Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect Beta Exam Now Available

[Liberty Munson]

Do you have experience performing proactive and preventive work to increase the value of your customers’ investment? Are you able to identify opportunities to solve business problems? Do you promote organizational health in your engagements? If this describes you, why not start the path of earning the Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect Expert certification?

To pursue this expert level certification, you must have experience leading successful implementations and an ability to focus on solutions that address the broader business and technical needs of an organization. You should have functional and technical knowledge of Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps, related cloud solutions from Microsoft, and third-party technologies. In addition to having experience across Microsoft Power Platform, you should be able to facilitate design decisions across development, configuration, integration, infrastructure, security, availability, storage, and change management.

Are you ready for this beta exam? Can you:

• Initiate solution planning and identify Microsoft Power Platform components?
• Identify organization information and metrics?
• Evaluate an organization’s enterprise architecture?
• Capture requirements and perform gap analysis?
• Architect a solution?
• Lead the design process, and use Power Automate in your automation strategy?
• Design integrations?
• Identify opportunities to integrate and extend Microsoft Power Platform solutions by using Azure?
• Design the data and security models?
• Validate the solution design?
• Support and troubleshoot the solution as it goes live?

If you answered ‘yes’ to these questions (or most of them), you may be ready to earn the new Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect Expert certification. It has one exam that is currently in beta: PL-600: Power Platform Solution Architect.

To receive the 80% discount*, use code PL600Sunny when prompted for payment.

This is NOT a private access code. You can use this code to register for and take the exam on or before April 14, 2021.

*The first 300 people who register can take these exams for an 80% discount! (Why beta exams are no longer free.) The seats are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. You must register for the exam on or before April 14, 2021. Take the exam as soon as possible, so we can leverage your comments, feedback, and exam data in our evaluation of the quality of the questions.

Preparing for Beta Exams

• Review the PL-600 prep guide and practice the skills listed.
• Find classroom and online training from Microsoft Learning Partners.
• Explore free learning paths, courses, and hands-on learning on Microsoft Learn.
• Need other preparation ideas? Check out my blog post on preparing for beta exams.

Taking a beta exam is your chance to have a voice in the questions we include on the exam when it goes live. The rescore process starts on the day that exams go live, and final scores are released approximately 10 days later. For updates on when the rescore is complete, follow me on Twitter (@libertymunson). For questions about the timing of beta exam scoring and live exam release, see the blog posts The Path from Beta Exam to Live Exam and More Tips About Beta Exams.

Remember, the number of spots is limited, so when they're gone, they're gone. You should also be aware that there are some countries where the beta code will not work (including Turkey, Pakistan, India, and China). You will not be able to take the beta exam in those countries.

Also keep in mind that these exams are in beta, which means that you will not be scored immediately. You will receive your final score and passing status after your exam is live.

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MB-600 Exam retiring

[mkokabi]

Hi,

The Power Platform Solution Architect has a prerequisite which I haven't passed. Can I still sit for this exam.

[Liberty Munson]

@mkokabi Yes, you just won't earn the certification until you pass all required exams.

[Santhakumar M]

Hello Liberty Munson,

The beta exam is not applicable in India and this discount cannot be used with appointments scheduled in India.

[Liberty Munson]

@Santhakumar M that is correct and noted in the blog.

[obaidamir]

@mkokabi you can take the exam, but if you are not very familiar with customizing (entities, forms, etc.) I would think it would be difficult to pass this exam. But, if you have expertise in how to customize/configure (MB-200) the base product, then it won't be difficult for you...

Obaid

[brynhh]

@Liberty MunsonNow this is available, I assume it's the final certification in the Power Platform path? With the recommended order being PL-900 > 100 > 200/400 > 600?

[Liberty Munson]

@brynhh There is no prescribed order, but that makes the most logical sense.

[brynhh]

@Liberty MunsonThanks - I suppose I'm mainly asking to make sure that's all the certs? I've done 900, 100 and 200, but may attempt to move onto 600 rather than try 400 as well, and in theory that's then it apart from renewals.

I know your post says to check your Twitter, but on average how long is it before exams go live after beta and in turn people get their results?

[Liberty Munson]

@brynhh I will admit that the D365 certification paths are complicated, so make sure you understand the requirement for the certification that you're exploring, but 900 is not needed for any role based certification--but it's a good starting point. You can take either PL-200 or PL-400 AND PL-600 to earn the architect certification. 

10 days from live for beta rescore processing.

[brynhh]

@Liberty Munson  Yeah I sat (and passed) 900 and 100 as I thought it would be a good learning experience anyway. I've been working with Power Platform for a couple of years, but those 2 along with 200 (which I also passed) were very useful.

Thanks for info about 10 days. Do you know roughly how long it takes for it to go live? So say I sat the beta next week, is it on average 3 months, etc until its live then obviously 10 days after that?

[Liberty Munson]

@brynhh three months is a good estimate from the start of  beta to live although sometimes we do it more quickly... but this takes time to gather the data, analyze it, make decisions, fix items, etc. Plus 10 days for your beta score. I have a blog on how this works: Creating high-quality exams: The path from beta to live - Microsoft Tech Community

[brynhh]

Sat this yesterday, not holding out a great deal of hope for a pass, but maybe be plesantly surprised :)

@Liberty MunsonCan you pass it onto whoever is responsible some feedback about Vue. When I tried to book, I selected this afternoon, entered all my card details, then it said slot not available. Then selected 330pm yesterday, same. Then 4pm, same. Eventually managed to book 345, but it should reserve the slot you'd think.

Also, the check in process was pretty stressful. I cleared my desk of all obvious things like paper, pens, etc but they even said I have to remove items like my glasses case. They said can they call me, I said yes but I need to put my headphones on; headphones are not allowed. I don't own speakers; use your internal speakers or desktop speakers. This isn't a laptop and I don't own any; if the proctors can't call you they'll cancel your exam. Well they'll have to call my mobile; mobiles are not allowed. Well they'll need to type to me as that's the only options I have.

It was as though they would use no initiative whatsoever and had to stick rigidly to their script, awful experience. It's my 4th exam now and only once was it a completely smooth and relaxed process.

[Liberty Munson]

@brynhh The response:

For the registration side- This issue this can happen as OnVUE is first come first served, so this candidate was competing with other candidates for a spot.  This is a very rare escalation, but as capacity tightens the chance of this happening increases.  We are working to consolidate all of the policies into one page to help speed up the registration process and hopefully reduce these issues.

The rest is pretty standard practice, but can certainly be disruptive.  The glasses case should have been removed as part of the candidates room setup.  We don’t allow headphones outside of a specific accommodation as we cannot tell what is being transmitted to the candidate.

[brynhh]

Hi @Liberty Munson thanks for contacting PV. In regards to their comments, sadly I've come across the slot taken issue a few times, as my use case has generally to be book when I'm ready, rather than weeks ahead. Just having a slot reservation system (like online shopping) would be far better.

I totally disagree with their 2nd paragraph - it's just restating the rules. My issue is I think the rules are quite ridiculous at times. A glasses case for example has no impact on an exam whatsoever, same as many other things on peoples desks, as ultimately we're at home and not in a test center. Many people don't even have proper desks to work at - what happens with them if they want to sit exams? Headphones is also just repeating their rules. I don't own speakers and don't intend to, so although I understand they are not allowed during the exam, why would it be a problem for them to be used during the check-in process?

Vue's response just appears to be reading from a script again and they have no willingness to show some independent thought outside of that to make it a less stressful process for people. Given they have a monopoly on the market, it seems like they have no desire to improve. Sadly, it could give a bad impression of Microsoft when none of it is your fault.

[blessingak]

I would like to provide feedback on the overall PL-600. Is there an email to which i could send the feedback? 

[crmvet]

Is there a date when results for the beta would be released? It looks like PL-600 is now live, but there are still no results updates to beta exam participants?

[Liberty Munson]

@crmvet as stated in the blog post, it takes 10 days after the exam is live for beta rescores to be processed.

[MrLeeM]

Hi @Liberty Munson,

Apologies if this is already covered, but this was my first beta exam and I’m a little confused. Will it be 10 days on the nose for the release, or it may possibly roll over to day 11 or 12 etc.

thanks for any help

[Liberty Munson]

@MrLeeM approximately 10 business days. It could be more or less.

[brynhh]

Until I saw these recent replies, I didn't even know it had gone live, was happy just waiting until the result showed up at some point.

When did it go live? Only ask as if it was only around a week ago, then I'm not going to worry about checking for at least another week, no point until its at least around 10 days as Liberty said.

[Liberty Munson]

Beta rescores are processing right now and results should start showing up in the next few days. Follow me on Twitter to get rescore updates as noted in the blog post.