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The Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate is Microsoft’s certification for analysts who take raw data all the way to a secured, shared Power BI report. This October 2026 guide covers the PL-300 exam, the four domains and weights in the April 20, 2026 outline, the 100-minute format and 700 passing score, the $165 fee, the free annual renewal, DoD 8140 status, and the analyst roles it leads to.
The Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate, earned by passing exam PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst, is Microsoft’s role-based certification for analysts who turn raw data into Power BI reports that other people can use on their own.
The exam follows the job from end to end. You connect to and clean data in Power Query, shape it into a star schema, write DAX measures, design the report, then publish, share and secure it in the Power BI service. Microsoft expects you to be proficient in Power Query and DAX, and it describes the analyst as someone who gathers requirements from business stakeholders and works with analytics engineers and data engineers to get the data.
PL-300 carries no formal prerequisites. It is issued and maintained by Microsoft, and the skills-measured outline in force today took effect on April 20, 2026. It replaced the older DA-100 exam, which retired on March 31, 2022.
Connect to sources, profile and clean in Power Query, and shape fact and dimension tables. 25 to 30%.
Relationships, a common date table, DAX measures with CALCULATE and time intelligence, and performance tuning. 25 to 30%.
Reports, bookmarks, drillthrough, Copilot report pages, AI visuals and forecasting. 25 to 30%.
Workspaces, apps, scheduled refresh, gateways, row-level security and sensitivity labels. The smallest domain at 15 to 20%.
Four things that set the Power BI Data Analyst apart for anyone whose reporting runs on Microsoft in 2026.
Microsoft tags PL-300 with a single product, Power BI, and a single role, Data Analyst. That focus is the point. The exam covers the full reporting job inside one tool, from the first Power Query connection to the row-level security rule that decides who sees which rows.
The outline reads like a to-do list. Choose between Direct Lake, DirectQuery and Import. Set a relationship’s cross-filter direction. Write a semi-additive measure. Configure row-level security group membership. Passing tells an employer you have done this work in Power BI, not just read about it.
PL-300 pairs naturally with DP-600, the Fabric Analytics Engineer exam, which takes the same modeling and DAX skills into Fabric at enterprise scale. Our Microsoft certifications guide lays out the data analyst path from DP-900 through PL-300 and DP-600.
PL-300 is valid for 12 months and renews free through an unproctored, open-book assessment on Microsoft Learn. That’s a lighter cycle than the three-year, 20-CEU model behind CompTIA Data+. Microsoft doesn’t claim a DoD 8140 mapping for PL-300. The current matrix is published at the DoD Cyber Exchange.
Its weight is market-driven instead. It counts most with employers that already report in Power BI, where a hiring manager can hold the four domains up against the job description and see the overlap.
The certification, the PL-300 exam, and how to keep it current, as of October 2026.
PL-300 covers the analyst’s side of Power BI. From here you can move into Microsoft Fabric, head upstream into data engineering, or add a vendor-neutral credential. The three below cover those paths.
The most direct step up for a Power BI analyst. DP-600 covers analytics solutions in Microsoft Fabric, from lakehouses and warehouses to enterprise-scale semantic models, using SQL, KQL and DAX. Your PL-300 modeling and DAX work carries over, and the exam is the same $165 and 100 minutes.
The move upstream. DP-700 covers implementing and managing an analytics solution, ingesting and transforming data, and monitoring and optimizing it in Fabric. It suits analysts who find they spend more time fixing the data feed than building the report on top of it.
The vendor-neutral complement. Data+ (DA0-002) covers data concepts, acquisition and preparation, analysis, visualization and governance without tying you to one tool, and it renews every three years. It helps if your next employer might not run Power BI.
PL-300 sits at the associate tier of Microsoft’s role-based data path. DP-900 can come first if you are new, and from there the path branches into Fabric analytics and data engineering.
Helpful groundwork, not required
The Power BI analyst credential
Pick your path
Two questions to answer before you commit: can you sit it, and should you pursue PL-300 specifically. The first one is easy.
No prerequisite credential required.
PL-300 has no formal prerequisites, and Microsoft doesn’t set a minimum amount of experience. You register through Pearson VUE and test at a center or online with a proctor. The exam is offered in 10 languages, and if yours isn’t one of them you can request an extra 30 minutes.
Reading about measures won’t carry you.
Microsoft expects you to be proficient in Power Query and DAX, and the outline goes past the basics into calculation groups, semi-additive measures and tuning with DAX query view. Build a model as you study and publish it to a workspace, because the service-side tasks (apps, refresh, row-level security) are easy to skip and they make up 15 to 20 percent of the exam.
PL-300 maps to the reporting and analysis roles organizations hire for once their data lives in Power BI.
Builds the semantic models, DAX measures and reports other people rely on. The PL-300 outline reads close to this job’s task list, from Power Query transforms to row-level security in the service.
Works with business stakeholders to find the answer in the data and present it clearly. Microsoft files PL-300 under its Data Analyst role, and the exam’s audience profile describes this job.
Owns the dashboards and KPI reporting for a department or the whole business, keeping definitions consistent so two reports never show two different revenue numbers.
Produces recurring operational and financial reports, often moving them out of spreadsheets. Paginated reports, subscriptions, data alerts and scheduled refresh, all on the exam, are everyday tools in this work.
Gathers requirements and turns them into something people can use. PL-300 adds the hands-on half, so you can build the self-service report yourself instead of writing a spec for someone else.
Builds the shared, secured semantic models that analysts report from. PL-300 covers the modeling foundation, and DP-600 adds the Microsoft Fabric lakehouse and warehouse side of the role.
CompTIA Data+ is the vendor-neutral alternative, and DP-600 is the usual Microsoft Fabric step after it. Here’s how the three line up, renewal included.
| Power BI Data Analyst (PL-300) | CompTIA Data+ (DA0-002) | Fabric Analytics Engineer (DP-600) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Microsoft | CompTIA | Microsoft |
| Level | Associate | Early-career, vendor-neutral | Associate |
| Focus | Power BI reports and models | Data analysis method, any tool | Analytics solutions in Microsoft Fabric |
| Prerequisites | None (Power Query and DAX expected) | None (rec. 18 to 24 months) | None (SQL, KQL and DAX expected) |
| Exam | Count not published, 100 min | Up to 90 items, 90 min | Count not published, 100 min |
| Passing Score | 700 of 1000 | 675 of 900 | 700 of 1000 |
| Cost | $165 | $264 | $165 |
| Validity | 1 year, free renewal | 3 years, 20 CEUs and $75 fee | 1 year, free renewal |
| Best For | Power BI analysts and report developers | Analysts who want tool-agnostic proof | Analytics engineers working in Fabric |
Costs are US prices as of October 2026 and vary by country or region. PL-300 facts reflect its April 20, 2026 outline, DP-600 moved to a new outline on October 19, 2026, and Data+ DA0-002 launched on October 14, 2025. Microsoft claims no DoD 8140 mapping for PL-300 or DP-600.
Certification Matchups: the published facts, strengths and weak spots of 33 certifications, side by side.
As an authorized Microsoft training partner, we run a three-day Microsoft Power BI boot camp that covers all four PL-300 domains, live in person or online. It includes hands-on labs in a provided environment, official Microsoft courseware, your $165 exam voucher and a free retake, and the schedule puts the PL-300 exam on day three.
Where PL-300 sits in the Microsoft lineup, how people move into data work, and how to study for and sit a Microsoft exam.
Which Microsoft exams people actually sit and budget for this year, what each one costs, and where PL-300 lands for analysts building reports and data models, next to the Azure, security and AI exams.
The full Microsoft map with role-by-role picks. Its data analyst path pairs PL-300 for Power BI work with DP-900 for data fundamentals and DP-600 for Microsoft Fabric.
Data analytics is one of the moves it covers, with the SQL, BI tool and scripting skills to build first. It names PL-300 and CompTIA Data+ as the credentials data job listings mention most.
MCSA retired in January 2021. This guide maps each old track to its modern replacement, with PL-300 as the direct replacement for MCSA: BI Reporting.
Microsoft calls it a study guide and posts it on Microsoft Learn with a change log. How to read one, weigh the percentage ranges and turn the skill list into a study plan.
Check-in, breaks, online proctoring and retake windows compared across vendors, including Microsoft’s 24-hour first retake and its waiver rule for connection failures.
How to read a practice test result by domain, and why Microsoft’s 700 on a 1 to 1,000 scale is not the same as getting 70 percent of the questions right.
The PL-300 exam is organized into four domains. Preparing, modeling and visualizing data each carry 25 to 30 percent, and managing and securing Power BI carries 15 to 20 percent. Click any domain for what it covers.
Getting data in and making it usable. Connecting to data sources or a shared semantic model, changing data source settings such as credentials and privacy levels, choosing between Direct Lake, DirectQuery and Import, and creating parameters. Profiling covers data statistics, column properties, null or unexpected values and import errors. Transforming covers column data types, grouping and aggregating rows, pivoting, unpivoting and transposing, converting semi-structured data to a table, building fact and dimension tables, reference versus duplicate queries, merging and appending, and creating keys for relationships.
Designing the model: table and column properties, role-playing dimensions, relationship cardinality and cross-filter direction, a common date table, and when calculated columns or tables make sense. The DAX work covers single aggregation measures, CALCULATE, time intelligence, basic statistical functions, semi-additive measures, quick measures and calculation groups. Optimizing covers removing unnecessary rows and columns, finding slow measures, relationships and visuals with Performance Analyzer and DAX query view, and reducing granularity.
Building reports: choosing and formatting visuals, themes, conditional formatting, slicing and filtering, paginated reports, visual calculations in DAX, and using Copilot to create a narrative visual, suggest content and build a new report page. Usability covers bookmarks, custom tooltips, visual interactions, navigation, sync slicers, drillthrough, export settings, mobile layouts, personalization, accessibility and automatic page refresh. Analysis covers the Analyze feature, grouping, binning and clustering, AI visuals, reference lines, error bars, forecasting, outliers and anomalies, and using Copilot to summarize the semantic model.
The smallest domain, and the one Desktop-only analysts tend to skip. Running content in the Power BI service: workspaces, apps, publishing and updating items, dashboards, distribution methods, subscriptions and data alerts, promoting or certifying content, knowing when a gateway is required, and scheduling semantic model refresh. Security covers workspace roles, item-level access, semantic model access, row-level security roles and group membership, and sensitivity labels.
Domains and weights reflect the Microsoft PL-300 study guide, skills measured as of April 20, 2026. Microsoft updates the English exam first and localized versions about eight weeks later, so confirm the current outline on Microsoft Learn before scheduling.
The questions candidates ask most often when researching the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst certification.
The Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate, earned by passing exam PL-300, is Microsoft’s role-based certification for analysts who prepare, model, visualize and secure data in Power BI. It tests Power Query and DAX skills against the real work of building reports that other people use for self-service analytics.
The current exam is PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst, on the skills-measured outline that took effect April 20, 2026. That update made minor changes to three skill groups (getting or connecting to data, enhancing reports for usability and storytelling, and creating and managing workspaces and assets) and left the audience profile alone. PL-300 replaced DA-100, which retired on March 31, 2022, and Microsoft has announced no retirement or replacement for PL-300 as of October 2026.
No. PL-300 has no formal prerequisites, so anyone can register and sit the exam. Microsoft doesn’t set a minimum amount of experience either. It does expect you to be proficient in Power Query and DAX, and a fundamentals exam such as DP-900 can help newcomers, but it isn’t required.
The four domains are Prepare the data (25 to 30 percent), Model the data (25 to 30 percent), Visualize and analyze the data (25 to 30 percent), and Manage and secure Power BI (15 to 20 percent). Three domains carry the same 25 to 30 percent weight, so strong report design alone won’t get you through.
Microsoft does not publish a question count for PL-300. Its general guidance is that most Microsoft certification exams have 40 to 60 questions, and the number can vary. You have 100 minutes for the exam, and Microsoft suggests setting aside 120 minutes of seat time, which also covers the instructions and the candidate agreement. Microsoft doesn’t list question types for individual exams, but its exam sandbox shows the formats you may see, including multiple choice, drag and drop, hot area, build list and case studies.
You need 700 on a scale of 1 to 1,000 to pass. Microsoft uses scaled scoring, so 700 may not equal 70 percent of the points, and the passing line reflects the difficulty of the questions you get. There’s no penalty for guessing, and some questions may be unscored items Microsoft is testing, so answer every question as if it counts.
As of October 2026, the PL-300 exam costs $165 USD in the United States. Microsoft sets the price by the country or region where the exam is proctored, and you schedule it through Pearson VUE. Training Camp’s Microsoft Power BI boot camp includes the $165 exam voucher and a free retake in the course price.
No DoD 8140 mapping is claimed for it. Microsoft doesn’t list PL-300 against a DoD 8140 work role, so don’t count on it to satisfy a cyber-coded position requirement on its own. Its value is with employers that report in Power BI. See the full DoD 8140 work role paths.
PL-300 is valid for 12 months. You renew it free by passing an unproctored, open-book online assessment on Microsoft Learn. The window opens six months before your expiration date, there’s no limit on attempts, and passing extends the certification one year from its expiration date. If you let it lapse, you have to pass PL-300 again.
PL-300 maps to roles such as Power BI Developer, Data Analyst, Business Intelligence Analyst, Reporting Analyst, Business Analyst, and Analytics Engineer. Microsoft lists the certification under its Data Analyst role, and the exam’s audience profile describes an analyst who works with business stakeholders on requirements and with analytics engineers and data engineers to get the data.
Pick by the tools your employer uses. PL-300 tests Power BI in depth for $165 and renews free every year. CompTIA Data+ (DA0-002) is vendor-neutral, costs $264, runs 90 minutes with up to 90 questions, and renews every three years with 20 CEUs and a $75 fee. If the job postings you’re reading name Power BI, PL-300 is the closer match. If you want proof of analyst method that isn’t tied to one product, Data+ fits better.
Start with PL-300 if you build reports and models in Power BI and want the credential for that work. DP-600 is the Fabric Analytics Engineer exam, also $165 and 100 minutes, and it goes further into lakehouses, warehouses, SQL, KQL and enterprise-scale semantic models. Neither exam is a prerequisite for the other, so if you already work in Microsoft Fabric every day, DP-600 can come first.
PL-300 is an associate-level exam, and if you come from Excel, expect DAX to be the hardest part. The outline asks for CALCULATE, time intelligence, semi-additive measures and calculation groups. The exam also spans the whole workflow, so a strong report builder who has never configured row-level security or a gateway will find gaps. You can open Microsoft Learn during the exam, but the clock keeps running, so it helps with the odd lookup and little else.
For analysts whose organization reports in Power BI, yes. The exam tracks the job closely, the April 2026 outline covers current features such as Direct Lake and Copilot in reports, the US fee is $165, and renewal is free each year. It’s less useful if your employer runs a different BI tool, or if you want tool-agnostic proof of analyst skills, where CompTIA Data+ is the better fit.
Weighing the certification, planning a move into Fabric, or arranging Power BI training for a reporting team? Tell us where you are and we’ll help you map out the right path.