1. What is self-service business intelligence?
Answer: Self-Service Business Intelligence (SSBI)
- SSBI is an approach to data analytics that enables business users to filter, segment, and analyze their data, without the in-depth technical knowledge in statistical analysis, business intelligence (BI).
- SSBI has made it easier for end-users to access their data and create various visuals to get better business insights.
- Anybody who has a basic understanding of the data can create reports to build intuitive and shareable dashboards.
2. What is BI and What is a Power BI?
Answer: Business intelligence is a technology-driven method. It helps you to analyze data and to provide actionable information that helps corporate executives, business managers, and other users to make decisive business decisions.
Power BI is a Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tool which helps you to convert data from the various data sources into interactive dashboards and BI reports. It provides multiple software connectors and services.
3. What are the parts of Microsoft’s self-service business intelligence solution?
Answer: Microsoft has two parts for Self-Service BI
| Excel BI Toolkit | It allows users to create an interactive report by importing data from different sources and model data according to reporting requirements. |
| Power BI | It is the online solution that enables you to share the interactive reports and queries that you have created using the Excel BI Toolkit. |
4. Why are you interested in Power BI? What makes you think that Power BI would be a great career option?
Answer: A cloud-based data reporting and visualization tool, Power BI makes it possible for users to generate reports online. Once reports are generated, users can share them with their colleagues in their workplace. This aspect of Power BI makes it quite popular among business users. And therefore, Power BI is both an interesting and promising career option.
5. Why use Power BI?
Answer: Here are four primary reasons for using Power BI tool:
- Pre-built dashboards and reports for SaaS Solutions.
- Power BI allows real-time dashboard updates.
- Offers Secure and reliable connection to your data sources in the cloud or on-premises
- Power BI offers fast deployment, hybrid configuration, and a secure environment.
- Helps you in data exploration using natural language query
6. What is a Power BI Desktop?
Answer: Power BI Desktop is a free desktop application that can be installed right on your computer. Power BI Desktop works cohesively with the Power BI service by providing advanced data exploration, shaping, modeling, and creating reports with highly interactive visualizations. You can save your work to a file or publish your data and reports right to your Power BI site to share with others.
7. What are the most common DAX Functions used?
Answer: Below is some of the most commonly used DAX function:
- SUM, MIN, MAX, AVG, COUNTROWS, DISTINCT COUNT
- IF, AND, OR, SWITCH
- ISBLANK, ISFILTERED, ISCROSSFILTERED
- VALUES, ALL, FILTER, CALCULATE,
- UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPT, NATURALINNERJOIN, NATURALLEFTEROUTERJOIN,
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS, IS EMPTY, - VAR (Variables)
- GEOMEAN, MEDIAN, DATEDIFF
8. Why and how would you use a custom visual file?
Answer: You’d use a custom visual file if the prepackaged files don’t fit the needs of your business. Custom visual files are created by developers, and you can import them and use them in the same way as you would the pre-packaged files.
9. What are the major components of Power BI?
Answer: There are five different components of Power BI.
- Power Pivot: Fetches and cleans data and loads on to Power Query
- Power Query: Operates on the loaded data
- Power Q&A: Makes it possible for users to interact with reports using simple English language
- Power View: Lets users create interactive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals
- Power Map: Enables the processing of accurate geographic locations in datasets
10. What is Building Blocks in Power BI?
Answer: The following are the Building Blocks (or) key components of Power BI:
- Visualizations: Visualization is a visual representation of data.
Example: Pie Chart, Line Graph, Side by Side Bar Charts, Graphical Presentation of the source data on top of Geographical Map, TreeMap, etc. - Datasets: Dataset is a collection of data that Power BI uses to create its visualizations.
Example: Excel sheets, Oracle, or SQL server tables. - Reports: Report is a collection of visualizations that appear together on one or more pages.
Example: Sales by Country, State, City Report, Logistic Performance report, Profit by Products report, etc. - Dashboards: Dashboard is a single layer presentation of multiple visualizations, i.e we can integrate one or more visualizations into a one-page layer.
Example: Sales dashboard can have pie charts, geographical maps, and bar charts. - Tiles: Tile is a single visualization in a report or on a dashboard.
Example: Pie Chart in Dashboard or Report.
11. Name some commonly used tasks in the Query Editor.
Answer:
- Connect to data
- Shape and combine data
- Group rows
- Pivot columns
- Create custom columns
- Query formulas
12. What is DAX? What are the benefits of using variables in DAX?
Answer: DAX or Data Analysis Expressions can be used to query and return data by a table expression. It is a formula language that is used to perform basic calculations and data analysis on the data in Power Pivot. Also, it is used to compute calculated columns, calculated fields, and measures. However, data cannot be inserted or modified using DAX.
DAX Syntax:
Total Sales = SUM(Sales[SalesAmount])
Where ‘Total Sales’ is a ‘Measure’; ‘SUM’ is a ‘DAX Function’, and ‘Sales[SalesAmount]’ represents the referenced table and the referenced column name.
Benefits of using variables in DAX:
- Variables can be reused in DAX queries, thus avoiding additional queries of the source database.
- Variables make DAX expressions understandable.
13. Explain the term “M language”.
Answer: This is the programming language used in Power Query. It’s a functional, case-sensitive language that’s similar to other programming languages and easy to use.
14. What is the difference between Calculated Columns, Calculated Tables, and Measures?
Answer:
| Calculated Columns | Calculated Tables | Measures |
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16. Which In-memory Analytics Engine is used in Power Pivot?
Answer: The primary in-memory analytics engine behind Power Pivot is xVelocity. This engine handles large amounts of data as it stores data in columnar databases. In in-memory analytics, all data is loaded to RAM memory, and therefore processing speed is fast.
17. How can geographic data be mapped into Power BI Reports? Answer: Through a map chart and filled map chart, Power BI makes it possible for users to visually map geographic data, both globally and regionally.
- Power BI integrates with Bing Maps to find default coordinates for locations in a process known as geocoding.
- This integration means that users do not need to provide longitude and latitude coordinates.
18. What is the Differentiate between Power BI and Power BI Pro?
Answer: Power BI offers distinct kinds of features to help you get started in searching for data in a completely new way. Power BI Pro, on the other hand, caters with some additional features like scheduling data, live data sources, storage capacity, along with complete interactivity and much more.
19. What is the difference Between SUM() and SUMX()?
Answer: Sum function (Sum()) takes the data columns and aggregates it totally but SumX function (SumX()) lets you filter the data which you are adding.
20. What is the prerequisite for connecting to a database in Azure SQL Database?
Answer: There is only one prerequisite for this. Before connecting to a database in Azure SQL Database, users should configure firewall settings to allow remote connections.
21. What is the common table function for grouping data?
Answer: SUMMARIZE()
- Main group by function in SSAS.
- The recommended practice is to specify table and group by columns but not metrics. You can use the ADD COLUMNS function.
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS
- New group by function for SSAS and Power BI Desktop; more efficient.
- Specify groups by columns, tables, and expressions.
22. What is the use of split function?
Answer: The split function is used for splitting the string database on the given delimiter.
23. How do you manage a role in Power BI?
Answer: Follow these steps to manage a role in Power BI
Step 1: Import data into the Power BI Desktop report
Step 2: connection
Step 3: Select the Modeling tab.
Step 4: Select Manage Roles.
Step 5: Select Create.
Step 5: Provide a name for the role.
Step 6: Select the table that you want to apply for a DAX rule.
Step 7: Enter the DAX expressions.
Step 8: After creating the DAX expression, select the checkbox placed above the expression, and validate the expression.
Step 9: Select Save.
24. What is Content Pack?
Answer: A content pack is used to share the data, data sets, or dashboard within the organization. It takes place over the BI website and can be shared with multiple users also.
25. Can we Refresh Data Reports that are uploaded to the Cloud?
Answer: Yes, you can refresh the data reports which are uploaded to the cloud. Power BI personal gateway and Data management gateway helps you acquire the same.
26. How do you compare Target and Actual Values from a Power BI report?
Answer: Gauge chart is used to compare two different measures where the Target and Actuals are inferred.
27. What is the Power Pivot Data Model?
Answer: It is a model that is made up of data types, tables, columns, and table relations. These data tables are typically constructed for holding data for a business entity.
28. What are query parameters and Power BI templates?
Answer: Query parameters can be used to provide users of a local Power BI Desktop report with a prompt, to specify the values they’re interested in.
- The parameter selection can then be used by the query and calculations.
- PBIX files can be exported as Templates (PBIT files).
- Templates contain everything in the PBIX except the data itself.
Parameters and templates can make it possible to share/email smaller template files and limit the amount of data loaded into the local PBIX files, improving processing time and experience.
29. Is Power BI better than Tableau?
Answer: Both Tableau and Power BI allow the user to connect to distinct data sources. However, Tableau provides better support to connect to a different data warehouse, and Power BI is heavily integrated with Microsoft’s portfolio like the Azure cloud platform.
30. What is a Power BI Designer?
Answer: It is a stand-alone application where we can make Power BI reports and then upload it to Powerbi.com, it does not require Excel. It is a combination of Power Query, Power Pivot, and Power View.