{
  "id": 19827592,
  "title": "PL-300: 7 Power BI answers that look right and cost you points",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/pl-300-7-power-bi-answers-that-look-right-and-cost-you-points",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-11-13T15:43:26.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/skillmarked/pl-300-7-power-bi-answers-that-look-right-and-cost-you-points-1a4b"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Microsoft's PL-300 (Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst) exam frequently tests candidates on questions that have seemingly correct answers but actually lead to point deductions. This article highlights seven such instances, covering all four exam domains.\n\n1. Sorting month names by the Date column can yield incorrect results since the sort should be performed by the Month Number column instead. Additionally, sorting by Date fails as each month name corresponds to multiple dates.\n\n2. When reporting by ship date, ensure the relationship between Sales and Date tables is active. Use CALCULATE with USERELATIONSHIP to control which relationship is active. Alternatively, create separate date tables for each relationship if users need to slice by multiple dates.\n\n3. Time intelligence functions like TOTALYTD and SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR require a well-defined date table - one row per day, no gaps or duplicates, and complete years. Mark the Date column as a date table and disable Auto date/time to improve performance.\n\n4. CALCULATE does not respect slicers by default. To intersect calculations with slicers, wrap the filter argument with KEEPFILTERS. This ensures the measure only shows results for the selected color and ignores other selections.\n\n5. Row-Level Security (RLS) may appear to be functioning, but it only affects Viewers, and people with access through apps or sharing. Admins, Members, and Contributors are not filtered. Roles defined in Desktop take effect after assigning members in the service. Use USERPRINCIPALNAME() instead of USERNAME() when implementing dynamic RLS.\n\n6. Dynamic RLS with USERNAME() returns DOMAIN\\user in Desktop, while USERPRINCIPALNAME() returns the sign-in name in both Desktop and the service. Choose UPN for accurate results.\n\n7. Scheduled refresh from on-premises SQL Server requires an on-premises data gateway. Personal mode works for a single user with Import refresh, while DirectQuery, several users or a team, necessitate standard mode. Remember, the gateway is not needed for cloud sources like Azure SQL Database, SharePoint Online, or Dataverse.",
  "summary": "You can build Power BI reports every day and still lose points on PL-300 (Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst) . The exam likes questions where the answer you'd reach for at work is almost right. Here are seven of those, across all four domains. 1. Sorting month names by the Date column Your months come out as April, August, December… The fix is Sort by column , but the column you sort by matters.…",
  "key_points": [
    "Sorting month names by Date column yields incorrect results; sort by Month Number column instead",
    "Use CALCULATE with USERELATIONSHIP to control active relationship when reporting by ship date"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}