Microsoft PL-200: Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant (beta) Exam:

The PL-200 (Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant) is the only exam required to earn the Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate certification. It’s also the ‘base’ exam for all the Dynamics CRM first-party app certifications (sales, marketing, customer service, and field service), replacing the old MB-200 AND it’s one of the two possible base exams for the upcoming Power Platform Solution Architect Expert certification (the other being the PL-400 Power Platform Developer) once the PL-600 exam is out of beta.

Its inclusion in 6 certifications makes this exam the biggest ‘bang for buck’ you can get in terms of studying around biz apps. If you’re a CRM functional consultant- this should absolutely be your first exam, BUT it’s also necessary for software developers working with the Power Platform (you need to know what’s possible out-of-the-box to make sure you don’t attempt to re-make the wheel) AND I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone who’s graduated from the fundamentals level certifications and is interested really getting stuck in and building some fun stuff. So; people in sales, boxes, and wires, business analysis- I’m looking your way. Even for those on the dark side (Finance and Operations)- this one will be useful to you guys.

PL-200 vs. PL-100

The PL-200 is one of the broadest exams around at the moment- there are lucky number 13 learning paths for you to study. The purpose of this certification is to prove that the holder understands ALL The components of the Power Platform, how they fit together, and the correct situations to apply them in. Boil that down- you’re going to need to know a little bit about A LOT of stuff. The headline topics are:

Creating and configuring apps (Canvas and Model-Driven)

Dataverse (administration, data modeling, security & governance

Power apps portals

Power Automate

Out-of-the-box integrations (Power Automated connectors, Teams, etc)

Power BI

Power Virtual Agents

AI builder

Wait a minute.

doesn’t that list of topics looks pretty similar to the curriculum for another certification? Yup. The PL-100 shares 8 of the same learning paths as the PL-200. If you’ve studied for one, you’re pretty much going to be ready for the other.

Now the MB-200 has gone the way of the dodo; you’re going to get your app config skills tested across both the PL-200 and PL-200. It isn’t a clear line, but GENERALLY- PL-100 is a new school (it’s canvas heavy) and PL-200 is old school (model-driven). Comparing the two skills measured docs is also pretty useful for this. If you do that (or indeed, let me do it for you); you’ll note that the following config stuff is referenced in PL-200 in much more detail:

Model-Driven App security features (security roles, business unit set-up) and field security profiles (hilariously named as column security profiles- someone did a find and replace there).

Business rules

Business process flows

Power automates (including use of connectors and desktop flows)

Table and relationship properties

So- while both exams do touch on the above, you’re likely going to get harder questions in PL-200 than you would in PL-100.

And the Rest…

So, let’s continue to use the process of elimination on the skills measured docs. You know you’re going to be flexing your Power BI in the DA-100- so that topic will be a pretty light touch. Dataverse governance is also covered in PL-100, as is AI builder. So let’s check out what we’re left with:

 Power Virtual Agents

Power Apps Portals

Integrating with Power Apps (especially with Teams)

And if we jump into the trusty skills measured document; that chimes pretty well. We’ve got overall topic headings on PVAs (10-15%), creating apps- canvas, model-driven and portals (20-25%), and Integrating Power Apps (10-15%).

So if we bring it all together- PL-200 is going to give you a run for your money on your model-driven app config, make sure you know your way around all flavors of flows, that you know how to build a bot, configure a portal (in a basic fashion, leave the heavy lifting to the devas) and what you can do to connect up the Power Platform with Teams (steady on though- remember the brand new stuff isn’t old enough to be in the questions!) everything else is going to ensure you’ve got a basic understanding of both the capabilities and application of Power BI, Canvas Apps, AI builder and Data verse administration. That sounds like about 50 questions to me!

For More Information Visit: https://www.certmagic.com/exam/pl-200-exams