1. What is Power BI Service?
Power BI Service is Microsoft’s cloud platform for hosting, sharing, and collaborating on Power BI reports and dashboards.
2. How is Power BI Service different from Power BI Desktop?
Power BI Desktop is for building reports, while Power BI Service is for publishing, sharing, refreshing data, and collaboration.
3. What are Workspaces in Power BI Service?
Workspaces are containers where users collaborate, publish reports, create dashboards, and manage datasets.
4. What is the difference between My Workspace and Shared Workspace?
My Workspace is personal. Shared/Collaborative Workspace allows multiple users to work together.
5. What is a Dashboard in Power BI Service?
A single-page canvas that aggregates visuals from different reports or datasets.
6. How do you refresh data in Power BI Service?
By configuring scheduled refresh or on-demand refresh using the dataset settings.
7. What is a Gateway in Power BI?
A bridge that connects on-premises data sources to the Power BI Service for scheduled refresh or DirectQuery.
8. Types of Gateways in Power BI?
- Personal Mode: Tied to one user.
- Standard/Enterprise Mode: Supports multiple users and data sources.
9. What is the maximum number of scheduled refreshes per day?
- Pro: 8 per day
- Premium/PPU: 48 per day
10. What is OneLake in Microsoft Fabric (related to Power BI)?
A unified, single data lake storage for all Fabric workloads including Power BI datasets.
11. What are the different Power BI licenses?
Free, Pro, Premium Per User (PPU), and Premium Capacity.
12. Do you need a Pro license to share reports?
Yes, unless the workspace is in a Premium capacity.
13. Difference between Pro and Premium license?
- Pro: Per-user license for sharing & collaboration.
- Premium: Dedicated capacity for enterprise scale, with advanced features.
14. Can Free users access shared reports?
Only if the workspace is in Premium capacity.
15. How do you share a report in Power BI Service?
Via direct share, apps, publish to web (careful: public), or embedding in Teams/SharePoint.
16. What is RLS (Row Level Security) in Power BI Service?
Security rule that restricts data access at the row level based on roles.
17. Can you manage RLS in Power BI Service?
Yes, roles are defined in Desktop and members are assigned to roles in Service.
18. Difference between RLS and OLS (Object Level Security)?
RLS restricts rows of data, OLS restricts access to tables or columns.
19. What is the difference between “Build” permission and “Read” permission in Power BI Service?
- Read: View reports only.
- Build: Create new reports/dashboards using a dataset.
20. What is Sensitivity Label in Power BI Service?
A data protection feature that classifies and secures reports/datasets.
21. What is a Power BI App?
A packaged collection of dashboards and reports shared with users.
22. How is an App different from a Workspace?
- Workspace: For developers/collaborators.
- App: Read-only, end-user friendly distribution.
23. Can a report belong to multiple apps?
No, a report can only be part of one app at a time.
24. What is the advantage of using Apps for sharing?
Easier distribution to a large audience, centralized updates, consistent access.
25. What is the difference between Publish to Web and Secure Sharing?
Publish to Web makes report public; Secure Sharing requires login and license.
26. How do you improve dataset performance in Power BI Service?
Use star schema, aggregations, incremental refresh, proper DAX, and reduce unnecessary columns.
27. What is Incremental Refresh in Power BI Service?
Refreshes only new/changed data instead of reloading the entire dataset.
28. What are Deployment Pipelines?
A feature in Power BI Service to manage Dev, Test, and Prod versions of reports.
29. What is Usage Metrics in Power BI Service?
Built-in reports showing how often dashboards/reports are viewed and by whom.
30. Can you restore a deleted workspace in Power BI Service?
Yes, Power BI admins can restore it within 30 days using the Admin portal.
31. What is the difference between a Workspace and a Personal Workspace in Power BI Service?
-
Workspace: Collaborative area where multiple users can work together, build, and share reports and dashboards.
-
My Workspace (Personal): Private area for individual use. Content here cannot be shared unless published as an app or explicitly shared.
32. What is Deployment Pipeline in Power BI Service?
Deployment Pipeline is used to promote content across different stages: Development → Test → Production. It ensures better governance and version control.
33. How can you schedule a data refresh in Power BI Service?
In Power BI Service → Dataset settings → Schedule Refresh → Set frequency (daily, weekly, hourly) and time. Requires a gateway if data is on-premises.
34. What is Dataflow in Power BI Service?
Dataflow is a collection of transformation logic stored in the cloud. It allows you to extract, transform, and load data using Power Query online, reusable across multiple datasets.
35. What is the difference between Dataflow and Dataset in Power BI Service?
- Dataflow: Prepares and transforms data (ETL).
- Dataset: A model containing data + measures + relationships used to build reports.
36. What is the maximum dataset size supported in Power BI Pro vs Premium?
- Pro: 1 GB per dataset.
- Premium: Up to 400 GB per dataset (depending on capacity).
37. What is a Streaming Dataset in Power BI Service?
A dataset that accepts real-time data from sources (like IoT devices, APIs) and updates dashboards instantly with live data.
38. What is Row-Level Security (RLS) and how is it implemented in Power BI Service?
RLS restricts data access based on user roles. You define roles and DAX filters in Power BI Desktop and publish them. In Power BI Service, users are assigned to those roles.
39. How do you share a report with external users in Power BI Service?
- Direct share with email (requires Pro license for both sender & receiver).
- Publish to web (not secure, public).
- Embed into a secure application using Power BI Embedded.
40. What are Sensitivity Labels in Power BI Service?
Sensitivity labels classify and protect data (Confidential, Internal, Public). They integrate with Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) to enforce compliance.
41. How does Incremental Refresh work in Power BI Service?
Incremental refresh loads only new or changed data instead of reloading the entire dataset. You define a refresh policy (e.g., last 5 years data, refresh last 1 month) in Power BI Desktop, and Service applies it.
42. What is the difference between Direct Publish and Publish to App Workspace?
- Direct Publish: Publishes reports to My Workspace (personal).
- Publish to App Workspace: Publishes reports into collaborative workspaces for team access.
43. Can you explain Paginated Reports in Power BI Service?
Paginated reports are pixel-perfect reports for printing or exporting. They use RDL files and are supported in Premium capacity.
44. What is the difference between Power BI Service and Power BI Report Server?
- Power BI Service: Cloud-based SaaS solution.
- Power BI Report Server: On-premises report hosting solution.
45. What are Power BI Apps in Power BI Service?
A packaged collection of dashboards and reports created in a workspace, published to end-users for easy access and navigation.
46. How do you restrict a user to only view, not edit, a report in Power BI Service?
Assign the user as a Viewer role in the workspace or share the report with view-only permissions.
47. What is the difference between Classic Workspaces and New Workspaces in Power BI Service?
- Classic workspaces were tied to Office 365 Groups.
- New workspaces are independent, with more granular roles (Admin, Member, Contributor, Viewer).
48. Can we use Power BI Service without a license?
Yes, but only limited to “Publish to Web” reports or accessing content assigned to Premium capacity.
For full collaboration and sharing, at least a Pro license is required.
49. What are Subscriptions in Power BI Service?
Subscriptions allow users to receive reports or dashboard snapshots via email at scheduled times.
50. How do you monitor Usage Metrics of a report in Power BI Service?
From the report menu → View Usage Metrics. It shows who viewed the report, how often, and performance stats.
