Power BI
Microsoft's business intelligence tool — tightly integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem and dominant in enterprise organizations.
Power BI is Microsoft's answer to Tableau, offering interactive dashboards and reports with deep integration into Excel, Azure, and the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem. It's the dominant BI tool at enterprises with Microsoft infrastructure — which represents the majority of large organizations outside of tech. Power BI proficiency is highly valued in finance, operations, and enterprise IT roles.
Typical time to job-readiness: ~4 weeks.
Learning Power BI
Beginner
Import data, build basic visuals, and publish a report to Power BI Service. Learn DAX basics — SUM, CALCULATE, FILTER, and RELATED.
Intermediate
Complex DAX measures (time intelligence functions, iterators like SUMX), Power Query transformations, and proper data modeling with a star schema.
Advanced
Row-level security, incremental refresh, composite models (DirectQuery + Import), and enterprise deployment governance. Common at Microsoft-ecosystem organizations.
Key concepts
- DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) — formula language for measures and calculated columns
- Data model: tables connected by relationships, ideally in a star schema
- Measures vs calculated columns — measures aggregate at query time, columns store per row
- Power Query (M language) for data transformation before it reaches the model
- CALCULATE — most important DAX function, modifies the filter context
- Report, Dashboard, and Dataset — three distinct objects in Power BI Service
Common interview topics
- Explain the difference between a measure and a calculated column in Power BI
- What is CALCULATE in DAX and how does it work
- How do you model a many-to-many relationship in Power BI
- What is a star schema and why is it preferred for Power BI models
- How do you implement row-level security in Power BI