PL-900 · Microsoft
PL-900 changed in July. Is your study material still right?
PL-900 changed in July 2026: one skill area is new and one is gone. What the exam measures now, how it is delivered, and how to plan your study around the new weights.
Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900) is aimed at people starting to build solutions with Power Platform: business apps with Power Apps, automation with Power Automate, data in Dataverse and connectors, and, since July 2026, agents with Copilot Studio. Microsoft presents it as preparation for role-based certifications, not a prerequisite for them.
What changed on 24 July 2026
The study guide now reads "Skills measured as of July 24, 2026", and unlike most Microsoft guides it comes with a change log detailed enough to tell a story:
- Power Pages is gone as a skill area. "Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Pages", with its objectives on describing Power Pages and creating a site, is marked "Removed". Power Pages survives only as one line in the business value area.
- Agents in Copilot Studio are new, as a whole skill area with two new groups: building agents and managing them.
- Building apps became describing how to build them. "Build a canvas app" and "Build a model-driven app" are removed; a new group, "Describe how to build basic apps by using Power Apps", replaces them.
- Weights moved. Business value and Power Apps decreased; the environment area and Power Automate increased.
If your study material predates late July 2026, check it against the current guide: it may spend time on Power Pages and none on agents.
What the exam measures now
| Skill area | Weight |
|---|---|
| Describe the business value of Microsoft Power Platform | 5 to 10% |
| Manage the Microsoft Power Platform environment | 20 to 25% |
| Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Apps | 20 to 25% |
| Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate | 20 to 25% |
| Describe features and capabilities of agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio | 20 to 25% |
Four areas share the exam almost equally. The business value area is small, but it is also where the guide asks about the value of every product, Power Pages included.
How the exam is scored and delivered
- Time: 45 minutes.
- Scoring: Microsoft requires a score of 700 or greater.
- Delivery: proctored, and it may include interactive components.
- Languages: English, Spanish, German, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Arabic and Italian. Localised versions usually follow English updates by about eight weeks, so a non-English exam may still reflect the previous version for a while.
- Retakes: a second attempt can be taken 24 hours after the first; the wait before later attempts varies.
Distinctions worth getting right
- Dataverse versus a traditional database. The guide asks for the differences directly, then for tables, columns, relationships, forms, views and business logic options including Power Fx.
- Four app options. Canvas apps, model-driven apps, Plan designer and code apps each have a use case objective. Expect "which one fits" questions.
- Cloud versus desktop flows. Know when an automation needs a desktop flow rather than a cloud flow, and the typical use cases: approvals, Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, Forms and document automation.
- Agents are built and managed. Topics, knowledge sources, tools (including MCP servers and agent flows) and channels on the building side; Microsoft Agent 365, usage and adoption monitoring and agent evaluations on the managing side.
- AI-assisted building. Several objectives ask how to use AI to create tables, apps and flows, and how to create AI-powered apps with the "vibe experience". Read these as product features to describe, like any other.
A study plan that follows the guide
- Start with Copilot Studio (20 to 25%) if your material is older than July 2026, because it is the area you are most likely missing.
- Environment (20 to 25%). Dataverse, then administration and governance: environments, the security model, data privacy and accessibility, monitoring and analytics, and ALM with Power Platform pipelines.
- Power Apps and Power Automate (20 to 25% each). Use cases first, then how basic apps and flows are built, including connector triggers and actions.
- Business value (5 to 10%). One line per product. It makes a good final review because it names everything the other areas covered.
Every date we track for this and the other exams we cover is in the exam calendar.