Study guide for Exam PL-400: Microsoft Power Platform Developer
Purpose of this document
This study guide should help you understand what to expect on the exam and includes a summary of the topics the exam might cover and links to additional resources. The information and materials in this document should help you focus your studies as you prepare for the exam.
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Updates to the exam
Our exams are updated periodically to reflect skills that are required to perform a role. We have included two versions of the Skills Measured objectives depending on when you are taking the exam.
We always update the English language version of the exam first. Some exams are localized into other languages, and those are updated approximately eight weeks after the English version is updated. While Microsoft makes every effort to update localized versions as noted, there may be times when the localized versions of an exam are not updated on this schedule. Other available languages are listed in the Schedule Exam section of the Exam Details webpage. If the exam isn't available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes to complete the exam.
Note
The bullets that follow each of the skills measured are intended to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. Related topics may be covered in the exam.
Note
Most questions cover features that are general availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.
Skills measured as of December 19, 2024
Audience profile
As a candidate for this exam, you design, develop, test, and troubleshoot solution components that use the extension points of Microsoft Power Platform. You use traditional code to solve challenges not appropriate for low code. You implement the parts of a business solution that include:
Custom user experiences
Custom business logic
System integrations
Data conversions
Custom process automation
Complex Power Fx formulas
Workflow expressions
You must have:
A strong applied knowledge of Microsoft Power Platform services, including in-depth understanding of its capabilities, boundaries, and constraints
An applied knowledge of authentication, security, and application lifecycle management (ALM) practices for the Microsoft Power Platform
An applied knowledge of Microsoft Power Platform developer tools including Power Platform CLI as part of the developer workflow
As a candidate, you should have development experience that includes Microsoft Power Platform services, JavaScript, JSON, TypeScript, C#, HTML, RESTful Web APIs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and Microsoft Azure.
Skills at a glance
Create a technical design (10–15%)
Build Power Platform solutions (10–15%)
Implement Power Apps improvements (5–10%)
Extend the user experience (10–15%)
Extend the platform (40–45%)
Develop integrations (5–10%)
Create a technical design (10–15%)
Design technical architecture
Design the technical architecture for a solution
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
Determine when to use standard tables, virtual tables, elastic tables, or connectors
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
Design solution components
Design Power Apps reusable components including canvas components, code components, and client scripting
Design custom connectors
Design Dataverse code components including plug-ins and 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
Configure Dataverse security roles to support code components
Manage Microsoft Power Platform environments for development
Implement application lifecycle management (ALM)
Manage solution dependencies
Create and use environment variables
Determine when to use unmanaged and managed solutions
Manage solution layers
Implement Power Apps improvements (5–10%)
Implement advanced canvas apps features
Implement complex Power Fx formulas
Build reusable component libraries
Utilize Power Automate cloud flows to implement business logic from a canvas app
Optimize and troubleshoot apps
Troubleshoot canvas and model-driven app issues by using Monitor and other browser-based debugging tools
Optimize canvas app performance including pre-loading data and query delegation
Optimize model-driven app performance including forms and views
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
Determine event handler registration approach
Create client scripting that targets the Dataverse Web API
Configure commands and buttons using Power Fx and JavaScript
Create a Power Apps component framework (PCF) code component
Demonstrate the use of the different code component lifecycle events
Initialize a new code component
Configure a code component manifest
Implement component interfaces
Package, deploy, and consume a component
Configure and use Device, Utility, and Web API features in component logic
Extend the platform (40–45%)
Create a Dataverse plug-in
Demonstrate the use of the different event execution pipeline stages
Develop a plug-in that uses 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
Optimize plug-in performance
Configure a Dataverse custom API message
Register plug-in components by using the Plug-in Registration Tool
Develop a plug-in that implements a custom API
Configure Dataverse business events
Create custom connectors
Create an Open API definition for an existing REST API
Implement authentication for custom connectors
Configure policy templates to modify connector behavior at runtime
Import definitions from existing APIs including Open API definitions, Azure services, and GitHub
Create a custom connector for an Azure service
Develop an Azure Function to be used in a custom connector
Extend the Open API definition for a custom connector
Develop code for a custom connector to transform data
Use platform APIs
Perform operations with the Dataverse Web API
Perform operations with the Organization service
Implement API limit retry policies
Optimize for performance, concurrency, transactions, and bulk operations
Perform authentication 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
Authenticate to Microsoft Power Platform by using managed identities
Configure Power Automate cloud flows
Implement flow steps to use Dataverse connector actions and triggers
Implement complex expressions in flow steps
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
Develop reuseable logic by using child flows
Develop integrations (5–10%)
Publish and consume Dataverse events
Publish a Dataverse event by using the IServiceEndpointNotificationService
Publish a Dataverse event by using the Plug-in Registration Tool
Register service endpoints including webhooks, Azure Service Bus, and Azure Event Hub
Recommend options for listening to Dataverse events
Implement data synchronization with Dataverse
Perform data synchronization by using change tracking
Develop code that utilizes alternate keys
Utilize the UpsertRequest message to synchronize data
Study resources
We recommend that you train and get hands-on experience before you take the exam. We offer self-study options and classroom training as well as links to documentation, community sites, and videos.
| Study resources | Links to learning and documentation |
|---|---|
| Get trained | Choose from self-paced learning paths and modules or take an instructor-led course |
| Find documentation | Developer learning catalog - Power Apps Planning a Power Apps project Canvas apps Model-driven apps Power Pages Microsoft Dataverse Tables and metadata Dataverse developer Model-driven apps developer Canvas apps developer Implement healthy ALM using solutions Use Microsoft Power Platform Build Tools |
| Ask a question | Microsoft Q&A | Microsoft Docs |
| Get community support | Power Apps - Power Platform Community Microsoft Power Automate - Power Platform Community |
| Follow Microsoft Learn | Microsoft Learn - Microsoft Tech Community |
| Find a video | #LessCodeMorePower | Shows Browse other Microsoft Learn shows |
Change log
The table below summarizes the changes between the current and previous version of the skills measured. The functional groups are in bold typeface followed by the objectives within each group. The table is a comparison between the previous and current version of the exam skills measured and the third column describes the extent of the changes.
| Skill area prior to December 19, 2024 | Skill area as of December 19, 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Extend the user experience | Extend the user experience | No % change |
| Apply business logic in model-driven apps using client scripting | Apply business logic in model-driven apps using client scripting | Minor |