Google Business Intelligence study guide
Google Business Intelligence · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Google Business Intelligence Certificate is an advanced, self-paced online program delivered on Coursera and built by subject-matter experts and senior practitioners at Google. It is aimed at people already working in data analytics, or at graduates of the Google Data Analytics Certificate, who want to go deeper into turning raw data into insights leaders can act on. The source describes it as building on data analytics foundations and enhancing technical skills with BigQuery, Tableau, and SQL. The curriculum is organized into three courses: Foundations of Business Intelligence; The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines; and Decisions, Decisions: Dashboards and Reports. Topics on this exam: Foundations of Business Intelligence, The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines, and Decisions, Decisions: Dashboards and Reports. The Google Business Intelligence study guide has 3 sections and about 1,343 words.
01Foundations of Business Intelligence
Foundations of Business Intelligence tests whether you can define BI, place it in an organization, and translate a business question into a measurable, data-backed answer. Expect questions on roles, data types, analytics maturity, and the difference between a metric, a KPI, and a dashboard. BI is the people, processes, and technologies that turn raw data into information for decisions. It is mostly descriptive and diagnostic, recurring, and decision-supporting.
478 words, about 2 min02The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines
The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines tests how data moves from source systems into a model that answers BI questions. Expect schemas, keys, grain, ETL versus ELT, validation, and pipeline reliability. Conceptual models name business entities; logical models add attributes and relationships; physical models define tables, types, and indexes. Normalization reduces redundancy, usually to third normal form; denormalization trades redundancy for read speed.
418 words, about 2 min03Decisions, Decisions: Dashboards and Reports
Decisions, Decisions: Dashboards and Reports tests whether you can turn a model into a visual product that drives action. Expect chart choice, dashboard versus report, layout, interactivity, accessibility, and stakeholder delivery. A dashboard monitors current state at a glance: KPIs, minimal text, interactivity, frequent refresh. A report explains detail: static or scheduled, narrative, distribution, and an audit trail.
447 words, about 2 min