Top 10 Power BI Interview Questions and Answers [For Freshers and Experienced]

Business intelligence or BI posed a considerable challenge to Microsoft back in 2011. It made them build their own BI tool and compete with various analytical capabilities of the existing Microsoft Excel. This not only upgraded the entire programming but also helped in generating interactive reports. 

Nowadays, Power BI has taken over the world with its robust features, intuitive features and widespread adoption. It provides connectivity to various data sources and facilitates collaborative decision-making. Power BI has revolutionised the way businesses analyse and interpret their data to make informed decisions.

The career prospects of Power BI are quickly growing as businesses rely more and more on data visualization and business intelligence to inform their decisions. Roles such as BI Developer, Data Analyst, and BI Consultant are in high demand in a variety of sectors, including banking, healthcare, retail, and technology.

Preparing well for Power BI interview questions is crucial for anyone hoping to land these positions. This preparation not only allows you to showcase your experience in topics such as DAX (Data Analysis Expressions), Power Query, and data modeling, but it also keeps you up to date on the tool’s latest developments. Getting enough hands-on practice and the ability to transform complex data into meaningful insights is important. With thorough preparation, you can effectively highlight your technical skills, problem-solving skills, and expertise in working with Power BI to achieve business success while greatly enhancing your chances in the highly competitive job market. 

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In this article, let’s understand the concepts of Power BI along with some beginner, expert and intermediate-level Power BI interview questions

What is Power BI? 

Power BI is a scalable, unified platform for self-service and businesses. It helps to connect and visualise all kinds of data and also seamlessly infuses visuals into various applications one might use daily. 

Power BI is beneficial for both technical and non-technical business users. It is classically used for commercial purposes for analysing, aggregating, visualising and sharing data. Even though its User Interface is fairly similar to Microsoft Excel, it is a much more versatile self-service tool which can be operated through upfront training. 

Power BI Interview Questions for Freshers 

What is Power BI? 

It is a known business analytics tool by Microsoft that uncovers valuable data sources into various valuable interactive insights. It can either be in the form of an Excel or a spreadsheet or can be spread across the cloud via different data warehouses. 

Why should one use Power BI? 

Power BI benefits a technical person, and even a non-technical individual can access it to connect, visualise and change their raw business data from varied sources into valuable data. This, in turn, helps in making smart business decisions. 

Difference between Power BI and Tableau 

Both Power BI and Tableau are one of IT’s leading data analytics tools that are also known for their impeccable visualisation skills. Even though they just have a few significant differences, like Power BI uses DAX for calculating measures while Tableau uses Tableau Calculation Language (TCL). Other than that, Power BI is a great analytical tool to be used by beginners, whereas Tableau has to be mastered by an experienced technical person. 

What are Power Pivot and Power Query? 

Power Pivot is a data gathering and data transformation tool which uses an in-memory data modelling component. Power Query is an ETL service tool which is used to analyse raw data. 

Power BI Interview Questions for Intermediate Level 

Where is data storage made in Power BI? 

Power BI is often assisted by cloud storage to store the data. However, Power BI is also capable enough to use a desktop service. Microsoft Azure is the primary cloud service for data storage. The other storage platforms are: 

  • Azure SQL Database 
  • Azure Blob Storage

Why should one apply general formatting in Power BI? 

General formatting in Power BI makes it easy to categorise and identify data. This also facilitates a seamless work environment and gains results in no time. 

What are the various versions of Power BI? 

The various versions of Power BI are: 

  • Power BI desktop
  • Power BI service
  • Mobile Power BI apps

    What are the critical components of the Power BI toolkit? 

The critical components of the Power BI toolkit are: 

  • Power Query 
  • Power Pivot
  • Power View
  • Power Map
  • Power Q&A

Power BI Interview Questions for Experienced 

List the standard techniques of data shaping 

Power BI uses data shaping to integrate various kinds of data. The standard techniques of data shaping in Power BI are: 

  • Adding indexes 
  • Applying for sort order 
  • Removing rows and columns

What are the fundamental concepts of Power BI? 

Syntax: This comprises a formula with elements. It also included functions like SUM, where you need to add figures. If the syntax is not correct, you will get an error message. 

Functions: These formulas comprehensively use specific arguments or values for calculations that are similar to various functions in Excel. The formulas comprise date/time, time intelligence, logical, statistical, and mathematical contexts. 

Context: These formulas consist of two categories: row context and filter context. Row contexts are used when the formula consists of a specific function to identify the personalities of every single row. When more filters are employed in the calculation, that is when filter context comes into play. 

Conclusion 

Power BI has now become an integral part of the tech industry. Companies are now striving to incorporate Power BI in their business model to gain more appropriation. 

If you are interested in taking up a course where you can learn all about Power BI interview questions and other aspects of data analytics, check out Imarticus Learning’s Postgraduate Programme in Data Science and Analytics. This is an ideal job opportunity for a tech professional and also for freshers. 

Why Data Science is the Hottest Career: Exploring Opportunities and Pathways

Data science has emerged as the fastest-emerging field worldwide, revolutionising the way we extract, visualise, and maintain data. With its integration of machine learning capabilities, data science is poised to shape the future with countless possibilities and opportunities. 

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Organisations are now incorporating various branches of data science to keep up with the global markets. Since data science has a wide field, it needs to be studied in detail. 

In this article, let’s get to know why a career in data science is now the most coveted career and how to become a successful data scientist in the future. 

What is Data Science? 

Data science is an interdisciplinary field where large chunks of data are studied with the help of AI and ML to ascertain their patterns. It involves the extraction, analysis, interpretation and visualisation of data. 

At its core, data science is the study of data and solving complex problems which emerge from various patterns that are deciphered through modern tools. This pattern is the crux of making crucial business decisions. 

Why Do You Need a Data Scientist? 

Data scientists with a combination of business and mathematics employ complex algorithms to enhance business knowledge. This, in return, would produce a prediction model for the organisation’s business module with statistical data. 

A data scientist is now an essential need in the corporate sector. They work with both structured and unstructured data sort and organise them together and analyse them to present them easily to the stakeholders. This, in turn, helps the stakeholders to examine whether their departmental business and revenue goals are being met or not. 

With a data scientist, organisations can harness the power of data to gain meaningful insights about their operations and the global market, enabling them to thrive and seize valuable opportunities. It would help the stakeholders to make timely business decisions. 

Qualifications Needed to Become a Data Scientist 

Becoming a data scientist is relatively easy. However, one must have some desired technical and soft skills to become successful in this field. Let’s see what skills one wants to establish a career in data science

Technical skills 

  • Must have a degree in Computer Science. 
  • Must be familiar with Python, Java, Hadoop, SAS and other programming languages to work for data analytics. 
  • Must be familiar with AI and ML. 

Soft skills 

  • Should have effective communication skills to function in a group. 
  • Should be creative enough to come up with solutions that the organisation might face from time to time. 
  • Must have the proper skill to communicate with the stakeholders. 

Careers in Data Science 

Data science is a new branch of science that comes with lots of lucrative career opportunities. Let’s see what different careers one can pursue with the help of data science. 

Data Analyst 

A data analyst helps in connecting data from a database. They also help in summarising results after data processing. The average salary of a data analyst is Rs. 494,464 per year. 

Data Scientist 

A data scientist in a company is responsible for managing, mining and cleaning the data. They are hugely responsible for interpreting big data and analysing their results. The average salary is Rs. 910,238 per year. 

Data Engineer 

Once the data is mined, the data engineer is the person who finds valuable insights from the data. They are also responsible for maintaining architecture and data design. They also help in developing large warehouses that help in extra transform load. The average salary of a data engineer is Rs. 647,643 per year. 

Reasons Why Data Science is the Hottest Career

Data science is an emerging career option in 2023. Here are some reasons why one should opt to become a data scientist. 

Demand: Since there is a lack of qualified professionals in data science, jobs are in high demand. Esteemed organisations are in search of skilled individuals for Data Scientist positions. 

Salary: The average salary of a data scientist in India is Rs. 910,238 per year. Other than in India, the job pays very well across the globe. Hence, working in the data science field is extremely rewarding. 

Technology: As a data scientist, an individual gets aware of the latest technologies from AI and ML. They also learn about various programming languages like R programming languages and MongoDB to structure the raw data. This is one of the reasons why working as a data scientist is extremely lucrative. 

Conclusion 

Data science is now a mandate in every industry and organisations are now looking for skilled individuals. If an individual is passionate about computer languages and statistics, then data science is a viable career option. 

If you are interested in building a career in data science, check out Imarticus Learning’s Post Graduate Program in Data Science and Analytics. This course is open for early career professionals who have a tech background.