Summary of "Power BI Full Course 2026 | Power BI Tutorial For Beginners FREE | Power BI Course | Intellipaat"

Summary of “Power BI Full Course 2026 | Power BI Tutorial For Beginners FREE | Power BI Course | Intellipaat”

Introduction to Power BI

Power BI is a Microsoft end-to-end data analytics and visualization tool launched on July 24, 2015. It helps users turn messy data from multiple sources such as Excel, databases, and cloud apps into interactive, insightful dashboards. Power BI is simple to use and widely adopted by companies for smarter business decisions. This course covers Power BI basics through to advanced dashboard creation.

Power BI Components and Tools

Power BI Desktop Installed software for Windows 10/11 only; requires minimum 8 GB RAM for optimal performance. Mac users need a Windows virtual machine.
Power BI Service Cloud-based portal accessible via browser on any OS; requires an organizational Microsoft account (not personal emails).
Other Tools
- Power BI Mobile App: View reports on mobile devices.
- Power BI Data Gateway: Enables scheduled data refresh.
- Power BI Report Builder: For paginated/operational reports and heavy data exports.
- Power BI Report Server: On-premises version for organizations restricted from cloud use.
- Power BI Embedded: Integrate reports into third-party apps/websites.

Installing Power BI Desktop

Recommended to install from Microsoft Store for automatic updates.
Uninstall old versions before fresh install.
Initial setup requires enabling preview features (except “on object interaction” to keep interface simple).
Enable map visuals and other features under security settings.
Restart Power BI Desktop after settings changes.

Power BI Desktop Interface Overview

Tabs: Home, Insert, Modeling, View, Help.
Key Panes:
- Report Canvas: Area to create visualizations.
- Filters Pane: Apply filters to visuals.
- Visualizations Pane: Select and customize charts.
- Data Pane: Shows loaded tables and fields.
Views:
- Report view (default)
- Data view (tabular)
- Model view (table relationships)

Loading and Transforming Data

Data is the “fuel” for Power BI and must be loaded first. Power BI supports multiple sources including Excel, CSV, PDF, databases, and APIs (OData). Always close source files (like Excel) before loading to avoid errors.

Use Power Query Editor (opened via “Transform Data”) to clean and transform data before loading into the model. Common transformations include:

Promote first row as headers.
Remove unnecessary columns.
Rename columns for consistency.
Append multiple tables with identical structure into one consolidated table.
Handle duplicate rows via “Remove duplicates”.
Split columns by delimiter; merge columns to concatenate values.
Replace null or blank values with meaningful defaults.

Changes in Power Query are step-based and reversible.

Working with Multiple Tables and Relationships

Power BI automatically detects relationships based on matching column names and data.
Relationships are essential for accurate data filtering and visualization.
Best practice: Use primary key columns (unique identifiers) for relationships.
Relationships are typically one-to-many and single direction for performance.
Redundant tables can be disabled from loading to optimize model size.
Append queries create consolidated tables but can cause redundancy if base tables are also loaded.

DAX (Data Analysis Expressions)

DAX is the formula language for calculations in Power BI, similar to Excel but operates on columns and tables. It is used for:

Calculated columns: Stored in tables, row-by-row calculations.
Measures: Dynamic calculations, no storage, faster for aggregations.
Calculated tables: Summarized or aggregated data tables.

Examples of DAX usage:

Calculated column: Concatenate city and country.
Measure: Sum of net sales, distinct count of orders.
Use SUMX for row-wise calculations before aggregation.
Use RELATED to fetch related table data (like VLOOKUP).
Use IF for conditional columns.
Use DATEDIFF to calculate days between dates.
Use SUMMARIZE to create aggregated tables.

Proper data cleanup and relationships are prerequisites for effective DAX.

Visualization Best Practices

Use slicers for interactive filtering (drop-down, list, tile styles).
Use cards and new card visuals for KPIs to save space and improve performance.
Add currency formatting and control decimal places for numeric data.
Use donut charts over pie charts for better aesthetics.
Limit number of visuals per page to avoid clutter.
Use drill-down/drill-up features on date hierarchies.
Format visuals with borders, shadows, rounded corners for better look.
Use filters pane for top N filtering.
Use format painter to quickly copy formatting between visuals.
Use tooltips and clear, user-friendly titles and subtitles on visuals.

Power BI Service and Publishing

Publish Power BI Desktop reports to Power BI Service workspace.
Workspace: Online container for reports, dashboards, datasets.
Dashboards are collections of pinned visuals from reports, not separate data containers.
Schedule data refresh requires:
- On-premises data gateway installed and configured.
- Gateway acts as bridge between Power BI Service and on-prem data.
- Refresh frequency and times can be scheduled (e.g., every 4 hours).
- Refresh requires the machine/gateway to be online.
Role Level Security (RLS) restricts data access per user role:
- Define roles with DAX filters.
- Assign users to roles in Power BI Service.
Use Q&A feature in Power BI Service to ask natural language questions about data and get visuals instantly.

Interview Preparation: Common Power BI Questions Covered

Measures vs Calculated Columns: Measures are dynamic aggregations; calculated columns are stored row-wise.
What is DAX: Formula language for complex calculations.
Filters, Slicers, Groups: Ways to filter and organize data in reports.
Difference between SUM and SUMX: SUM adds a column; SUMX evaluates expression row-wise then sums.
Handling Missing Values: Replace, filter out, or clean in Power Query.
KPIs: Visual indicators of performance; created via measures and KPI visuals.
Role Level Security (RLS): Restrict data access based on user roles.
Connecting Multiple Data Sources: Power BI supports various sources and relationships.
Bookmarks: Save report states for navigation and storytelling.
Incremental Refresh vs Scheduled Refresh: Incremental refresh updates only new data; scheduled refresh reloads entire dataset.
Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD): Handle historical data changes via Type 1 (overwrite) or Type 2 (track history).
Making Reports Dynamic: Use slicers, bookmarks, measure selection, drill through/down.
Publishing Reports: Save in Desktop, publish to Service, share and schedule refresh.
Disabling Dynamic Updates: Turn off auto refresh, remove interactions, use static imports.
Custom Visuals: Downloaded or created visuals for specialized data presentation.

Main Methodologies and Steps Highlighted

Installing Power BI Desktop
- Uninstall old versions.
- Install from Microsoft Store for auto-updates.
- Enable preview features except “on object interaction.”
- Enable map visuals under security.
Loading and Cleaning Data
- Close source files.
- Load data via “Get Data” → select source.
- Use Power Query Editor for:
  - Promoting headers.
  - Removing unnecessary columns.
  - Renaming columns for consistency.
  - Appending multiple tables.
  - Removing duplicates.
  - Splitting and merging columns.
  - Replacing null values.
- Close & Apply to load cleaned data into model.
Creating Relationships
- Use primary key columns with matching names.
- Auto-detected or manually create via drag-drop or Manage Relationships.
- Prefer single-direction relationships for performance.
Using DAX
- Create calculated columns for row-wise calculations.
- Create measures for aggregations and KPIs.
- Use functions like SUM, SUMX, RELATED, IF, DATEDIFF, SUMMARIZE.
- Format columns/measures appropriately.
Building Visuals
- Use slicers for filtering.
- Use new card visuals for KPIs.
- Format visuals (titles, colors, borders, shadows).
- Use drill down/up on date hierarchies.
- Apply filters for top N items.
- Use tooltips and legends for clarity.
Publishing and Power BI Service
- Publish reports to workspace.
- Pin visuals to dashboards.
- Configure scheduled refresh with data gateway.
- Implement Role Level Security.
- Use Q&A for natural language queries.

Speakers / Sources Featured

Primary Speaker/Instructor: Unnamed Intellipaat Trainer (likely Arjun or similar)
Platform: Intellipaat (course provider)
Additional Mentions: Microsoft (Power BI product), Intellipaat Achievers (testimonials)

This summary condenses the core concepts, methodologies, and practical steps covered in the full Power BI beginner course video by Intellipaat, focusing on tool setup, data loading and transformation, modeling, DAX calculations, visualization best practices, Power BI Service usage, and interview preparation.