Are you thinking about trying to pass the PL-900 certification exam? In this clip from my Pluralsight course, I discuss why and provide a learning guide.
If you aspire to improve productivity by automating business processes, analyzing data to produce business insights, and acting more effectively by creating simple app experiences, this learning path and certification are for you!
Video Summary
Here are the key points from the transcript:
- Microsoft Certifications: They provide a professional advantage by being globally recognized and industry-endorsed, enhancing credibility and career opportunities.
- Power Platform Certification: The PL-900 exam is a great starting point, especially with the growing trend of low-code and no-code applications in enterprises.
- Certification Benefits: Certified professionals often see salary increases, job promotions, and higher demand for their expertise within their organizations.
- Learning Resources: Pluralsight offers a comprehensive certification path with seven courses, including practice exams and lab environments to reinforce learning.
- Practical Experience: Using Microsoft 365 E5 tenant and PowerApps developer plan can help you practice and build skills, making the learning journey enjoyable and beneficial.
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
Video Transcript
Let’s start by learning what are the benefits of getting Power Platform certified, and more particularly, why the PL-900 exam. Let’s start by talking about why we even want to get a Microsoft certification. Microsoft certifications can help give you a professional advantage by providing globally recognized and industry-endorsed evidence of mastering skills in a digital and cloud business. According to multiple studies, 91% of certified IT professionals say that certification gives them more professional credibility. Additionally, 94% of decision-makers agree that certified employees provide added value, and 52% of certified IT professionals say that their expertise is more sought after within their organization. And let’s be honest, certifications can also help you in the financial aspect of your career. Twenty-eight percent of technical professionals said that getting certified led to salary or wage increases, with most of them seeing that increase in under three months after getting certified. Twenty-one percent of technical professionals reported job promotions after getting certified. Personally, I have found that getting certified has helped me land better positions and get paid more throughout my career, so I’m a huge fan of certifications.
Now, why Power Platform? Low-code and no-code applications are a growing trend inside the enterprise, and there is a huge need for skilled professionals. If we take a look at recent statistics, according to Gartner, by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity. At the same time, 75% of large enterprises will be using at least four low-code development tools for both IT application development and citizen development initiatives. Another interesting statistic from 451 Research is that nearly 60% of all custom apps are now built outside of the IT department. Of those, 30% are built by employees with either limited or no technical development skills. This last one is really interesting for me because the Power Platform is meant for both IT professionals and pro developers, but also for users with no IT education or specialization, who are really part of the core audience for the PL-900 exam. I mentioned a lot of general low-code statistics, but what about Power Platform specifically? The Microsoft Power Platform is a leader in the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for enterprise low-code application platforms and has been in previous years. Microsoft is investing a lot in the Power Platform as one of its core cloud offerings, so I expect it to be one of the top leaders in the future as well.
Now, if we talk about the Power Platform certification portfolio, there are currently seven Power Platform certifications: one fundamental level certification, five associate level certifications, and one expert level certification. If we look more in detail, the fundamental certification is the PL-900 exam, the star of this course, which gives you the Microsoft Certified Power Platform Fundamentals certification. This certification is optional but highly recommended before you move further to the associate-level certifications. The first associate level certification is the PL-100 exam, which gives you the Power Platform App Maker Associate certification, aimed at users outside of the IT department who create apps and automation with the Power Platform. We then have the PL-200 exam, which gives you the Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate certification. This is more advanced than the PL-100 and is aimed at IT professionals or consultants who use the Power Platform to create solutions for their organization or clients. Afterwards, we have the PL-400 exam, which gives you the Power Platform Developer Associate certification. Next up, we have the PL-300, which focuses on Power BI and gives you the Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification. Finally, for the associate level, we have the PL-500 exam, dedicated to robotic process automation in Power Automate. For the expert level certification, you need to have passed either the PL-200 or PL-400 exams, and then along with the PL-600 exam, you can become a Power Platform Solution Architect Expert.
Now that we have done an overall view of the Power Platform certifications, you can see where the PL-900 fits in. It’s the foundation of the Power Platform certification portfolio that will test you on the fundamentals of the Power Platform and will be your first step towards showcasing your Power Platform skills. It’s important to remember that as this is a fundamentals level certification, it will be useful whether you’re an expert aiming for the PL-600 certification or a business user or project manager wanting to understand the Power Platform solutions better. This fundamental level certification will give you a solid foundation, no matter how far you want to go in the Power Platform certification portfolio.
Now that we have done an exam overview, let’s learn about some of the learning materials available on Pluralsight for this exam. The best way to study for this exam is by using the Pluralsight certification path. The PL-900 path includes seven courses, including this one that you’re listening to right now, which is almost done, and six courses that cover the content. While six courses might seem like a lot, they are split in a way that makes it easier for you to study. Each course covers a specific Power Platform skill, such as Power Apps and Power Automate, but together they cover all the different objectives of the PL-900 certification exam. This also allows you to study or re-listen to certain areas that you feel need extra attention.
Now, let’s also talk about practicing before the exam. First of all, Microsoft provides several free sample questions that you can practice with, and you can find those on the exam page or the link in the slides. There is also an official practice exam by MeasureUp, and you can see the link to that from the exam page. There is an extra cost for the MeasureUp official practice test. Now, let’s talk about practicing in your own lab. The six video courses will cover all the knowledge you need to pass the exam, but there is no better way to reinforce your learning than to practice and replicate the scenarios and solutions in your own lab. Microsoft enables you to practice for free with the Microsoft 365 Developer Program. It gives you a renewable 90-day Microsoft 365 E5 tenant that you can test things with and even pre-provision some sample users and data. You can sign up for free at the link in the slides, and remember, you can download the slides from the exercise files of this course. If you already have a test tenant, you can use the PowerApps Developer Plan, a free developer environment to build and test with PowerApps, Power Automate, and Microsoft Dataverse. Check out the link in the slides to learn more.
I want to wish you a happy learning journey for the PL-900 exam. Personally, it was a really fun exam to take, and studying for it motivated me to learn a lot more about the Power Platform and get into the details. If you work with the Power Platform often and want to improve your skills and prove to everyone that you know the Power Platform, this exam is for you. Thank you for listening to this introduction to the PL-900 exam, and happy learning!
