Welcome to the final post in my series focused on providing a set of revision notes for the PL-400: Microsoft Power Platform Developer exam. In today’s post, I wanted to consolidate all of the content from the series into a single, concise post for ease of access. I’ll also provide some general advice and tips that I hope will come in useful for when you sit the exam.
This series has aimed to provide a broad outline of the core areas to keep in mind when tackling the exam, linked to appropriate resources for more focused study. Ideally, your revision should involve a high degree of hands-on testing and familiarity in working with the platform if you want to do well in this exam.
Microsoft has split the PL-400 exam into several different areas based on the specification found here. Therefore, I have linked below to the relevant blog/video content from the series for each applicable subject.
Create a technical design (10-15%)
Validate requirements and design technical architecture
- design and validate the technical architecture for a solution
- design authentication and authorization strategy
- determine whether you can meet requirements with out-of-the-box functionality
- determine when to use Logic Apps versus Power Automate flows
- determine when to use serverless computing, plug-ins, or Power Automate
- determine when to build a virtual entity data source provider and when to use connectors
Design solution components
- design a data model
- design Power Apps reusable components
- design custom connectors
- design server-side components
Describe Microsoft Power Platform extensibility points
- describe Power Virtual Agents extensibility points including Bot Framework skills and Power Automate flows
- describe Power BI extensibility points including Power BI APIs, custom visuals, and embedding Power BI apps in websites and other applications
- describe Power Apps portal extensibility points including CRUD APIs and custom styling
- describe Web Resources and their uses
Blog Posts
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Designing a Technical Architecture for the Power Platform
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Designing Solution Components within the Power Platform
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Reviewing Power Platform Extensibility Points
Configure Microsoft Dataverse (15-20%)
Configure security to support development
- troubleshoot operational security issues
- create or update security roles and field-level security profiles
- configure business units and teams
Implement tables and columns
- configure tables and table options
- configure columns
- configure relationships and types of behaviours
Implement application lifecycle management (ALM)
- create solutions and manage solution components
- import and export solutions
- manage solution dependencies
- create a package for deployment
- automate deployments
- implement source control for projects including solutions and code assets
Blog Posts
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Implementing Security within Microsoft Dataverse
Videos
PL-400 Exam Prep: Creating and Deploying a Managed Solution
PL-400 Exam Prep: Working with the Solution Packager Tool
PL-400 Exam Prep: Extracting and Deploying Solutions using Azure DevOps
PL-400 Exam Prep: Working with Tables, Columns & Relationships in Microsoft Dataverse
PL-400 Exam Prep: Understanding Security in Microsoft Dataverse
Create and configure Power Apps (15-20%)
Create model-driven apps
- configure a model-driven app
- configure forms
- configure columns
- configure visualizations
- configure commands and buttons
Create canvas apps
- create and configure a canvas app
- implement complex formulas to manage control events and properties
- analyze app usage by using App Insights
- build reusable component libraries
Manage and troubleshoot apps
- troubleshoot app issues by using Monitor and other browser-based debugging tools
- interpret results from App Checker and Solution Checker
- identify and resolve connector and API errors
- optimize app performance including pre-loading data and query delegation
Blog Posts
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Working with Model-Driven Power Apps
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Working with Canvas Apps
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Managing and Troubleshooting a Power App
Videos
PL-400 Exam Prep: Creating a Model-Driven Power App Form, Form, View, Chart & Dashboard
PL-400 Exam Prep: Working with Canvas Power Apps
Configure business process automation (5-10%)
Configure Power Automate
- create and configure a flow
- configure steps to use Dataverse connector actions and triggers
- implement complex expressions in flow steps
- implement error handling
- troubleshoot flows by analyzing JSON responses from connectors
Implement processes
- create and configure business process flows
- create and configure business rules
- create, manage, and interact with business process flows by using server-side and client-side code
- troubleshoot processes
Blog Posts
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Working with Power Automate Flows
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Implementing Business Process Flows and Business Rules
Videos
PL-400 Exam Prep: Business Process Automation Using Power Automate Cloud Flows
PL-400 Exam Prep: Designing and Interacting with a Business Process Flow
PL-400 Exam Prep: Working with Business Rules
Extend the user experience (10-15%)
Apply business logic using client scripting
- create JavaScript or TypeScript code that targets the Client API object model
- register an event handler
- create client-side scripts that target the Dataverse Web API
Create a Power Apps Component Framework (PCF) component
- describe the PCF component lifecycle
- initialize a new PCF component
- configure a PCF component manifest
- implement the component interfaces
- package, deploy, and consume the component
- configure and use PCF Device, Utility, and WebAPI features
- test and debug PCF components by using the local test harness
Create a command button function
- create commands
- design command button rules and actions
- edit the command bar by using the Ribbon Workbench
- manage dependencies between JavaScript libraries
Blog Posts
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Implementing Client-Side Scripting on Model Driven Power Apps
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Creating a Power Apps Component Framework (PCF) Control
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Working with Ribbon Command Buttons
Videos
PL-400 Exam Prep: Creating a Basic JavaScript Form Function for a Model Driven Power App Form
PL-400 Exam Prep: Building & Deploying a Power Apps Component Framework (PCF) Control
PL-400 Exam Prep: Using the Ribbon Workbench to Create a Simple Command Button
Extend the platform (15-20%)
Create a plug-in
- describe the plug-in execution pipeline
- design and develop a plug-in
- debug and troubleshoot a plug-in
- implement business logic by using pre-images and post-images
- perform operations on data by using the Organization service API
- optimize plug-in performance
- register custom assemblies by using the Plug-in Registration Tool
- develop a plug-in that targets a custom action message
Create custom connectors
- create a definition for the API
- configure API security
- use policy templates to modify connector behavior at runtime
- expose Azure Functions as custom connectors
- create custom connectors for public APIs by using Postman
Use platform APIs
- interact with data and processes by using the Dataverse Web API or the Organization Service
- implement API limit retry policies
- optimize for performance, concurrency, transactions, and batching
- query the Global Discovery service to discover the URL and other information for an organization
- perform entity metadata operations with the Web API
- perform authentication by using OAuth
Process workloads
- process long-running operations by using Azure Functions
- configure scheduled and event-driven function triggers in Azure Functions
- authenticate to the Microsoft Power Platform by using managed identities
Blog Posts
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Building, Deploying & Debugging Plug-ins using C#
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Building a Power Platform Custom Connector
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Working with the Microsoft Dataverse Web API and Processing Workloads
Videos
PL-400 Exam Prep: Creating a Microsoft Dataverse Plug-in using Visual Studio 2019 & C#
PL-400 Exam Prep: Deploying a Microsoft Dataverse Plug-in using the Plug-in Registration Tool
PL-400 Exam Prep: Debugging a Microsoft Dataverse Plug-in using Trace Logging
PL-400 Exam Prep: Debugging a Microsoft Dataverse Plug-in Using the Plug-in Registration Tool
PL-400 Exam Prep: Creating a Custom Connector for an Azure Function
PL-400 Exam Prep: Authenticating into the Microsoft Dataverse Web API
PL-400 Exam Prep: Working with the Microsoft Dataverse Global Discovery Endpoint
PL-400 Exam Prep: Performing Common Operations with the Microsoft Dataverse API
PL-400 Exam Prep: Performing Batch Operations using the Microsoft Dataverse Web API
Develop Integrations (5-10%)
Publish and consume events
- publish an event by using the API
- publish an event by using the Plug-in Registration Tool
- register service endpoints including webhooks, Azure Service Bus, and Azure Event Hub
- implement a Dataverse listener for an Azure solution
- create an Azure Function that interacts with Microsoft Power Platform
Implement data synchronization
- configure entity change tracking
- read entity change records by using platform APIs
- create and use alternate keys
Blog Posts
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Publishing and Consuming Events
Exam PL-400 Revision Notes: Implementing Data Synchronisation using Microsoft Dataverse
Videos
PL-400 Exam Prep: Posting Microsoft Dataverse Events to Azure Service Bus
PL-400 Exam Prep: Registering & Consuming a Microsoft Dataverse Webhook from an Azure Function
PL-400 Exam Prep: Working with Change Tracking in the Microsoft Dataverse Web API
PL-400 Exam Prep: Working with Alternate Keys in the Microsoft Dataverse Web API
General Exam Preparation Tips
- Hands-on preparation is essential if you wish to do well in the exam. You should ideally set up a Power Apps Developer Plan environment that you can use to experiment with the core functionality within the Power Platform.
- Keep abreast of the latest Microsoft Docs and Learning Path materials that are related to this exam, as the platform is continually changing all of the time.
- Familiarise yourself with the general format, length and expected types of questions within a Microsoft exam. If you want to get a feel for the level and type of questions to expect on the exam, you can also purchase an official practice test from Measure Up.
- Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, you will more than likely have to sit your exam using the online proctored experience. Take some time to familiarise yourself with the process involved here, and perform a system test well in advance of your exam date - the last thing you need on the day of the exam is to stress out due to a system or access issue.
I hope that you’ve found this series useful. Good luck when sitting the exam, and let me know how you got on!