Power BI learning path

Power BI learning path (beginner to advanced)

Ordered path for Power BI and the Microsoft Fabric parts that matter to BI. Every link below was opened or confirmed on 2026-10-05. “Free” means no charge for the content; exams are paid (check the exam page, no amounts here). Skills lists change: Power BI ships monthly.

1. Orientation (day 1)

1. What is Power BI? (Microsoft Learn docs, updated 2026-03): Desktop vs service vs mobile, Report Server, Fabric relationship. Free. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/power-bi-overview
2. Install Power BI Desktop (free, Windows) and sign in to the service; use the in-product sample reports. Download links are on the page above.

2. Beginner: first reports (weeks 1-2)

3. Get started with Microsoft data analytics (Microsoft Learn learning path, 4 modules, updated 2025-06; includes “Get started building with Power BI”, an intro to Fabric and “Get started with Copilot in Power BI”). Free, self-paced. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/data-analytics-microsoft/
4. Guy in a Cube (Adam Saxton and Patrick LeBlanc): free YouTube channel with Power BI how-tos and update videos (per search results). Free. https://www.youtube.com/@GuyInACube. Their Microsoft employment could not be confirmed from the channel or site on 2026-10-08 (the guyinacube.com page returned no readable text), so it is not asserted here. Vault summary: not checked (yt-base not mounted).
5. Curbal (Ruth Pozuelo Martinez of Curbal AB, Sweden; Microsoft Data Platform MVP): 800+ YouTube videos, a free introductory Power BI online course (12 videos), deeper Power Query and M courses paid. https://curbal.com/ (confirmed 2026-10-08 via WebFetch; curl gets 403).

3. Intermediate: modelling, Power Query, DAX (weeks 3-8)

6. PL-300T00: Design and manage analytics solutions using Power BI (Microsoft Learn course; modules: data preparation, modelling, effective reports, manage and secure; 3-day instructor-led format, same material self-paced). Free self-paced. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/courses/pl-300t00
7. “Introducing DAX” video course from SQLBI (Marco Russo, Alberto Ferrari): marked Free on sqlbi.com, 150 minutes of lectures with downloadable slides and a Power BI file (confirmed 2026-10-08). https://www.sqlbi.com/p/introducing-dax-video-course/. SQLBI’s other video courses are paid; articles are free. https://www.sqlbi.com/
8. DAX Guide (function reference by SQLBI, free, last update shown 2026-03-23): https://dax.guide/
9. Enterprise DNA (EDNA Learn): the homepage offers a free account with free courses and paid plans (confirmed 2026-10-08; the homepage presents broader data and AI training and gives no Power BI-specific path). https://enterprisedna.co/

4. Certification checkpoint

10. Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate, exam PL-300 (paid, proctored, 100 minutes; pass mark 700; free yearly renewal assessment). Skills measured as of 2026-04-20: Prepare the data 25-30%, Model the data 25-30%, Visualize and analyze 25-30%, Manage and secure 15-20%; now includes Copilot tasks, choosing Direct Lake vs DirectQuery vs Import, visual calculations. Free practice assessment and exam sandbox. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/data-analyst-associate/ and study guide https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/resources/study-guides/pl-300

5. Advanced: patterns, performance, enterprise models (months 3-6)

11. DAX Patterns (Russo and Ferrari): free online reusable patterns (time intelligence, ranking, budgeting). Offline book and video lectures are paid. https://www.daxpatterns.com/
12. SQLBI books (confirmed on https://www.sqlbi.com/books/, paid): The Definitive Guide to DAX (Third Edition, Microsoft Press), Optimizing DAX (Second Edition, SQLBI Corp.), DAX Patterns (Second Edition), Analyzing Data with Power BI and Power Pivot for Excel (Microsoft Press). Authorship is by Russo and Ferrari per sqlbi.com (author names not printed on the books page itself).
13. TMDL and PBIP source-controlled development, external tools (Bravo, DAX Studio, Tabular Editor): start at the Power BI Projects overview on Microsoft Learn (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-overview, linked from the authoring MCP page; not separately opened).

6. Fabric and AI track (parallel, as needed)

14. Fabric Analyst in a Day: free hands-on workshop for Power BI/Fabric analysts (https://aka.ms/LearnFAIAD redirects to a Microsoft events-catalogue search for “Fabric Analyst in a Day”; whether sessions are currently scheduled was not checked).
15. Direct Lake overview (Learn, 2026-09-02): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/fundamentals/direct-lake-overview.
16. Copilot for Power BI overview (Learn, 2026-08-24) and “prepare your data for AI”: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/copilot-introduction.
17. Agent workflows: Power BI Authoring MCP server and agent skills (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/mcp/power-bi-authoring-mcp), Fabric IQ MCP (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/iq/connectors/fabric-iq-mcp), Skills for Fabric (https://github.com/microsoft/skills-for-fabric). Status GA/preview is listed in Power BI.
18. Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate (exam DP-600; the certification page announces an update to the English version on 2026-10-19, page last updated 2026-07-21): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/fabric-analytics-engineer-associate/.

7. Staying current

• Microsoft’s monthly “What’s new” page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/whats-new (August 2026 edition when fetched) and the archive linked there.
• Official YouTube channel and forums are linked at the bottom of that page; Fabric Community Power BI forums: https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/category/powerbi (403 to curl and WebFetch on 2026-10-08, so not re-confirmed).

Notes and open items

• No book other than SQLBI titles was verified. Other well-known titles were not checked and are deliberately omitted.
• Practice datasets: none verified beyond the Microsoft sample content inside Power BI.
• Guy in a Cube and Curbal channel details come from search results and Curbal’s site; no primary channel statistics checked.
• Related: Looker Studio for a free Google alternative; business-intelligence for context.

Sources (fetched 2026-10-05)

Microsoft Learn pages linked above (power-bi-overview, data-analytics-microsoft path, pl-300t00 course, PL-300 certification and study guide, DP-600 certification, whats-new), https://www.sqlbi.com/, https://www.sqlbi.com/books/, https://www.daxpatterns.com/, https://dax.guide/, https://curbal.com/, https://enterprisedna.co/, web search for Guy in a Cube (2026-10-05).