DataCamp Data Analyst in Power BI Review: Enough for PL-300?

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Most people who look at this track arrive with one of two questions. Can it take me from never having opened Power BI to passing Microsoft's PL-300? And, on a site about AI certifications, how much does it have to do with AI? The first answer is mostly yes, with gaps you can see in advance. The second is less than the Microsoft label might suggest. This review works through both, using DataCamp's own course listings and the exam outline Microsoft publishes.

What is it?

Data Analyst in Power BI is a DataCamp career track: seventeen required courses in a fixed order, each mixing short videos with graded exercises. DataCamp's catalogue gives it 50 hours, and the seventeen courses' own lengths add up to exactly that. The track page labels it as made "in collaboration with" Microsoft and describes it as preparation for the PL-300 exam. That is the claim to test rather than accept: DataCamp says it, but whether it holds depends on what Microsoft's exam asks, which Microsoft publishes and which we compare against the courses below.

The hands-on steps are of a type DataCamp lists as remote-desktop exercises: you work in a copy of Power BI that DataCamp hosts, and each course carries a short note on how that differs from working in your own installation. DataCamp's catalogue listed 136,040 learners on the track when we read it on 25 September 2026, and it records the track's content as last updated on 3 September 2026. DataCamp's course pages publish no structured data a script can check, so every DataCamp figure on this page was read from its catalogue on that date and is dated for that reason.

The current version is DataCamp's fourth, and its change note says a course on user-oriented report design was removed because it was not relevant to PL-300. It is a small detail with a useful meaning: the track is maintained against the exam, not kept as a general Power BI library. Everything on this page comes from DataCamp's published course listings and Microsoft's published exam pages, not from first-hand study.

What you'll actually learn

The table lists the seventeen required courses in the order the track sets them, with each course's difficulty and length as DataCamp's catalogue recorded them on 25 September 2026. Ten are Beginner and seven Intermediate; fourteen run 3 hrs, Introduction to Power BI runs 4 hrs and two run 2 hrs, which together make the track's 50 hours.

Read in order, the path has three phases. The first six courses get you working: the interface, a first look at DAX, charts chosen for an audience, a full case study on customer churn, and then Power Query for preparing and transforming data. The middle stretch is the modelling core, with star and snowflake schemas, granularity and hierarchies, and two more DAX courses that end in time intelligence, plus a second case study, on HR data, as a checkpoint. The last third turns to analysis and delivery: exploratory analysis, trend analysis, building and designing reports, then connecting to data sources and publishing, sharing and securing work in the Power BI Service.

Two things about that order are worth knowing before you start. Data Connections in Power BI, which covers data sources and storage modes, comes fifteenth, although connecting to data is the first thing Microsoft's exam outline lists; if your job needs it first, know that it is there. And DAX begins in the second course and returns in two later ones, so a first pass that does not fully stick is part of the design rather than a sign you are behind.

Alongside the seventeen courses the track lists one optional item: a DataCamp skill assessment called Power BI for Data Analysts, which is not required for completion. It is DataCamp's own test of its own material, not a Microsoft practice exam, and the track contains no PL-300 practice exam. Microsoft publishes a free practice assessment of its own, which we come to below.

How it lines up with PL-300

Microsoft's PL-300 study guide, with skills measured as of 20 April 2026, divides the exam into four areas: prepare the data, model the data, visualize and analyze the data, and manage and secure Power BI. Setting the track's courses against that outline is the most direct test of DataCamp's claim.

The table sets Microsoft's four PL-300 skill areas, as its study guide listed them on 25 September 2026, against the track courses that teach each one and the outline items we could not find in the track. Every area has at least two courses behind it; Copilot appears only in the last column.

How we filled the last column matters, so here it is. We searched DataCamp's lesson catalogue on 25 September 2026 for each item and found no lesson on it inside the track's seventeen courses. A search can miss a topic taught under another name, so read that column as "check before relying on the track for this", not as proof of absence. The same searches found items you might expect to be missing: Performance Analyzer is taught in both data-modelling courses, and the Import and DirectQuery storage modes in Data Connections in Power BI.

So is DataCamp's PL-300 claim fair? On the evidence of the outline, largely. All four areas are there, and the fourth, covering workspaces, apps, dataset permissions, row-level security, sensitivity labels, promoted and certified content, subscriptions and alerts, is matched almost line for line; that is the area a reader who has only ever built reports would otherwise have no practice in. The gaps cluster in features such as Copilot and Direct Lake, and the dates in DataCamp's catalogue suggest why: at least thirteen of the seventeen courses were first launched between 2020 and 2022. A launch date does not say when a course was last revised, but none of the lessons we searched mentions Copilot.

What the track does not do is the exam itself. It includes no PL-300 practice test, and finishing it does not enter you for anything. Before you book, read two Microsoft pages. The certification page for Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate is where Microsoft states the exam's current fee, length, format and languages; it says the price depends on the country or region where the exam is proctored, so we do not quote one here. The same page links Microsoft's free practice assessment and an exam sandbox that shows the question types. The PL-300 study guide is the full outline the table above summarises. It changes, so compare it with the track in the week you start.

Where AI fits, and how little of it there is

This is a site about AI certifications, so it is worth being exact. Data Analyst in Power BI is a business-intelligence track, not an AI one, and DataCamp does not present it as one. AI appears in three chapters, in two of the seventeen courses:

• Trend Analysis in Power BI spends two of its four chapters on Power BI's decomposition tree and key influencers visuals. Microsoft's documentation calls key influencers an AI visualization, and DataCamp's own slides explain that it runs regression models behind the scenes while saying the modelling itself is beyond the course. You learn when to reach for these visuals and how to read them, not how they work.
• Reports in Power BI ends with a chapter on the Q&A visual, which answers questions typed in natural language, including how to add synonyms for fields and teach it new terms.

That is the whole of it. There is no Copilot: a search of DataCamp's catalogue on 25 September 2026 found Copilot in Power BI only in a cheat sheet and a tutorial, neither of them part of the track. That matters for the exam, because Microsoft's current PL-300 outline names four Copilot tasks (creating a narrative visual with Copilot, using it to create a report page and to suggest content for one, and using it to summarise the underlying semantic model), with an item on AI visuals beside them. The AI visuals item the track covers; the Copilot items you will need to learn from Microsoft's own material.

Practising Copilot has a catch of its own. Microsoft's Copilot for Power BI overview says it needs a paid Fabric capacity (F2 or higher) or Power BI Premium (P1 or higher), and that trial capacities and free SKUs are not supported, so many learners cannot try it on a personal account. Check what your employer's setup allows before you plan revision around it.

One more place the word turns up: the first course, Introduction to Power BI, also exists in a version DataCamp labels AI-native, which adds an AI tutor to the lessons. That is AI in the teaching, not in the syllabus, and it does not change what the track covers. If AI skills are what brought you here, take this track for Power BI and treat AI as a separate step; our guide to the best AI certifications for data analysts covers that half, and DataCamp's separate AI for Data Analysts course sits in the same subscription.

The details: cost, time, prerequisites

Cost. The track is not sold on its own; it comes with a DataCamp Premium subscription, which DataCamp prices by country, at about $330 a year at US list price according to its affiliate team on 21 September 2026. DataCamp's pricing page shows the price for your country. DataCamp offers monthly and annual billing, and which works out better depends on how long you will keep the subscription, so compare both plans on the pricing page before you choose. The PL-300 exam is a separate cost, paid to Microsoft; its certification page gives the fee where you live.

Time. Fifty hours is DataCamp's content time. At five hours a week that is about ten weeks; at an hour a day, about seven. Allow extra for anything you repeat, and for exam preparation after the track, where Microsoft's study guide and practice assessment are the places to spend it.

Prerequisites. None are recorded. DataCamp's description says no prior experience is required, and the first course assumes none. You do not need Python or any other programming language. You will write DAX, Power BI's formula language, from the second course on, and Data Transformation in Power BI introduces the M language behind Power Query. If you are at ease with spreadsheet formulas, DAX is the closer relative of what you already know.

What you get at the end. A record on your DataCamp profile that you finished the track. The track carries no DataCamp certification, since its catalogue entry lists none and DataCamp's certification list returned no Power BI credential when we checked, and it is not a Microsoft credential. Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate comes only from passing PL-300, and Microsoft's study guide says associate certifications expire annually and are renewed by passing a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn. Our guide to DataCamp's certifications explains how DataCamp's own assessed credentials differ from its tracks.

Pros and cons

Who should take it (and who shouldn't)

Take it if you are new to Power BI, or have only ever opened reports other people built, and you want one ordered path that ends at the PL-300 exam. Take it if you learn better from graded exercises than from documentation, and if the idea of installing and configuring Power BI yourself before you have learned anything is what has stopped you so far. And take it if you already hold a DataCamp subscription for other study, because this track comes with it.

Skip it if you already build Power BI reports at work and need only exam revision: Microsoft's free study guide, training and practice assessment are aimed squarely at you, and fifty hours would be mostly review. Skip it if what you want is an AI credential, because this is not one and the AI in it amounts to three chapters. And think twice if the employers you are targeting use Tableau or Looker instead. Our guide on how to become a data analyst suggests checking which tool listings in your own market ask for; the modelling and design ideas here transfer between tools, but DAX and the Microsoft certificate do not.

How it compares to the alternatives

The table sets Data Analyst in Power BI beside three other routes to Power BI or analyst skills. Three rows are DataCamp tracks in one subscription and Beginner by our reading; Microsoft Learn's PL-300 training is the only free row and the only one labelled Intermediate. At ~50 hrs, this track is the longest length the table states.

Power BI Fundamentals is not a different route; it is the start of this one. DataCamp's skill track has six courses, and all six are also in Data Analyst in Power BI: Introduction to Power BI, Introduction to DAX, Data Visualization, Data Preparation, Data Modeling and the customer-churn case study. It stops before the intermediate DAX and modelling courses, the Power BI Service and the deployment and security course, which is most of what makes the career track an exam path. Its length is the one figure in the table we do not print: DataCamp's track page and the six courses' own lengths disagree on the total, by two hours. Take Fundamentals if you need Power BI for your own reports and have no interest in the exam. If you think you might sit PL-300 later, start the career track, since the same six courses come first either way.

Microsoft's own training is the free alternative, and for some readers the better one. Microsoft's Learn FAQ says its training is free and available to anyone. It is written by the company that sets the exam, and the certification page links self-paced material, the practice assessment and the exam sandbox. Microsoft does not state a total length for that material on the pages we read, and it labels both the certification and its PL-300 course Intermediate. What DataCamp adds is structure and practice: a fixed order, graded exercises in a hosted copy of Power BI, and two case studies. If you are disciplined and already have Power BI at hand, Microsoft's route costs nothing. If you have tried learning from documentation before and stalled, the track's structure is what the subscription buys. Many readers will reasonably use both: the track to learn, and Microsoft's study guide and practice assessment to check.

Data Analyst in Python is DataCamp's other analyst career track, and choosing between them is a choice of tool rather than of quality. It teaches Python, pandas, visualisation and statistics over 36 hours, leads to no vendor exam, and suits roles that expect analysis written in code. Power BI suits roles where reports and dashboards are the deliverable. Both sit in the same subscription, so the choice can be reversed, and our comparison of data analyst and data scientist roles sets out which tools each job tends to ask for. For the platform question underneath all of this, our DataCamp review covers what the subscription buys as a whole.

Is it worth it?

For a beginner who wants Power BI and intends to sit PL-300, yes. It is a well-ordered path that covers all four of Microsoft's skill areas, with graded practice throughout, and DataCamp visibly maintains it against the exam. Fifty hours is a real commitment, but it is the size of the job rather than padding: the security and deployment material that closes the track is exactly what someone who has only built reports lacks.

For anyone else the answer narrows. If you already work in Power BI, Microsoft's free material is closer to what you need. If you came for AI, this track teaches the AI visuals and the Q&A visual and nothing of Copilot, which is now part of the exam it prepares for, so plan to fill that gap from Microsoft's own pages. Whoever you are, keep the finish line in view: a DataCamp completion record, with the Microsoft credential still one exam away.

We have not scored Data Analyst in Power BI. We score a course only where our catalogue holds an editorial rating for it, and writing one here to round off the page would make every other score on the site worth less; the six factors we use are on our methodology page. DataCamp's catalogue shows a learner average for the track but no count of ratings behind it, so we do not repeat that figure either.

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