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Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900) — Full Course Pass the Exam!

freeCodeCamp.org・176 minutes read

Andrew Brown offers a free Cloud certification course on Microsoft Power Platform fundamentals to help individuals pass Microsoft certification exams. The course includes lecture content, Hands-On labs, and a free practice exam, with additional study materials available for purchase. The certification covers topics like Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents, targeting individuals interested in leveraging the Power Platform for business processes, automation, and custom solutions.

Insights

  • Andrew Brown provides a free Cloud certification course on Microsoft Power Platform fundamentals, aiding individuals in passing Microsoft certification exams for career growth.
  • The certification covers Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents, targeting those interested in business processes, automation, and custom solutions.
  • The study approach involves a mix of lectures, labs, and practice exams, with varying time requirements based on experience levels.
  • Security in Power Platform is managed at tenant, environment, and data levels, incorporating features like conditional access policies and encryption.
  • Environments in Power Platform serve as designated spaces for data and app management, allowing separation based on roles, security, and target audiences.
  • The Microsoft Power Platform admin Center enables administrators to manage environments, data policies, security, analytics, and connectors efficiently.
  • Power BI, PowerApps, and Power Virtual Agents within the Power Platform offer extensive customization, integration with various data sources, and automation capabilities for diverse business needs.

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Recent questions

  • What is the Microsoft Power Platform fundamentals certification about?

    The Microsoft Power Platform fundamentals certification covers topics like Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents, targeting individuals interested in leveraging the Power Platform for business processes, automation, and custom solutions.

  • How long does it take to pass the Microsoft Power Platform certification?

    The time required to pass the certification varies based on experience level, with beginners needing around 16 hours and experienced individuals needing as little as 7 hours.

  • What are the key products in the Power Platform?

    Power Platform comprises five key products: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages, each serving different functions like app development, workflow automation, data visualization, chatbot creation, and web page building.

  • How is security managed in the Power Platform?

    Power Platform security model is based on user roles, permissions, and data governance policies, managed at three levels: tenant, environment, and data, with features like conditional access policies, multi-factor authentication, and data encryption ensuring data protection and compliance.

  • What are the different types of environments in Power Platform?

    There are five main types of environments in Power Platform: default, production, sandbox, trial, and developer, each designated for specific purposes like development, testing, production, or trial runs, with associated permissions and roles for environment management.

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Summary

00:00

Free Cloud Certification Course for Microsoft Power Platform

  • Andrew Brown offers a free Cloud certification course on Microsoft Power Platform fundamentals, aiming to help individuals pass and achieve Microsoft certification for career advancement.
  • The course includes lecture content, Hands-On labs, and a free practice exam to support learning.
  • Additional study materials are available for purchase, but passing using the free content is feasible.
  • The Microsoft Power Platform fundamentals certification covers topics like Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents.
  • Targeted at individuals interested in leveraging the Power Platform for business processes, automation, and custom solutions.
  • The certification roadmap includes associate and expert level certifications for various roles within the Power Platform ecosystem.
  • The time required to pass the certification varies based on experience level, with beginners needing around 16 hours and experienced individuals needing as little as 7 hours.
  • The study approach involves 50% lecture and labs, 50% practice exams, with a recommended study time of 1-2 hours a day for 10 days.
  • To pass the exam, candidates need to watch lectures, do Hands-On labs, and use paid online practice exams, with a free practice exam available on exampro.com.
  • The certification exam consists of six domains with varying weightages, and candidates can take the exam at an in-person test center or online, aiming to score 700 points out of 1000 within a 60-minute timeframe.

15:04

"Power Automate Exam Prep and Platform Overview"

  • The exam scenario primarily focuses on Power Automate, featuring multiple choice, multiple select, true or false, and drag and drop questions.
  • Practice exams offer explanations for correct and incorrect answers, along with links to sources and documentation.
  • No coding is required in the exam, and questions vary in length and complexity.
  • Power Platform comprises five key products: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages.
  • Power Apps allow rapid, low-code app development with over 200 connectors and pre-built AI scenarios.
  • Power Automate creates automated workflows between applications, utilizing AI Builder for improved performance.
  • Power BI is a business analytics service offering data visualization for informed decision-making.
  • Power Virtual Agents enable chatbot creation without coding, reducing IT effort and empowering subject matter experts.
  • Power Pages allow users to build and publish web pages without extensive coding knowledge, offering advanced features like embedding Power BI dashboards.
  • Power Platform features like AI Builder, Microsoft Dataverse, and connectors enhance its potential for businesses by adding AI capabilities, scalable data services, and seamless data integration across systems.

33:00

Power Platform Security and Data Governance Model

  • Power Platform security model is based on user roles, permissions, and data governance policies.
  • Security is managed at three levels: tenant, environment, and data.
  • Tenant-level security is managed through the Microsoft 365 admin Center.
  • Environment-level security is managed through the Power Platform admin Center.
  • Data-level security is implemented using role-based access control and Azure Active Directory.
  • Audit logging and Reporting capabilities are included in the platform.
  • Built-in security features include conditional access policies and multi-factor authentication.
  • Data governance policies can be implemented to ensure data protection and compliance.
  • Data protection is ensured through encryption of data in transit and at rest.
  • Power Platform complies with various regulatory and industry standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO 27001.
  • Environments in Power Platform are designated spaces to manage and store an organization's data, apps, chat bots, and flows.
  • Environments can be used to separate apps with different roles, security requirements, or target audiences.
  • Each environment is associated with an Azure Active Directory tenant and a specific geographic location.
  • Apps created in an environment can only connect to data sources within that same environment.
  • Environment permissions include roles like environment admin and environment maker.
  • Environment admin can perform all administrative actions on an environment.
  • Environment maker can create resources like apps, connections, and flows within an environment.
  • There are five main types of environments in Power Platform: default, production, sandbox, trial, and developer.
  • The Microsoft Power Platform admin Center allows administrators to manage and monitor Power Platform environments.
  • Administration settings are grouped into categories like environments, data policies, data integration, security, analytics, connectors, gateways, and more.
  • Administrators can perform tasks like managing environments, security, data, analytics, connectors, gateways, custom connectors, flows, apps, and AI Builder.
  • Access the Power Platform admin Center by signing in with Microsoft 365 or Power Platform credentials.
  • The Microsoft 365 admin Center allows administrators to manage and monitor their Microsoft 365 tenant.
  • Administrative tasks include user management, group management, license management, security management, settings management, compliance management, and billing and subscriptions.
  • Access the Microsoft 365 admin Center at admin.microsoft.com with work or school account credentials.
  • Microsoft dataverse is a cloud-based solution that structures data and business logic to support interconnected applications securely.
  • Dataverse allows users to store and manage data with a flexible data model customizable to specific business needs.
  • It integrates with other Power Platform products and supports data integration with external sources.
  • Dataverse provides features like data validation, auditing, and version control for building various business applications.
  • Traditional databases store data in tables with defined relationships, while dataverse uses a data model in an entity-attribute-value format.
  • Traditional databases require manual scaling and custom integration code, while dataverse automatically scales and integrates with Microsoft products.
  • Traditional databases are customized with SQL queries, while dataverse offers a graphical interface for customization.
  • Traditional databases require extensive security configuration, while dataverse has built-in security features for granular access control.
  • Tables in dataverse are logical structures containing rows and columns representing a set of data.
  • Three types of tables are standard tables, managed tables, and custom tables.
  • Columns store specific pieces of information within a table row with data types matching the data stored.
  • Standard tables in dataverse have a predetermined set of columns provided by default.
  • Relationships in dataverse define how different tables are connected based on shared data.
  • Relationships are created by defining a field in the primary table to store a reference to the related table.
  • The field used to store the reference is called a foreign key, linking data between tables.

50:26

"Dataverse Relationships and Environments Simplify Data Management"

  • Relationships in dataverse ensure consistent updating of related data across tables, maintaining data integrity.
  • Relationships are crucial for complex data models, supporting various business scenarios and organizing data meaningfully.
  • Three types of relationships in dataverse: one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many.
  • Environments in dataverse store, manage, and share business data, apps, and flows in Microsoft Power Platform.
  • Each environment in dataverse has a provisioned Microsoft dataverse database, managed within a specific Azure active directory tenant.
  • Environments are bound to a geographic location, such as the United States, affecting data center locations.
  • Multiple environments aid in managing solution development and data storage efficiently, catering to different needs like development, testing, and production.
  • Business rules in dataverse define and maintain business logic at the data layer, ensuring consistency across interactions with data.
  • Business rules enforce rules, validate data, and simplify application development, enhancing data accuracy and user experience.
  • Data flows in dataverse automate data extraction, transformation, and loading from various sources into dataverse tables, improving data integration and accuracy.

01:07:29

Essential Power BI Features for Data Analysis

  • Power BI data sets are essential for reporting and visualization, with five different types: connecting to an existing data model, uploading a Power BI desktop file, uploading an Excel workbook, uploading a CSV file, creating a push data set, and creating a streaming or hybrid streaming data set.
  • Power BI reports consist of visualizations like line charts and maps, created from data sets like Excel, Power BI desktop, databases, and SAS apps, with two viewing modes: reading view and editing view.
  • Dashboards in Power BI are single canvases containing tiles and widgets, displaying visualizations from reports and data sets, allowing for quick decision-making and monitoring of business metrics.
  • Differences between reports and dashboards include the number of pages (one for dashboards, multiple for reports), data sources (multiple for dashboards, single for reports), and drilling down in visuals (only available for reports).
  • Template apps in Power BI are pre-built content packages created by partners for easy deployment to customers, providing immediate insights through dashboards and reports connected to live data sources.
  • Power BI Desktop allows for data modeling and visualization creation, with five main areas: ribbon, report view, data view, model view, pages tab, visualizations pane, and fields pane.
  • Various types of visualizations in Power BI include bar and column charts, cards, KPIs, maps, pie charts, question and answer visuals, and tables, with custom visuals available in AppSource.
  • Filtering data in Power BI can be done through slicers on report pages or the filters pane, with different filter types for reports, pages, visuals, and drill-through actions.
  • Buttons in Power BI allow for interactive report experiences, with customization options for appearance, actions (filtering, navigation, URL/file opening, custom scripts), interaction, selection, and integration with other Power BI features.
  • Power Query Editor in Power BI Desktop is a data transformation tool enabling users to connect to and transform data from various sources, shaping it for modeling and visualization purposes.

01:23:07

"Power Query Editor: Transform Data for Analysis"

  • Power Query Editor allows users to extract, transform, and load data from various sources like Excel spreadsheets, text files, databases, and web services into Power BI for analysis and visualization.
  • Users can manipulate data using filters, sorting, grouping, pivoting, and aggregating through an intuitive interface with menus and tools.
  • The editor supports merging, splitting, unpivoting tables, custom calculations, and transformations.
  • Users can create reusable data queries to save time and effort, which can be shared with others or used for automating data refreshes.
  • To launch Power Query Editor, select "Edit" from the Navigator window or use the "Transform Data" button in Power BI Desktop.
  • The layout of Power Query Editor includes queries listed on the left pane, data displayed in the center pane, and query properties in the settings window.
  • Aggregation involves performing mathematical calculations on data values, such as average, maximum, count, etc., which is crucial for creating visualizations in Power BI.
  • Power BI can aggregate numeric data using functions like sum, average, count, and non-numeric data using categorical data methods.
  • Different aggregation options include sum, average, minimum, maximum, count not blanks, count distinct, standard deviation, variance, and median.
  • Power BI security and administration involve utilizing Azure for secure sign-ins, data sharing control, governance policies, usage monitoring, and license provisioning within the Power BI tenant.

01:39:12

"Exploring Power BI and PowerApps Features"

  • Real-time data is not required for the exam, but Power BI features can be explored freely.
  • To create a report and dashboard, a data set is needed, which can be uploaded from OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, or a PC in pbix, RDL, or xlsx format.
  • If no data set is available, free data sets can be found online, like on Kaggle.com, for practice.
  • Data can also be manually entered or copied into Power BI for analysis.
  • Customizing reports involves adjusting data, graph types, canvas size, and design elements.
  • Changing the canvas background, adjusting font colors, and removing white boxes enhance the report's appearance.
  • Adding gradient effects to graphs and turning off legends can improve visual appeal.
  • PowerApps is a low-code platform by Microsoft for building custom business applications for web and mobile devices.
  • PowerApps can connect to various data sources like Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and SQL Server, enabling app customization without extensive coding.
  • PowerApps Portals allow users to create external-facing websites integrated with PowerApps, offering authentication, data integration, and custom branding features.

01:56:07

"Customize Data-Driven Apps with Canvas Apps"

  • Canvas apps can be connected to data sources like Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and SharePoint for creating data-driven applications.
  • Canvas apps offer extensive customization options for modifying controls, creating custom formulas, and integrating with other Microsoft services.
  • Canvas apps are best suited for scenarios requiring high customization and flexibility, such as building custom business processes or workflows.
  • Common use cases of canvas apps include custom forms and data entry interfaces integrated with data sources like Microsoft Excel, SharePoint, or Dynamics 365.
  • Canvas apps allow users to build custom workflows automating business processes like approvals, notifications, or routing of work items, integrated with Power Automate.
  • Custom dashboards and analytics can be created using canvas apps to display key metrics and data visualizations, integrated with Power BI for interactive reports.
  • Canvas apps can be used to create mobile applications optimized for smartphones and tablets, beneficial for field employees, sales teams, or remote workers.
  • Integration with other Microsoft services like Dynamics 365, Power Automate, and Power BI enables the creation of custom applications tailored to specific business needs.
  • Power App Studio is the web-based interface for creating canvas apps, accessible at https://make.powerapps.com, allowing online app development without separate client downloads.
  • Model-driven apps present data in a structured way using pre-built components and a data model defining relationships between different data entities, offering flexibility and customization.

02:12:27

Efficient App Workflows Simplify Business Processes

  • App users can focus on work without manual steps
  • Business processes in apps can be simple or complex
  • Define business processes like workflows and approvals
  • Use built-in tools and Power Apps to create processes
  • Build apps after modeling data and defining processes
  • Select and set up components in the app designer
  • Create user interface using pre-built components
  • Customize user interface by adding or removing components
  • Different data components in model-driven apps
  • User interface components determine app interaction

02:28:15

Creating Model-Driven Apps with Cloudflows

  • The origin challenge in the data type lookup is created, with the related table being challenge, and saved.
  • Relationships can be viewed by clicking on relationships in the schema box, showing the connection between the Challenge and Idea tables.
  • Views are essential, accessed by clicking on views in the Idea table and selecting active ideas to build the app component.
  • A drag-and-drop interface is used to customize views, adding columns like investment required and organizing them, along with filters and sorting orders.
  • Forms are created by clicking on the challenges table, selecting forms, and choosing information as the form type, adjusting layout to three columns wide.
  • Components like timeline and subgrid are added, with labels renamed for clarity and customization options explored.
  • Business process flows are created by selecting automation, then process, and naming the flow, adding stages like set up, track, select and execute, close and award, with data steps for each.
  • Model-driven apps are developed by creating a new app, adding pages for dataverse tables, and incorporating the challenge and idea tables, along with the business process flow.
  • Cloudflows, business process flows, and desktop flows are explained, detailing automated, instant, and scheduled flows for various tasks.
  • Cloudflow templates are introduced as pre-built workflows for automating tasks, with examples like approval workflows, social media monitoring, and data integration templates.

02:44:45

"Power Automate: Switch, Condition, Expression Essentials"

  • In Power Automate, a switch is a control statement that allows for different actions based on a specified input, which can be a string, number, or Boolean value.
  • The switch statement evaluates the input and compares it to defined cases, executing corresponding actions if a match is found; a default action can be set if no match is found.
  • An example of using a switch statement is automating an approval process based on the amount of a purchase request, with different actions based on the request amount.
  • Using a switch layout, a single case is identified to execute based on the input evaluation, with actions running if a match is found; default cases run if no matches are found.
  • By using a switch statement, workflows can be simplified, reducing the need for complex branching logic, and easily adapting to changing business requirements.
  • A condition in Power Automate is a control statement that tests if a specific condition is true or false, allowing for different actions based on the result.
  • Conditions are used to make decisions in workflows based on processed data, such as checking values in a SharePoint list and taking actions accordingly.
  • Power Automate supports various conditions like equals, greater than, less than, contains, starts with, ends with, and logical operators like and, or, and not for creating complex conditions.
  • Using conditions in Power Automate enables the creation of more intelligent and flexible workflows that can make decisions and take actions based on processed data.
  • Expressions in Power Automate are formulas or code strings that perform operations on data, used for calculations, text manipulation, condition evaluation, and more, with a syntax similar to programming languages.

03:02:13

Creating AI Models and Chatbots with Power Automate

  • AI Builders allows users to create models from scratch using a drag and drop interface.
  • To build a basic power automate flow, go to make.powerautomate.com.
  • Templates on Power Automate simplify automation tasks by providing pre-built options.
  • Templates cover various scenarios like email automation, approvals, and data collection.
  • Connecting to Microsoft Teams and Office 365 Outlook is necessary for certain flows.
  • Dynamic content in Power Automate allows for flexible and efficient workflows.
  • Power Virtual Agents enable the creation of chatbots without coding knowledge.
  • Chatbots can automate inquiries, improve customer satisfaction, and resolve issues 24/7.
  • Power Virtual Agents offer features like natural conversations, action-taking chatbots, and performance monitoring.
  • Components of Power Virtual Agents include topics, entities, actions, and publishing options.

03:18:10

Creating Topics and Websites with Power Platform

  • To create a topic in the Power Platform, users need to select trigger phrases, open the topic details pane, name the topic, and save it to the topics list.
  • Power Pages is a low-code platform within the Power Platform that allows for the creation of secure and modern external-facing business websites.
  • The main capabilities of Power Pages include the ability to author content easily, responsive rendering for mobile-friendly websites, advanced development capabilities for professional developers, and robust security and governance features.
  • Power Pages offers various templates like starter layout templates, after school program registration template, building permit application template, and blank page template to cater to different business needs.
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