Power BI Certification – Is It Worth It and How Do You Get Certified?

If you’re an aspiring business analyst, you probably already know that Power BI skills are highly in demand. So, how can you prove to potential employers that you actually have those skills? How can you stand out from the crowd when applying for a job? Is getting a Power BI certification worth it?

Adding a Power BI certificate to your resume can prove you have the necessary skills. But what does a certificate mean to a potential employer? Can it actually help you get a job? Well...

That depends on the certification.

What certifications mean, and what they don’t

We’ve written a lot about certifications and how they often don’t have the impact that learners hope they will. But there are some tools where a specific certification matters, and Power BI is one of them.

Let’s get into the details on this. But first, let's differentiate between online course certifications and industry-recognized certifications.

Online course certifications

These certificates can be nice to share on LinkedIn, but they don’t really mean anything to employers. There are simply too many out there―every online learning platform has its own. Employers can't easily verify your skills with random online course certifications.

You can easily get a Python coding course certificate from many online platforms, some without writing any code! To be fair, assessing with multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions is easier to scale than evaluating each individual’s code.

Are Power BI certifications from courses pointless?

All that said, it doesn’t mean that all online courses that offer certificates can't be of value to you. But remember, the real value lies in the skills you gain, not just the certificate you receive at the end. Even a certificate associated with a famous university like Harvard or MIT won't mean much to potential employers.

In short, online courses may be helpful, but their certificates are pretty useless. Employers can't use them to assess your knowledge or skills, so they don't respect them.

Industry-recognized certifications

For specific tools, there are industry-recognized certifications that employers do respect. These certifications typically require you to pass a lengthy, standardized exam, and they generally don’t require you to complete any specific online course. Rather, anyone can sign up, pay a fee, take the exam, and (if they pass) get certified.

For example, there's one for Power BI that you can get. The certification is issued by Microsoft, the makers of Power BI. To earn it, you must pass a 90-minute test called the PL-300 exam. The Microsoft Power BI certification PL-300 exam costs $165.

When name recognition matters

Unlike the certifications associated with most online courses, Microsoft’s Power BI certification is recognized and respected by employers because they trust that the PL-300 exam is rigorous and standardized, accurately testing your actual competence with Power BI.

So, while many online course certifications aren’t worth your time, Microsoft’s Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification is meaningful because employers know it means you have passed the industry-recognized PL-300 exam.

Do you need a Power BI certification?

You don’t need a certification to get a job working with Power BI, but having one can definitely help open some doors.

What employers truly care about is whether you have the skills to do the job. And you can prove this in a variety of ways. Often, a great-looking portfolio of relevant business analysis projects or Power BI projects is the most convincing proof that you’re capable of doing the work an employer needs done.

However, many companies still assess job candidates by looking at their resumes.

Add a Power BI certificate to your resume

One way to combat this is by having an industry-recognized certification like Microsoft’s Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification on your resume. Most employers in the business analysis field are familiar with the certification and the demands of the PL-300 exam required to get it. Being able to put that Power BI certificate on your resume gives them some quick evidence that you really do have the skills they need.

There are other ways to impress employers on a resume, of course, and it’s absolutely possible to get a job as a business analyst using Power BI without getting certified. However, having the certification is helpful in this case, so it’s definitely worth considering.

What’s the best Power BI certification?

Microsoft’s Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification is the best Power BI certification for aspiring data and business analysts. Unlike certificates from online platforms like EdX or Coursera, the industry recognizes this Power BI certification as a meaningful indicator of skill because it requires a formal exam (the PL-300).

Other online programs that offer certificates may still be valuable in terms of what they can teach you, but in terms of the brand name on the resume, Microsoft’s Power BI certification is really the only one that matters.

What does the PL-300 exam cover?

Microsoft’s PL-300 exam measures the skills required to deliver actionable insights and meaningful business value through Power BI. As a candidate, you should have experience using Power Query and Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) and be proficient in preparing, modeling, visualizing, and analyzing data, as well as managing and securing Power BI assets. According to Microsoft’s official study guide for the PL-300 exam, here’s what the exam covers:

Prepare the data (25–30%)

This section evaluates your ability to connect to, clean, and transform data in Power BI. You will need to:

1. Get or connect to data
   • Identify and connect to data sources or a shared semantic model
   • Change data source settings, including credentials and privacy levels
   • Choose between DirectQuery and Import
   • Create and modify parameters
2. Profile and clean the data
   • Evaluate data, including data statistics and column properties
   • Resolve inconsistencies, unexpected or null values, and data quality issues
   • Resolve data import errors
3. Transform and load the data
   • Select appropriate column data types
   • Create and transform columns
   • Group and aggregate rows
   • Pivot, unpivot, and transpose data
   • Convert semi-structured data to a table
   • Create fact tables and dimension tables
   • Identify when to use reference or duplicate queries and their resulting impact
   • Merge and append queries
   • Identify and create appropriate keys for relationships
   • Configure data loading for queries

Model the data (25–30%)

This section tests your ability to design and optimize data models. You will need to:

1. Design and implement a data model
   • Configure table and column properties
   • Implement role-playing dimensions
   • Define a relationship's cardinality and cross-filter direction
   • Create a common date table
   • Identify use cases for calculated columns and calculated tables
2. Create model calculations by using DAX
   • Create single aggregation measures
   • Use the CALCULATE function
   • Implement time intelligence measures
   • Use basic statistical functions
   • Create semi-additive measures
   • Create a measure by using quick measures
   • Create calculated tables or columns
   • Create calculation groups
3. Optimize model performance
   • Improve performance by identifying and removing unnecessary rows and columns
   • Identify poorly performing measures, relationships, and visuals using Performance Analyzer and DAX query view
   • Improve performance by reducing granularity

Visualize and analyze the data (25–30%)

This section measures your ability to create and enhance reports for actionable insights. You will need to:

1. Create reports
   • Select an appropriate visual
   • Format and configure visuals
   • Apply and customize a theme
   • Apply conditional formatting
   • Apply slicing and filtering
   • Configure the report page
   • Choose when to use a paginated report
   • Create visual calculations using DAX
2. Enhance reports for usability and storytelling
   • Configure bookmarks
   • Create custom tooltips
   • Edit and configure interactions between visuals
   • Configure navigation for a report
   • Apply sorting to visuals
   • Configure sync slicers
   • Group and layer visuals using the Selection pane
   • Configure drillthrough navigation
   • Configure export settings
   • Design reports for mobile devices
   • Enable personalized visuals in a report
   • Design and configure Power BI reports for accessibility
   • Configure automatic page refresh
3. Identify patterns and trends
   • Use the Analyze feature in Power BI
   • Use grouping, binning, and clustering
   • Use AI visuals
   • Use reference lines, error bars, and forecasting
   • Detect outliers and anomalies

Manage and secure Power BI (15–20%)

This section evaluates your knowledge of managing and securing Power BI assets. You will need to:

1. Create and manage workspaces and assets
   • Create and configure a workspace
   • Configure and update a workspace app
   • Publish, import, or update items in a workspace
   • Create dashboards
   • Choose a distribution method
   • Configure subscriptions and data alerts
   • Promote or certify Power BI content
   • Identify when a gateway is required
   • Configure a semantic model scheduled refresh
2. Secure and govern Power BI items
   • Assign workspace roles
   • Configure item-level access
   • Configure access to semantic models
   • Implement row-level security roles
   • Configure row-level security group membership
   • Apply sensitivity labels

Altogether, the PL-300 exam assesses your ability to complete an end-to-end data analysis project using Power BI. It won’t be enough just to know the basics; Microsoft also notes that:

Candidates for this exam should be proficient at using Power Query and writing expressions by using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). You know how to assess data quality. Plus, you understand data security, including row-level security and data sensitivity.

In short: the PL-300 exam is a thorough examination of your Power BI skills. That’s why it’s a certification that’s actually respected by potential employers.

How to prepare for the PL-300 exam

There are many online resources that can help you prepare for the Power BI certification exam for free, but they tend to be video-based lecture courses that won’t force you to get hands-on and actually do things in Power BI. You might learn how to answer questions, but you won’t be getting useful experience by completing a Power BI project from start to end.

The best way to prepare for the PL-300 exam is to learn and practice Power BI skills by actually doing Power BI projects. That way, you’ll have an easier time on the exam, and when you’re certified you’ll already have a portfolio of projects ready to go that reinforce your Power BI skills.

Dataquest’s interactive Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI Skill Path, designed in partnership with Microsoft, is built to help you do exactly that. It’s designed to show you how to analyze and visualize data using Microsoft Power BI by actually getting you hands-on with Power BI right in your browser.

As you work through the courses, you’ll also complete guided projects that can be used as portfolio projects on your job applications. Before you’re done, you’ll have completed an end-to-end project that covers most of the same skills tested on the PL-300 exam.

Ready to change careers—or start a new one? Check out this user-friendly learning path, and get ready for a new world of career opportunities to open up when you earn your Power BI certificate!