My Skill Lab
Data ScienceBeginner

Power BI for Beginners

Connect, model and visualise data into your first published report.

Taught by Niraj Thapa · Analytics Lead

What you'll learn

  • Install Power BI Desktop and explain the Desktop, service and mobile parts of the platform
  • Connect to Excel, CSV, SQL Server and web sources and choose between import and DirectQuery
  • Clean and reshape data in Power Query with typed columns, filters, splits and unpivots
  • Build a simple star-schema model with correct relationships and a date table
  • Create clear visuals, slicers and drill-downs that answer specific business questions
  • Write basic DAX measures and publish a report to the Power BI service with scheduled refresh

About this course

Learn Power BI from a blank canvas to a published, interactive report. This beginner Power BI tutorial is for analysts, managers and Excel users who want to build dashboards that refresh themselves instead of rebuilding reports every month. You will install Power BI Desktop, connect to Excel, CSV, SQL and web sources, clean data in Power Query, build relationships between tables, create bar, line, map and card visuals, write your first DAX measures, and publish to the Power BI service with scheduled refresh and sharing. No prior Power BI or coding experience is needed; comfort with Excel formulas helps. Every lesson works on a small sample sales dataset, and by the end you will have a portfolio-ready report and the foundations for the PL-300 Power BI Data Analyst certification. Independent study material — not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.

Course content

6 lessons
  1. 1Power BI Desktop and the Report LifecycleWhat Power BI is, how Desktop and the service fit together, and the workflow every report follows.Preview
  2. 2Connecting to DataImport Excel, CSV, SQL and web sources, and understand when to use import versus DirectQuery.
  3. 3Shaping Data in Power QueryFix types, remove noise, split and unpivot columns so the model receives clean tables.
  4. 4Relationships and Your First ModelRelate fact and dimension tables, add a date table and understand filter direction.
  5. 5Building Visuals That Answer QuestionsChoose and format bar, line, map, card and table visuals, then add slicers and drill-down.
  6. 6First DAX Measures and Publishing to the ServiceWrite basic measures, then publish, schedule refresh and share your report.