Leveraging Power Query Skills for Data Engineering: Seeking Guidance on DP-600 and First Role Opport

[Mohamed32]

Hello everyone,

I am joining this forum for the first time and wanted to introduce myself. As a PL-300 certified Power BI Data Analyst, I have spent a significant amount of time using Power Query for data transformation. I am now officially taking the next step in my career by preparing for the DP-600 exam to become a Fabric Analytics Engineer.

Reading that Power Query is syndicated across Power BI, Power Apps, and Excel is a great reminder of how versatile these skills are. I am particularly interested in mastering Power Query (Dataflows Gen2) and understanding its central role within the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem for data ingestion and preparation.

I am eager to learn from the experts here as I transition from standard reporting into more complex data engineering and warehouse workflows. My goal is to eventually land my first role as a Fabric Analytics Engineer, and I look forward to contributing to this community and helping others as I grow!

[praveen_511]

Welcome, and great background to start DP-600
Your Power Query skills transfer very well into Dataflows Gen2, especially for ingestion, transformations, and reuse across Fabric. For DP-600, focus on how Power Query fits into end-to-end Fabric pipelines (Lakehouse, Warehouse, semantic models), not just transformations.

A good next step is hands-on practice with:

1. Dataflows Gen2 → Lakehouse tables
2. Incremental refresh patterns
3. Medallion (Bronze/Silver/Gold) concepts in Fabric

You’re already well-positioned for a Fabric Analytics Engineer role keep building small Fabric projects and you’ll bridge the gap quickly.

[v-sshirivolu · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mohamed32  ,

Welcome to the community.

It’s great that you already have strong Power Query experience along with the PL-300 certification. That gives you a very solid base for moving into Fabric analytics engineering.

In Microsoft Fabric, Power Query or Dataflows Gen2 are mainly meant for the data ingestion and preparation stage. A common and recommended flow is data sources -> Dataflows Gen2 -> OneLake -> Lakehouse or Warehouse -> semantic model. Dataflows Gen2 are best used for pulling data from sources, doing basic cleaning, standardising schemas, simple joins, and creating reusable ingestion logic.

When the data volume grows or transformations become complex, the expectation both in real projects and for DP-600 is to move that logic to Spark notebooks in Lakehouse or SQL in Warehouse. A key analytics engineer skill is knowing where Power Query fits and when it’s better to switch to Spark or SQL instead of forcing everything into Power Query. From a DP-600 point of view, focus on clearly understanding how Dataflows Gen2 work with OneLake, the difference between Lakehouse vs Warehouse, and how this prepared data is finally used by semantic models and reports.

Microsoft documentations that explains this design clearly 

Dataflows Gen2 overview:
https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/data-factory/dataflows-gen2-overview

Microsoft Fabric and OneLake architecture:
https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/get-started/microsoft-fabric-overview

Lakehouse and Warehouse concepts:
https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/data-engineering/lakehouse-overview
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/data-warehouse/

DP-600 exam skills outline:
https://learn.microsoft.com/credentials/certifications/exams/dp-600

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @Mohamed32 ,

I hope the above details help you fix the issue. If you still have any questions or need more help, feel free to reach out. We’re always here to support you

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @Mohamed32 ,
I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions

[rubayatyasmin]

Hi @Mohamed32 

Welcome to the community!

Great introduction and congrats on being PL-300 certified and taking the step toward DP-600. 

Looking forward to learning together and seeing your contributions. Best of luck on your journey to becoming a Fabric Analytics Engineer!

Meanwhile, here are some links that might be helpful for you. 

1. Differences between Dataflow Gen1 and Dataflow Gen2 - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

2. Create and use Dataflows (Gen2) in Microsoft Fabric | mslearn-fabric

3. Tips & Tricks for Dataflow Gen2 in Microsoft Fabric | by Jon Vöge | Power BI Masterclass | Medium

4. Course DP-600T00-A: Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer - Training | Microsoft Learn