Your Power Automate knowledge will be tested against being able to identify and provide business value for various parts of the product. This includes being able to identify the difference between Cloud flows, Desktop flows and Business Process flows, as well as distinguish between their business values. You will also need to understand the use case for templates and differentiate between the various triggers and actions. Additionally, you should be able to describe conditions such as loops, switches and apply to each. You will also need to know how to build these types of flows with an understanding of approvals and publish and share them across the business and on various devices.

Power Virtual Agents

Power Virtual Agents contributes a bit less that the other products. Simply understanding how bots will benefit a business and how to create them is the core focus. Being able to create bots includes creating the chatbot itself, topics, entities, using call to actions within topics and calling Power Automate flows from the bot. You may also be tested on ways to publish your bot to websites and Microsoft Teams.

Power Pages

Now although Power Pages is not present on the measured skills, there is always the possibility of it coming up. Having the fundamentals to create a new Power Page, change the theme, apply page components, and briefly understand the concept of forms and site administration with the various authentication types, would be advantages.

Learning Content

My first go to is always the Microsoft Learn modules and paths. There is already a learning path specific to the PL-900 that will take you through all the material you should know for the exam. You can view a collection of learning paths, modules and units here.

YouTube is also a great place to prep for exams. There are many community contributors out there creating exam prep content that will assist with your studies. A few videos I have found beneficial are:

• John Savill’s Technical Training YouTube Video

• Susanth Sutheesh’s PL-900 Full Course YouTube Video

• Kasam Shaikh YouTube Video

Lastly, Microsoft also offer a Virtual Training Day to go over the PL-900 exam and content. This is a great way to prep and will also get you a free voucher to take the PL-900 exam at no cost. Simply head over the Microsoft Virtual Training Days site here and select the Power Platform Fundamentals training day. You will be required to complete a form and an email with the link to the event will be sent to you on confirmation.

Good luck for your exam 😉