Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate Study Guide (for . .) (Brian Bønk, Valerie Junk) (z-library.sk, 1lib.sk, z-lib.sk)

Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate Study Guide Hands-On Practice and Expert Tips for Acing the DP-600 Certification Exam Brian Bønk and Valerie Junk

Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate Study Guide by Brian Bønk and Valerie Junk Copyright © 2026 ProBI and PorcuBI. All rights reserved. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 141 Stony Circle, Suite 195, Santa Rosa, CA 95401. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800- 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Acquisitions Editor: Michelle Smith Development Editor: Shira Evans Production Editor: Aleeya Rahman Copyeditor: Doug McNair Proofreader: Rachel Rossi Indexer: nSight, Inc. Cover Designer: Susan Brown Cover Illustrator: Monica Kamsvaag Interior Designer: David Futato Interior Illustrator: Kate Dullea March 2026: First Edition

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Foreword When we started Guy in a Cube, our mission was simple: teach people the clicks and help people grow in their data journey. What began as a few scrappy YouTube videos has grown into a global community of creators, analysts, and dreamers who believe data should empower, not intimidate. That’s why we’re so excited about this book. Brian Bønk and Valerie Junk have built something special; this book is not just a technical deep dive into Microsoft Fabric, but a roadmap for the modern data professional. Fabric brings together every layer of the analytics journey, from ingestion and transformation to modeling, visualization, and governance, all in one unified experience. This book doesn’t just teach you how to use Fabric; it helps you understand why it matters. The pace of innovation in data today can feel overwhelming. New tools, new patterns, new AI experiences…it’s a lot to keep up with, even for us. But as you read these chapters, you’ll see that the foundation remains the same: good data, good design, and good storytelling. Whether you’re building your first semantic model or optimizing enterprise-scale analytics, the insights here will meet you where you are and help you level up. We’ve always said that the best part of our journey has been the people: the community that learns, shares, and lifts one another up. This book is an extension of that spirit. So, dive in! Experiment. Break things. Learn something new. Because the next generation of data stories—the ones that will change how organizations think, act, and grow— might just start with the knowledge you gain here. But enough of all this talking. Let’s get into the book!

Adam Saxton and Patrick LeBlanc Guy in a Cube

Preface Microsoft Fabric is the software as a service (SaaS) platform from Microsoft that covers all aspects of building a modern analytics platform. From ingestion to insights, from bulk loading to streaming, and from charts to functions, everything is seamlessly integrated into a unified platform. Microsoft Fabric was first announced at the Microsoft Build conference back in 2023 as a public preview version of the platform. Before that, the platform had been in heavy testing and private preview under the working title of Trident. It’s based on previous work on Azure Synapse Analytics, which was the first big release from Microsoft to move the analytics workload from only using Structured Query Language (SQL) server binaries to having a segregated split between compute and storage. Compute is still based on the base thought of the SQL engine, but with brand-new binaries and features. Storage is now based on Azure Data Lake Storage, which acts as a centralized, flexible storage system to store all kinds of file types. Most often, users will store the open source Parquet file format, but they can also store formats like (but not limited to) CSV, JSON, XML, and Microsoft Excel to be read from the compute engine. In the first release of Microsoft Fabric, we also saw the name Synapse appear in some services on the platform, but in its latest release, that name is gone. We now have a fully new and standalone platform that embraces everything you

need to build a full-blown analytics platform for an organization of any size, from a small business to the biggest enterprise. Everything in the platform is based on existing services from Microsoft Azure (with a few exceptions),1 packed into an easy-to-use graphical interface. The different services in Microsoft Fabric are shown in Figure P-1 and are as follows: Data Factory Data Engineering Data Warehouse Data Science Real-Time Intelligence Power BI OneLake Figure P-1. The complete Fabric platform with all services You can read more about each service in Chapter 1.

Who Should Take the Exam Microsoft Fabric is used by technologists and business professionals, including business intelligence developers, data analysts, and business intelligence specialists, to integrate data, build semantic models, and understand and visualize important business data. Whether you work in finance, manufacturing, sales, marketing, science, or professional services, data is the heartbeat of your business and data analysis is the key to your success. As a technical professional, certification in Microsoft Fabric will enhance your career prospects and professional credibility, providing many advantages that you’ll need to excel in your field. Passing the Microsoft DP- 600 exam and earning the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification is key to showcasing your knowledge of and experience with the platform. This book is based on the authors’ expert knowledge and experience working in the Microsoft Fabric platform from the very beginning. You can use it as a learning resource to help you prepare for the certification exam and as a daily reference guide for working with Microsoft Fabric from an analytics and visualization point of view. The Official Curriculum The DP-600 certification exam tests you on a set of skills and knowledge from the perspective of a data analyst, a role that includes working with ingestions, transformations, and visualizations.

NOTE Given the rapid evolution of the Microsoft Fabric platform, the content of the certification exam might change over time. The content of this certification at the time of this writing is listed in the following text. The exam measures your mastery of the following skills:2 Maintaining a data analytics solution – Implementing security and governance – Maintaining the analytics development lifecycle Preparing data – Getting it – Transforming it – Querying and analyzing it Implementing and managing semantic models – Designing and building them – Optimizing enterprise-scale semantic models The Purpose of This Book This book covers all of the skills in the official curriculum in detail. It will give you an understanding of the exam and the content of the curriculum, and it will guide you on how to use theory in practice. Please also note that the structure of this book does not follow the order of the list in the previous section. This is

because we believe in a more implementation-based approach, and the first element of maintaining an analytics solution comes at the end of the list. The actual exam is also not structured in the same order as the list, so we’ll present the questions in this guide to you in random order. TIP There’s a key point to note when taking exams from Microsoft nowadays: you can’t expect to pass them if all you’ve done is read a study guide like this one plus the documentation from Microsoft Learn. You also need to gain practical experience by working with the technology, so we’d like to encourage you to try out everything you read about in this book. This book will help you understand the technical areas and knowledge you’ll need to pass the DP-600 exam. It will walk you through the different areas of the exam, teach you how to get started, and introduce you to the baseline curriculum of the exam. You can use it as a study guide, a source of practice questions for the exam (see the question bank at the back of this book), and a reference source for future projects. But you also need practical, hands-on experience with real life implementations and projects in the Microsoft Fabric platform. In other words, passing the exam is not something you can just read your way to! In the past, some of the Microsoft exams mainly tested candidates on their memory capabilities, the questions asked candidates to recall hard facts from the documentation, rather than how they would actually perform implementations in Microsoft’s different technology areas. But more recently, the exams have shifted to measuring candidates’ skill levels, and that means candidates need to have practical experience.

Book Summary This book contains eight chapters spread over three sections. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to Microsoft Fabric, and Chapter 2 will guide you through the different ways to implement integration. Chapter 3 covers transformations, and Chapter 4 covers query and analytics capabilities. Chapter 5 shows you how to build semantic models, and Chapter 6 shows you how to manage enterprise scale models. Chapter 7 is a guide to governance and security, and Chapter 8 covers the lifecycle of development. Chapter 9, the final chapter, is a question bank with 100 practice questions that you can work through to help prepare yourself for the exam. Note that none of these questions are the same ones you’ll find on the actual exam; they’re practice questions that are designed to help you test your skills and get used to taking test questions as they appear on the exam. Taking them will help you get familiar with the question types, how to read and understand the questions, and how to manage your time on the exam. Each of the chapters is self-contained, and we’ve tried to make each chapter as independent of the others as possible. However, you’ll see references to other chapters and sections throughout the book, to remind you of details and context. This will help you see the big picture when using this book as a reference guide. We’ve also tried to make this book as accessible as possible for a broad range of readers with varying levels of experience with Microsoft Fabric. If you’re new to the platform, we encourage you to start with Chapter 1 and read the book from start to finish. Or, if you’re an

experienced Microsoft Fabric user, feel free to jump around and focus on the chapters that will help you sharpen your existing skills. With all of that said, we, Brian and Valerie, wish you the best of luck on the exam, and we hope this book serves you well in getting you started on your personal journey to certification. Conventions Used in This Book The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Italic Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions. Constant width Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords. Constant width bold Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user. Constant width italic Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context.

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How to Contact Us Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc. 141 Stony Circle, Suite 195 Santa Rosa, CA 95401 800-889-8969 (in the United States or Canada) 707-827-7019 (international or local) 707-829-0104 (fax) support@oreilly.com https://oreilly.com/about/contact.html We have a web page for this book, where we list errata and any additional information. You can access this page at https://oreil.ly/microsoft-fabric-analytics-study-guide. For news and information about our books and courses, visit https://oreilly.com. Find us on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/oreilly- media. Watch us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/oreillymedia. Acknowledgements From Brian

Writing a book has been on my wish list for a very long time, and I’ve finally fulfilled this ambition thanks to my collaboration with the talented Valerie Junk. This project was only made possible through the opportunity provided by O’Reilly. I owe our editor, Shira Evans, a huge thank-you for her steadfast support and the many hours she spent keeping us on track and on time throughout the demanding schedule. I also owe a substantial debt to the technical reviewers Nikola Ilic, Alexander Arvidsson, Ben Weissman, Reitse Eskens, and Johnny Winter, whose meticulous scrutiny of every page and testing of every code snippet ensured the accuracy required of a successful certification guide. I also extend a massive thank-you to the fantastic crew behind Guy in a Cube, Adam Saxton and Patrick LeBlanc, for writing the foreword. Your work is truly an inspiration to the entire community. This type of work is certainly a marathon, not a sprint. To my lifelong partner and spouse, Christa, thank you for the silent hours, the TV series we had to miss, and your unwavering belief in me no matter what endeavor I choose to pursue. Finally, to you, the reader: I sincerely hope this guide helps you pass the DP-600 exam and, more importantly, unlocks your potential as a successful Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer. From Valerie Writing this book has been a valuable learning experience. Working on a project of this size together with Brian Bønk definitely pushed me to grow in new ways.

Thanks to O’Reilly for the opportunity, and to our editor, Shira Evans, for guiding us through every step. And thanks to the technical reviewers Alexander Arvidsson, Johnny Winter, Ben Weissman, Reitse Eskens, and Nikola Ilic, for taking the time to review all the content carefully. A special thanks to my partner, Jochem van Iterson, for the support, tea, and snacks during long writing days. And thanks again to Alexander Arvidsson, who was a great sparring partner whenever I needed to talk things through. 1 Activator is not a standalone service in Microsoft Azure. 2 Read the complete exam details here: “Study Guide for Exam DP-600: Implementing Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Fabric”.

Chapter 1. Introduction to Microsoft Fabric and the Certification Content In this chapter, we’ll introduce you to the Microsoft Fabric platform and give you an overview of all its bits and pieces. We’ll give you a high-level view of the internal services in Microsoft Fabric, and we’ll also introduce you to the certification path from Microsoft. In the subsequent chapters, we’ll dive into specific details of each service as needed for the exam. Key Components and Architecture The Microsoft Fabric platform includes a list of services, as you’ll see in Figure 1-1. These services are, as a joined group of services, the catalog of things you can do. TIP Some people are overwhelmed by the list of services and capabilities within Microsoft Fabric. But you don’t need to use them all; they’re merely options for you to choose from when building your own solutions, based on your specific needs.

Figure 1-1. The complete Fabric platform with all services Here, we list the icons in Figure 1-1 and provide a high- level description of the service each icon represents:

Data Factory This service lets you access dataflows and pipelines, with which you can ingest, prepare, and transform data from a long list of sources, such as the built-in lakehouse, warehouse, and eventhouse. Analytics This service lets you create lakehouses, notebooks, Spark job definitions, and other elements to support the implementation of the process of collecting, storing, analyzing, and processing large volumes of data. This also includes options to create machine learning models, conduct experiments, and work with notebooks in both PySpark and Python to create your needed AI solutions. Here, you can also work with data agents and environments. Databases This is a built-in SQL database in Fabric that’s based on the Azure SQL Database. It provides ease of setup and configuration, and with automated backup and storage in OneLake, it adds support for application- based storage known from the native SQL database.