Power Platform Certification Guide 2023

in this video I'm going to take you right through  all of the Power Platform certifications end to   end to help you understand which one you should  take first which order you should do them in which   ones are prerequisites for the others and so on  a little bit of behind the scenes here I record   this at home I don't have any kind of big fancy  setup and I go to and from my office for my job   I left my webcam in the office on Friday so here's  what it looks like behind the scenes today I have   a stack of books I'm using my computers webcam  hopefully the quality is still okay because the   show must go on I'm all set up to record and we're  doing this anyway so let's get certified so as a   starting point PL 900 now despite the fact that  this one has the biggest number this is actually   the fundamental certification so from here we  go up the numbers but the numbers don't reflect   entirely the level of the exact essentially there  was already a 100 before they introduced the 900   and they left them so ourselves with nowhere to  go so you just have to roll with it PL 900 is the   fundamentals exam and this exam is designed for  you if you are someone who's just getting started   with Power Platform you don't have much experience  you really want to get that first certification or   maybe you're in a role that's more of a business  development role or a managerial role and you want   to get across the concepts but you're not super  Hands-On now this is a certification where you   need to be able to understand and describe the  business value of all of these different Power   Platform components so let's take a look at  what that is here's the certification guide   and this takes you through some information and  I'll put all of the links in the description to   these sites here that this is about that you can  demonstrate knowledge and demonstrate value of   certain things for all of these exams they  all come with a detailed exam guide and it   is absolutely always worth clicking through on  this skills measure so for all of the other exams   they have these as well and they're all actually  nicely end up in here so what you want to do is go   through into the skills measured as at the latest  date if you've been preparing for a while like if   you're working on your preparation over months or  weeks it's always worth coming back and checking   in here because they do update the exams to take  in the most recent content I'm recording this at   the start of August 2023 so this one hasn't been  updated for a couple of months it's not like it's   all the time but it is always worth going in and  checking first thing to take notice of with all   of these exams is the allocation of how the skills  are measured so describe the business value of the   Power Platform is 25 20 to 25 percent of that exam  and the qualities of sorry the capabilities of   powerapps is another 20 to 25 percent so between  those two things you're getting close to 50 of the   value of the exam whereas power bi here is a much  lower area so you do need to have broad coverage   with this exam but with any of these things always  put more effort into those area areas that have   the higher things you don't have to pass every  single category usually the passing Mark is 70   of the whole thing so if you're really strong on  something big and a little weaker on something   that doesn't have much you can and you can get  away you can't get away with that so this will   actually go through and it is worth checking off  all of these points do you understand these things   but you'll see here that it tells you describe  the value of describe the value of just describe   how these work together so there's nothing in  here that is about actually Hands-On building if   you've got some hands-on experience that's going  to help you but I think for this one at the pl 900   level if you really understand the concepts you  can actually pass without much or any hands-on   experience the other thing here if we go back to  the exam guide is that it gives you self-paced   content on Microsoft learn so Microsoft learn is  a platform full of free training materials it is   worth signing in or signing up it's completely  free but if you sign in then you can bookmark   track your progress and come back to where you  are and Mark courses that you want to do and   keep track of your learning so it's well worth  doing that and then what you'll find in here   is a series of Collections and there's collections  for every single exam so here's our Power Platform   fundamentals and it's going through all of those  things so these learning paths on Microsoft learn   honestly this is the best way to get yourself  prepared to do these exams as we go further   up though you're going to need more hands-on  experience but for the fundamentals one that's   going to get you quite far now the other thing  with this one there's more is that there is a free   practice assessment this is the only one that has  the free practice assessment But whichever one of   these exams you're doing if it's your first exam  I would recommend going in and having a go at this   because it is something that follows the format  of all of the other exams you will need to sign in   with your Microsoft account to access this so I'm  going to switch across here into a browser where   I'm already logged in with my Microsoft account  and this is actually giving you 50 questions here   so you can see question 1 of 50 and this will give  you a really really good example of the format   of the exam and the practice of the exam do not I  repeat do not use exam dumps do not message me or   anyone else in the community saying please provide  me with an exam dump exam dumps are not allowed   when you go in and do your exam then it will say  you must not have used an exam dump honestly in   the end it's on you with your own kind of decision  about how you're going to prepare for this but   this is a legitimate way to do it there are other  things that you can purchase that are legitimate   Learning Materials courses and so on but anyone  who's done a free exam dump honestly at your own   risk because they're not always even particularly  accurate somebody is just memorized stuff and   reproduced it um illegally anyway enough of that  so PL 900 here here's question one let's see how   I go a company hosts conferences you need to be  a you need to enable customers to view upcoming   conferences hosted by your company which power  apps component should you use so this is testing   my understanding I don't have to have built  anything to know the concept here the concept is   that I need to provide data out to my customers in  order to provide access to them so playing alone   at home do we know the answer portal check your  answer and it will give you that feedback if I   had got it wrong it would give me the feedback so  let's see if we can do another one here a company   uses Power Platform you need to recommend a  use case for formulas in canvaseps which two   actions should you recommend so this is another  type of question where you'll sort of get two   points here for two correct answers if you only  get one of them right and one wrong you'll get   half points so that's how the exam will be scored  let's just pick something really obviously wrong   it's definitely nothing to do with XML and check  my answer so you'll see there it's giving you the   correct answer so this is really useful way of  preparing for any of these exams and completely   free completely legitimate so that is PL 900 which  is the foundation level really really good place   to start but if you want to go further then what  we do is move on from this is the fundamentals   level through to the next level which is where  most of the exams are bucketed which is called the   associate level now most of these exams are one  exam them one certification so you'll see on the   screen here we've got Power Platform fundamentals  earns you the fundamental certification so if you   do that one exam you immediately also get that  certification same with this one and most of   these there's one at the end though which is the  expert level where you do need two exams so we'll   come to that this one is App Maker PL 100 this is  the first of the exams in the series here where   you really need hands-on experience and despite  the fact that it's called App Maker this is not   a canvas apps only exam please don't go into this  one thinking I can build canvas apps therefore   I'm an App Maker this is using App Maker in the  broadest sense of the world world word in the   broader sense of the word so you will need to be  able to absolutely make canvas apps but also model   driven apps understand how to build tables in  dataverse you will need some power bi experience   and power automate experience power Pages power  virtual agents so we're talking apps across the   platform this is almost like platform maker but  we use apps really broadly here so this one is   if you want to be somebody who makes apps as part  of your job you're not necessarily doing this full   time but you are in an organization and you want  to get certified as someone who can contribute to   making apps perhaps you're an expert user maybe  you're starting to look ahead to having a career   in this area and this is a really good first level  certification this one carries a fair bit more   value than the 900 the 900 shows you understand  this one shows you can actually do stuff so if   you want to get into a job or career that proves  you can do stuff I would suggest starting here   rather than the 900 level so let's take a look at  the detailed requirements on this one this goes   through all of these different things here  designing and creating apps and automating   workflows and so on it gives you some suggestions  of what to do to be honest the suggestions of how   they're saying you can get experience are a  little wild I mean depends on where you are I   would suggest for this if you're not already in a  job where you making apps this is something pick   a use case pick something you do in your day job  or pick something you're interested in in your   personal life and and figure out how to use the  tools to do something that you're interested in   or that will benefit you it's the easiest way to  learn so with this one we can click through here   and have a look at the required exam which is PL  100 we've got a learning path again here and if we   have a look at the study guide again the list of  skills required and this one actually hasn't been   updated for quite some time you'll see here that  this is 65 this is this is amazing 65 creating   Business Solutions to see the difference between  the 900 and the 100 that was about describing this   one is about creating so you need to be able to  create a design for a business solution identify   the components design the user interface and so  on there's a lot in this one despite the fact that   it looks like there's only three things here but  you'll see we're going through with this one we've   got dataverse model of an apps canvaseps power  automate flows as I said a whole lot of things in   there it looks like maybe power bi isn't so much  in that one oh yeah Power bi is in there too so   this one is actually one of the broadest reaching  certifications even though it's sitting at that   100 level don't think of that as a beginner level  that is definitely a substantial certification   that you're tackling there so from PL 100 we go  to PL 200. now this one in theory is harder this   one is for a functional consultant you don't have  to have done 100 to do 200 but these side by side   are complementary useful certifications the 100  level is all of those maker skills the pl 200 goes   a level into a little bit more of the underlying  platform all of the security the environments all   of those things as well so these things do go  hand in hand this one is designed for people   like me who do Consulting who need to be able to  do this full-time you need to really know all of   the platform pieces and what you're doing from a  more holistic level of putting Solutions together   than the maker certification I've done both  of these to be honest I I don't think 100 is   easier than 200 I think they're different and it  depends on the level so as we're looking at these   certifications through here 900 is fundamentals  Foundation level 600 is the expert level right   at the top but all of these ones in the middle 100  200 300 400 and 500 aren't in order of difficulty   they all sit at this level called associate and  two of them carry a little bit more weight than   the others not necessarily in order here and  this is one of them this one has a pathway into   that expert solution architect so I said earlier  one of the exams at the end there requires two   sorry one of the certifications at the end there  requires two certifications so if you want to be   certified as a solution architect you need to  do the solution architect exam and one of these   other ones this is one of the options so if you  use certify as a functional consultant then you   can go on also to add the architect certification  let's take a look at the skills required for this   one here Power Platform functional consultant  associate now this is the most useless advice   ever if you need more experience before you  earn this certification build a basic dashboard   that's really that's really not going to get you  there I think that might be a copy paste error   from somewhere else you really genuinely need to  be going through a massive amount of things in   the platform capability here this is covering  all sorts of things so let's take a look at   the exam guide here this one is for people who  can do requirements Gathering Discovery talk to   subject matter experts so this is a level up in  terms of not only being able to make things but   also work with other people to understand what  they want made which is the role of a consultant   you'll see here quite a spread big emphasis on  dataverse which is core to the whole platform   and core to all of these things incidentally  if you are looking at Dynamics 365 customer   engagement certifications this one is the level  you need to go with those as well let me know if   you're interested in a video around Dynamics  365 certification because I can do that too   so that goes through all of those pieces there  from here we've got level 300 400 and 500 and   as I said the these are not necessarily run in an  order of difficulty this now really comes down to   what you are good at and what you're interested  in so let's take a look at this series here 300   and again these are all single exam single  certification 300 is essentially a power bi   certification data analyst so these three kind  of specialize a bit so we've got data analysts   at 300 400 is the developer exam so this is your  pro code exam here this is your alternate Pathway   to the solution architect so if you want to be a  solution architect you need to either come from   that functional consultant or Pro developer  side either one of those exams plus the other   one will get you that certification so this is for  people who are actually working on the platform as   developers not low code maker experience which is  the 100 this is like the pro code version of The   100 exam so this is the developer which involves  writing code and doing all of those those kinds of   things then we have 500 which is the RPA developer  now if you haven't come across this before robotic   process automation is part of power automate  actually getting a really big lift in 2023 because   Microsoft has just changed the power automate  licensing to include this at the base level so   if you want to get in on something where there's  going to be a lot of growth and opportunity this   is definitely an area to have a look at this is  around using robotic process automation is where   you are perhaps working with a an application  that's a green screen or a legacy application   that doesn't have an API and you need to key  things in twice it will replicate the keystrokes   there's a lot more to it than that obviously  but that's the concept so that's the end of   that associate series here all of them have those  same links that go through all of the details of   what's in the exam all of them have Microsoft  learn paths and it's worth going through those   and all of them will require you to have hands-on  experience but there's not a level of difficulty   there I would have difficulty passing 400 because  I'm not a pro developer but someone who lives in   that world of writing code might have difficulty  with the 100 low code app maker so these ones are   all really down to your level of experience and  Specialty and then we get to the one at the top   of the list here which is the solution architect  this is the only one that does require two exams   so either that 200 or 400 and then you do the  600 here this one is harder to study for there   are learning paths and things on there this one is  much broader so you'll see here we've got perform   solution envisioning and requirement analysis  architecture solution implement the solution   the things around architect and Implement are  essentially the same skills you've learned along   the way so I found a lot of what I had learned for  PL 200 becomes applicable there but this performs   solution and visioning and requirement analysis  really comes from on-the-job experience this is   much harder to learn from a Microsoft learn path  and the way it's tested in the exam is that this   one is much heavier with case studies quite case  study so you'll get something in here that says   here is a scenario here's a customer who's trying  to achieve the following thing and lists out a   whole heap of requirements over several pages and  then there's lots of in-depth questions that ask   you to put those things together so I actually  found this one to be honest not as hard for me   as some of the other ones because I do this kind  of thing in my job a lot I listen to requirements   and understand how to put the pieces together but  this one really comes from experience so I would   suggest then that as you're working through your  certification Journey here's what it looks like   if you're starting out you're just getting into  it or you want to understand the pieces but you   haven't got any hands-on experience yet PL 900 is  for you you'll often find free with the Microsoft   events and things they'll sometimes give away  certification vouchers for that one so keep a   lookout for that if you are at a level of wanting  to do a Hands-On thing PL 100 is a very good place   to start if you are a maker or you want to become  a maker or you really want to hone those skills   and start to develop a career PL 200 if you want  to get into Consulting you will actually need   some Consulting experience as well but that's  the certification that will get you there and   then three four and 500 are specialty exams if  you're into those things or if you would like   to just complete the set and then if you want to  become a solution architect you are going to need   a lot of on-the-job experience as well as one of  those two certifications now for all of these you   can do the exams in person in a testing center  near you or you can do them online which is I   think how most people are doing them now check  out my video here for all the tips and tricks   about how to do that online certification without  too much pain good luck and thanks for watching

Channel: Lisa Crosbie

Views: 5,814

Keywords: power apps, power platform, power virtual agents, power automate, power platform certification, power platform fundamentals, power platform fundamentals pl-900, power platform fundamentals exam, pl-900 power platform fundamentals exam, pl-100 microsoft power platform app maker, pl-200 exam, pl-200 exam preparation, pl-400 microsoft power platform developer, pl-600 microsoft power platform solution architect, pl-600 exam prep, lisa crosbie, microsoft certification

Id: hp5mIia91VQ

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 07 2023