PL-400 study guide
PL-400 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Exam PL-400: Microsoft Power Platform Developer is the exam tied to the Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Developer Associate credential. It targets developers who design, develop, test, secure, and troubleshoot Power Platform solutions - application enhancements, custom user experiences, system integrations, data conversions, and custom process automation - and who already hold applied knowledge of Power Platform services, including their capabilities, boundaries, and constraints, plus a basic understanding of authentication, security, and application lifecycle management. The PL-400 study guide has 6 sections and about 2,208 words.
01Create a technical design
A technical design for a Power Platform solution is a package of artifacts someone else could build from: the data model (tables, keys, ownership, relationships), the app inventory (model-driven, canvas, Power Pages, code-first), the environment and ALM plan (dev to test to prod, managed solutions, pipelines), the security model (business units, teams, roles, field security profiles), and an integration contract per interface (endpoint, direction, trigger, payload, retry, idempotency). Exam items rarely ask you to name a feature; they ask you to justify a choice.
362 words, about 2 min02Configure Microsoft Dataverse
Start with ownership: user- or team-owned tables participate in the business unit security model, organisation-owned tables do not and cannot be shared. Column types carry behaviour, not just storage.
398 words, about 2 min03Create and configure Power Apps
Model-driven apps are generated from the data model: you assemble an app module, a sitemap, forms, views, charts, dashboards and the command bar, and the platform enforces security and accessibility for you. Canvas apps are built control by control, connect to many data sources, and are the right choice for offline mobile use and bespoke UI.
381 words, about 2 min04Extend the user experience
Modern model-driven scripts use executionContext.getFormContext() (or the PrimaryControl parameter) instead of the deprecated Xrm.Page. From the form context reach attributes with getAttribute for values and controls with getControl for visibility, disabled state and labels.
337 words, about 2 min05Extend the platform
A plug-in implements IPlugin and is registered against a message (Create, Update, Delete, SetState, a custom API or action) and a table on a stage: 10 PreValidation, 20 PreOperation, 40 PostOperation. PreValidation runs outside the database transaction, before the platform validates the request - no images, and a failure there leaves nothing to roll back.
360 words, about 2 min06Develop integrations
Dataverse exposes an OData v4 Web API at /api/data/v9.2 for CRUD, FetchXML, actions and batch requests. Paging returns up to 5,000 records per page and you follow @odata.nextLink rather than assuming an offset.
370 words, about 2 min