Student Dataviz Contest | Fabric Data Days

slindsay · ‎11-04-2025

🎓 The College Quest in Fabricland: A Power BI Dataviz Challenge for Students

Are you a student who loves stories, visuals, or solving problems with data? If so, you’re invited to join The College Quest in Fabricland, a Power BI Data Visualization Challenge just for students!

No prior contest experience needed - this is your chance to learn, experiment, and show off your creativity using data.

🧙 The story

In the magical world of Fabricland, young wizards and heroes are getting ready to choose their future colleges.

But there’s a problem.

The High Council of Education has gathered information on every college in the realm - tuition, programs, happiness scores, alumni success, and more - but it’s all scattered and hard to understand.

That’s where you come in!

The Council is calling for data wizards-in-training (that’s you!) to use Power BI to make sense of it all - helping Fabricland’s students find the perfect place to study, grow, and launch their magical careers.

🎯 Your mission

Your goal is to create a simple, clear, and creative Power BI report that helps the students of Fabricland explore their college options.

Use visuals, color, and storytelling to answer questions like:

Which colleges are most affordable or offer the best student experience?
How do different programs compare by major or level?
What trends can you discover that might help future students choose wisely?

You don’t need to be a Power BI expert - this contest is all about learning, exploring, and having fun with data.

📊 The dataset

We’ve prepared a fictional dataset for you to use - so you can focus on creativity, not real-world accuracy.

It includes two tables:

College_Profiles: Details about each college, including:

Name, kingdom, tuition, ranking, admission difficulty
Student life info (housing, clubs, happiness)
Career outcomes (placement rate, salary, alumni satisfaction)

Programs_Majors: Program-level information for each college, such as:

Program name, category, and level (undergraduate/graduate)
Enrollment, graduation rate, internship availability
Average starting salary per major

The two tables are related on the field CollegeID: Colleges_Master[CollegeID] → Programs_Majors[CollegeID] (one-to-many)

📁 To use the fictional data, you can either use the prepared starter file or download the raw data in Excel and bring it into Power BI. We recommend you take a look at the starter file, as it contains a data dictonary and some starter visuals.

💡 Everything in this dataset is fictional - feel free to be creative with visuals, themes, and stories!

🧮 Scoring criteria

A panel of celebrity judges will score each entry based on:

Insightfulness (10 pts), visual effectiveness (10 pts), creativity & innovation (10 pts), and accessibility (10 pts)

🏆 What you can win

All participants will gain new skills and experience with Power BI, and top entries will receive:

🎁 Exclusive Fabric swag
🎤 A spotlight appearance in our live finale showcase
💬 A one-on-one mentoring session with a Microsoft MVP

🏅Who are the judges

This contest will be judged by dataviz design expert Aanor Le Gouic (check out her work) and accessibility champion Shannon Lindsay.

Want more information on judging? Check out our article on how community contests are judged.

🕒 Important Dates

Contest opens: November 4 at 8am Pacific
Submissions due: November 25 at 11:59pm Pacific
Winners announced: December 5 at 8am Pacific
Live finale showcase: December 10 at 8am Pacific

💡 Tips to Get Started

If you’re new to Power BI, don’t worry - we’ve got you covered!

Start with Power BI Desktop (it’s free to download*).
Open the starter file and explore the tabs.
Create a new tab and try out a few visuals - bar charts, slicers, or maps are great places to start.
Add a title, pick a color theme, and tell your story through the visuals.

Remember: It’s not about perfection - it’s about creativity, storytelling, and learning.

*You’ll need a PC to use Power BI Desktop, or you can upload the starter file to the Power BI service and build your visuals online - as long as you have access to the Power BI service.

🚀 How to Enter

Download the dataset.
Create your Power BI report.
Submit your entry in the contests gallery*.

*Read Sahir's article on how to create an amazing submission.

The College Quest in Fabricland awaits. Will you help guide the next generation of students toward their future? 🌟

📚 Getting Started Resources

Here are some helpful links to get you started:

Download Power BI Desktop (Free)
Intro to Power BI on Microsoft Learn
Workout Wednesday Power BI Challenges - for practice and inspiration
Join the Fabric Community to ask questions, share progress, and get feedback!
Watch the kickoff videos!

Check out the full Fabric Data Days Schedule for more information about learning sessions!

***Learn more about the official contest rules.

Nabha-Ahmed

Great