For candidates preparing to become a developer, it is important to create a clear pathway to proceed with their career. And, for this, Microsoft has offers a great resource and correct pathway to achieve your goals. However, with technology getting upgraded year by year there has been a rapid evolvement in the IT industry. As a result, Microsoft is updating its exam as per the industry standards. Related to this, Microsoft came up with the Microsoft Power Platform Developer (PL-400) exam. This is the new Microsoft exam that has replaced Microsoft Power Apps + Dynamics 365 Developer (MB-400). This exam is the key to get into the development field and become Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Developer Associate.
Here, we will cover each and every detail related to the new PL-400 Certification Exam. What is new in the exam? Who can take the exam? And ways to prepare for the Microsoft PL-400 exam, all these questions and other doubts will be cleared by the end of this blog. So, without wasting any time let’s get started with the PL-400 Exam overview.
Microsoft Exam PL-400: Exam Overview
Microsoft Power Platform Developer (PL-400) exam is perfect for candidates with knowledge about:
- Firstly, designing, developing, securing, and troubleshooting Power Platform solutions.
- Secondly, implementing components of a solution. This further includes application enhancements, custom user experience, system integrations as well as data conversions, and custom visualizations.
The next thing that comes to mind is that “Is the PL-400 exam suitable for you? “
To find a solution to this question, the first answer, Do you have skills for developing, securing, and troubleshooting Microsoft Power Platform solutions? Or you have the ability to implement components of the solution? If Yes then, the PL-400 exam can help you build and validate your skills. Else, check out the knowledge required for the exam below to get a better understanding!
Knowledge Requirement
- Firstly, you must have advanced knowledge of Power Platform services with an in-depth understanding of capabilities, boundaries, and constraints.
- Secondly, you should have a basic understanding of DevOps practices for Power Platform.
- Next, you need to have development experience that includes Power Platform services, JavaScript, JSON, TypeScript, C#, HTML, .NET, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, RESTful web services, ASP.NET, and Microsoft Power BI.
Certification Exam Updates
The MB-400 exam expired on December 31, 2020. And, Microsoft Power Platform Developer (PL-400) is the new replacement. However, if you passed Exam MB-400 before it retired and earned the associated certification. Then, Power Apps + Dynamics 365 Developer Associate certification will remain valid for two years.
Microsoft PL-400: Exam Details
For every certification exam, it is important to have all the necessary details which you don’t want to miss for sure. That is to say, exam details help you in getting an understanding of the exam procedure and pattern.
For Microsoft Power Platform Developer (PL-400) details include:
- Firstly, the Microsoft PL-400 exam is an associate-level exam. After passing the exam, you will become Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Developer Associate.
- Secondly, the Microsoft PL-400 passing score is 700 or more.
- Lastly, the exam is available in the English language. And, the cost for the PL-400 exam is $165 USD along with the additional taxes.
Microsoft PL-400: Course Structure
We know that the PL-400 exam is a replacement for the MB-400 Exam. And, it is important to understand the major changes in the exam. The best way to get clarity is to go through the exam topics. Moreover, this course structure works as a Microsoft PL-400 exam study guide. So, check this to understand about the concepts.
The Microsoft PL-400 exam topics include:
Create a technical design (10-15%)
Design technical architecture
- Design a solution architecture that works for you (Microsoft Documentation: Design a solution architecture that works for you)
- Design the authentication and authorization strategy
- Determine whether requirements can be met with out-of-the-box functionality
- Determine where to run business logic including cloud computing, client-side processing, business rules, plug-ins, and Power Automate (Microsoft Documentation: Business process flows overview)
- Determine when to use standard tables, virtual tables, elastic tables, or connectors (Microsoft Documentation: Types of tables, Get started with virtual tables (entities))
- Determine the impact of security features of the Microsoft Power Platform including data loss prevention (DLP) policies, security roles, teams, business units, and row sharing on your business solution (Microsoft Documentation: Data policies, Security concepts in Microsoft Dataverse)
Design solution components
- Design Power Apps reusable components including canvas components, code components, and client scripting (Microsoft Documentation: Canvas component overview)
- Design custom connectors (Microsoft Documentation: Create a custom connector from scratch)
- Design Dataverse code components including plug-ins and Custom APIs (Microsoft Documentation: Create and use custom APIs)
- Design automations including Power Automate cloud flows
- Design inbound and outbound integrations using Dataverse and Azure
Build Power Platform solutions (10–15%)
Configure and troubleshoot Microsoft Power Platform
- Troubleshoot operational security issues found in testing (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot Microsoft Defender for Endpoint onboarding issues)
- Configure Dataverse security roles to support code components (Microsoft Documentation: Configure user security in an environment)
- Manage Microsoft Power Platform environments for development (Microsoft Documentation: Create and manage environments in the Power Platform admin center)
Implement application lifecycle management (ALM)
- Manage solution dependencies (Microsoft Documentation: Dependency tracking for solution components)
- Create and use environment variables
- Determine when to use unmanaged and managed solutions
- Manage solution layers (Microsoft Documentation: Solution layers)
Implement Power Apps improvements (5–10%)
Implement advanced canvas apps features
- Implement complex Power Fx formulas (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Power Fx overview)
- Build reusable component libraries Component library)
- Utilize Power Automate cloud flows to implement business logic from a canvas app (Microsoft Documentation: Create a canvas app that can trigger a Power Automate flow)
Optimize and troubleshoot apps
- Troubleshoot canvas and model-driven app issues by using Monitor and other browser-based debugging tools (Microsoft Documentation: Debug a model-driven app with Monitor, Debugging canvas apps with Monitor)
- Optimize canvas app performance including pre-loading data and query delegation (Microsoft Documentation: Overview of creating performant apps)
- Optimize model-driven app performance including forms and views (Microsoft Documentation: Design forms for performance in model-driven apps)
Extend the user experience (10–15%)
Apply business logic in model-driven apps using client scripting
- Build JavaScript code that targets the Client API object model (Microsoft Documentation: Understand the Client API object model, Client API form context)
- Determine event handler registration approach
- Create client scripting that targets the Dataverse Web API (Microsoft Documentation: Client-side JavaScript using Web API in model-driven apps)
- Configure commands and buttons using Power Fx (Microsoft Documentation: Using Power Fx with commands)
- Configure commands and buttons using JavaScript (Microsoft Documentation: Customize the command bar using command designer)
Create a Power Apps component framework (PCF) code component
- Demonstrate the use of the different code component lifecycle events (Microsoft Documentation: Code components application lifecycle management (ALM))
- Initialize a new code component (Microsoft Documentation: Create your first component)
- Configure a code component manifest (Microsoft Documentation: Code components)
- Implement component interfaces
- Package, deploy, and consume a component (Microsoft Documentation: Package a code component)
- Configure and use Device, Utility, and Web API features in component logic (Microsoft Documentation: Power Apps component framework overview)
Extend the platform (40–45%)
Create a Dataverse plug-in
- Demonstrate the use of the different event execution pipeline stages (Microsoft Documentation: Event framework)
- Develop a plug-in that uses the execution context (Microsoft Documentation: Understand the execution context)
- Develop a plug-in that implements business logic
- Implement Pre Images and Post Images to support plug-in logic
- Perform operations in plug-ins by using the Organization service (Microsoft Documentation: Use the SDK for .NET)
- Optimize plug-in performance (Microsoft Documentation: Analyze plug-in performance)
- Configure a Dataverse custom API message (Microsoft Documentation: Create and use custom APIs)
- Register plug-in components by using the Plug-in Registration Tool (Microsoft Documentation: Register a plug-in)
- Develop a plug-in that implements a custom API
- Configure Dataverse business events (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Dataverse business events)
Create custom connectors
- Create an Open API definition for an existing REST API (Microsoft Documentation: Create a custom connector from an OpenAPI definition)
- Implement authentication for custom connectors (Microsoft Documentation: Custom connectors)
- Configure policy templates to modify connector behavior at runtime
- Import definitions from existing APIs including Open API definitions, Azure services, and GitHub (Microsoft Documentation: Import an OpenAPI specification)
- Create a custom connector for an Azure service (Microsoft Documentation: Create a custom connector from scratch)
- Develop an Azure Function to be used in a custom connector
- Extend the Open API definition for a custom connector (Microsoft Documentation: Extend an OpenAPI definition for a custom connector)
- Develop code for a custom connector to transform data
Use platform APIs
- Perform operations with the Dataverse Web API (Microsoft Documentation: Perform operations using the Web API)
- Perform operations with the Organization service (Microsoft Documentation: Use the SDK for .NET)
- Implement API limit retry policies (Microsoft Documentation: Service protection API limits)
- Optimize for performance, concurrency, transactions, and bulk operations (Microsoft Documentation: Optimize performance for bulk operations)
- Perform authentication by using OAuth (Microsoft Documentation: Authenticate an EWS application by using OAuth)
Process workloads by using Azure Functions
- Process long-running operations by using Azure Functions
- Configure scheduled and event-driven triggers in Azure Functions (Microsoft Documentation: Create a function in the Azure portal that runs on a schedule)
- Authenticate to Microsoft Power Platform by using managed identities (Microsoft Documentation: Authenticate access and connections to Azure resources with managed identities in Azure Logic Apps)
Configure Power Automate cloud flows
- Implement flow steps to use Dataverse connector actions and triggers (Microsoft Documentation: Overview of how to integrate Power Automate flows with Dataverse)
- Implement complex expressions in flow steps (Microsoft Documentation: Use expressions in conditions to check multiple values)
- Manage sensitive input and output parameters
- Implement Azure Key Vault and Microsoft Entra ID service principals
- Implement flow control actions including error handling
- Configure trigger filter and retry policies (Microsoft Documentation: Handle errors and exceptions in Azure Logic Apps)
- Develop reuseable logic by using child flows
Develop integrations (5–10%)
Publish and consume Dataverse events
- Publish a Dataverse event by using the IServiceEndpointNotificationService (Microsoft Documentation: Azure integration)
- Publish a Dataverse event by using the Plug-in Registration Tool (Microsoft Documentation: Register a plug-in)
- Register service endpoints including webhooks, Azure Service Bus, and Azure Event Hub (Microsoft Documentation: Use Webhooks to create external handlers for server events)
- Recommend options for listening to Dataverse events (Microsoft Documentation: Work with Microsoft Dataverse event data in your Azure Event Hub solution)
Implement data synchronization with Dataverse
- Perform data synchronization by using change tracking (Microsoft Documentation: Use change tracking to synchronize data with external systems)
- Develop code that utilizes alternate keys (Microsoft Documentation: Work with alternate keys)
- Utilize the UpsertRequest message to synchronize data (Microsoft Documentation: Use Upsert to Create or Update a record)
Now, we have almost covered all the necessary details and topics related to the Microsoft PL-400 certification exam. In the next section, we will be more talking about the various learning resources and methods that will help you in your journey to pass the exam.
Microsoft PL-400 Exam Learning Path
In order to help you understand and learn more about the Microsoft Power Platform Developer (PL-400) exam. Microsoft provides its PL-400 learning path that is categorized into modules containing all necessary information. For the Microsoft Power Platform Developer (PL-400) exam this includes:
- Firstly, creating a canvas app in Power Apps
- Creating a model-driven application in Power Apps
- Then, working with Power Platform tenants, environments, subscriptions, and dynamics 365 apps
- Automating a business process using Power Automate
- Next, creating and using analytics reports with Power BI
- Integrating with Power Platform and Dataverse
- Creating components with Power Apps Component Framework
- After that, administering Power Apps portals
- Lastly, extending Power Apps portals
You must know that, according to a salary survey, 61 percent of responders believe that this certification provides an edge in the job market. On the other hand, 73 percent of permanent employees reported that their salary increased after this certification.
Microsoft Additional Resources
Microsoft helps you find all the information and provide resources to help you have better preparation for the exam. Related to this, Microsoft provides two knowledge source that is:
- Microsoft Documentation
- Instructor-led Training
Where Microsoft Documentation helps you easily understand the concepts and modules related to the PL-400 exam. Further, it allows you to navigate topics you want to learn about. On the other hand, Microsoft provides Microsoft Power Platform Developer Instructor-led training course to help you build Power Apps, Automate Flows and extend the platform to complete business requirements and solve complex business problems. Here in this course, you will gain knowledge of Power Platform services as well as a good understanding of capabilities, boundaries, constraints, and more.
Moving onto the important part that is Practice tests. To get perfection in all the concepts it is important to use practice tests and assess yourself. So, let’s take a look at it.
Microsoft PL-400 Exam: Practice tests
Practice tests are important for having better preparation. Hence, evaluating yourself through these tests reveals your areas of strength and weakness. However, it’s crucial to obtain the most reliable practice tests. Numerous sources offer practice tests, but for optimal results, opt for PL-400 free practice tests. These prioritize the quality of learning over the quantity. Additionally, the practice tests from Testprep Training offer a thorough review of your performance, highlighting both strengths and weak areas. With a comprehensive learning package, Microsoft PL-400 Exam Testprep Training also provides you with:
- Firstly, full-length mock exams with 150 unique questions.
- Secondly, objective-based questions based on the exam course outline.
- Thirdly, detailed explanation for every question.
- Lastly, lifetime access to the practice tests.
Expert’s Corner
Microsoft Power Platform Developer (PL-400) exam can be a perfect career path for professional developers with an aim to extend Microsoft Power Platform capabilities. Whether to increase the level of your skills or to getting advancement in the same, this certification will open tons of opportunities to have a bright career. Further, to help you in your journey to becoming Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Developer Associate. You can use various valuable resources, PL-400 exam training as well as practice tests to clear the exam. At last, you must know that demand for people trained in Microsoft Power Platform is growing. So, start preparing well for the exam.
