DP-900 · 4 Describe an analytics workload
Power BI capabilities
Exam objective: Identify the capabilities of Power BI
Power BI reports are built in Power BI Desktop, published to the Power BI service, and consumed through a browser or the phone app.
Power BI is Microsoft's suite for turning a data model into interactive reports that business users can actually use, and it is also a core workload of Microsoft Fabric.
The usual path starts in Power BI Desktop, a Windows application where you import data, build the model and design the report. From there you publish to the Power BI service, a cloud environment where reports get shared, data refreshes get scheduled, and related reports can be grouped into dashboards and apps. People then consume that content through a browser or the Power BI phone app.
Inside Fabric, Power BI content lives in shared workspaces, so a team can build and update reports and semantic models entirely in the browser. Direct Lake mode lets a report query OneLake files directly, giving in memory speed without a separate import or refresh step.
Power BI also has built in AI help. Copilot, which needs Fabric capacity F2 or higher or Power BI Premium P1 or higher, can summarize a report, create report pages, and write DAX measures from a plain language description. The smart narrative visual, by contrast, generates a text summary of a visual's data without needing a Copilot license at all.
On the exam, Desktop builds and the service shares, and the licensing detail around Copilot is a favorite trap.
Key points
- The standard workflow is build in Power BI Desktop, publish to the Power BI service, then consume through a browser or the phone app.
- The Power BI service supports scheduled refresh, sharing, and grouping reports into dashboards and apps.
- A Fabric workspace lets a team build and edit reports and semantic models entirely in a browser.
- Direct Lake mode queries OneLake files directly, without a separate import or refresh cycle.
- Copilot needs Fabric capacity F2 or higher, or Premium P1 or higher; the smart narrative visual does not need a Copilot license.
Exam trap
Not every AI feature in Power BI needs a Copilot license. The smart narrative visual works without one, while summarizing a report, creating pages and generating DAX with Copilot do require the right capacity or Premium tier.
Check yourself
Put these steps of the standard Power BI reporting workflow in order, from first to last.
Available
Your sequence
- Add steps from the left, in order.
Go deeper on Microsoft Learn
Checked against Microsoft Learn on October 1, 2026.