📢 Announcing the Fabric Semantic Link Developer Experience Challenge

The Semantic Link Contest is now closed for entries and the judges are deliberating. Congratulations to our winners, Natarajan_M, ssrithar, and tharunkumarRTK on your winning entries! Check out the announcement post to read about our winners and the judges favorites!

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As analytics, software engineering, and BI continue to converge, semantic link enables Power BI semantic models to become first-class citizens in code-centric workflows. This challenge invites you to turn that capability into reusable developer tools that make working with semantic models faster, safer, and more delightful.

 

Do you have an idea for how Semantic Link could simplify, harden, or streamline how developers build and maintain semantic models?

 

We’re launching the Fabric Semantic Link Developer Experience Challenge, a community contest focused on improving how teams develop, test, document, and maintain semantic models in Microsoft Fabric.

🎯 Challenge Overview

The goal of this challenge is simple: Use Semantic Link to build a practical, reusable tool that solves a real developer pain point and can be adopted by others with minimal setup. Solutions should focus on improving the developer experience, not just demonstrating features.

 

📅 Key Dates

 

• Launch: March 30
• Submissions due: April 20
• Winners announced: May 4

💡 Looking for Inspiration?

Not sure where to start? Check out some solutions in the Semantic Link Labs library

• https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-link-labs

 

📦 Required Deliverables

1. One Fabric Notebook demonstrating the end-to-end solution using Semantic Link
2. Short abstract summarizing the problem and solution

File name format: 2026_SemanticLink_[YourUsername]_[ToolName].ipynb (for the demo notebook)

 

🛠 Rules

• Solutions must be developed within a Fabric environment
• Semantic Link must be a core component of the solution
• All materials must be accessible in a single submission
• Solutions must leverage a semantic model in Fabric
• Cite any external libraries or references used
  
  

🧾 Submission Format

Submit to the Notebook Gallery with:

• Title: “Semantic Link – [ToolName]”
• Short abstract summarizing the solution
• Category: Community Contests
  
  

🧮 Judging Criteria (20 Points)

Category	Points	What judges look for
Developer Experience Impact	5	A unique solution that addresses a clear pain point.
Reusability & Accessibility	5	Reusability and compatibility for a variety of instances
Documentation	5	Code is well documented. Goal of solution and configuration is easily explained
Creativity & Polish	5	Novelty, usability, and quality of execution

 

👩‍⚖️ Judging Panel:

 

• Samson Truong
• Michael Kovalsky
• Jared Kuehn
• Jason Romans
• Jennifer Ratten
  
  

🏆 Recognition

We’ll be naming multiple winners:

• Best Overall - Highest combined score
• Most Impactful - Solution with the greatest developer experience improvement
• Judges Favorite – A creative or innovative solution that stands out

🏅 Winners receive featured placement in the gallery and fabulous Fabric ✨swag✨!

🚀 Getting Started with sample data (optional)

 

Need access to a sample semantic model? Follow the steps below to create a semantic model with sample data in Fabric:

• In a workspace, create a new lakehouse
  

   

• In the empty lakehouse, click on “Start with sample data”
  

   

• Select the “Retail Data Model from Wide World Importers” sample data
  

   

• Once the sample data is loaded, select “New semantic model”
  
  
  
• Select all tables and confirm
  

   

• Select “Manage relationships” in the semantic model
  

   

• Select “New relationship” and add the following relationships
  

   

  
  

  
  
  

  

   

   

   
   

 

 

 

The semantic model has now been set up and is ready to be connected via Semantic Link.

 

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