Reviewing October 2021's PL-200 Power Platform Functional Consultant Exam Changes

Microsoft's introduction of role-based exams marked a change in the certification landscape and the promise of less disruption in the years ahead. Still, it also necessitates regular updates to reflect how products get introduced, changed, or removed altogether.

The PL-200: Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant exam recently saw some critical updates involving desktop flows, chatbots in Power Virtual Agent, Microsoft Teams integration, and solutions. The changes reflect the significant investment Microsoft has been making in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) lately, and they make it essential for candidates to get "hands-on" with Power Automate Desktop.

Moreover, Power Virtual Agents remain an important topic, and the bar has been raised on it. Candidates must demonstrate appreciation and knowledge for the authentication and embedding of chatbots within multiple locations. The removal of Data Flows and how to create charts/dashboards in model-driven apps was noted on the exam, too.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is a vitally important topic and has been a long overdue change for this exam. Candidates must have knowledge and expertise in working with solutions, connection references, environment variables, and more. The rest of the changes are minor in nature, but studying the list of skills measured is essential for Microsoft certification exams, particularly when changes occur on the exam itself.

If you're sitting or have had the PL-200 exam booked for a while, it's recommended to look at what's changed, and to prepare yourself accordingly.