Checkpoint: Power Automate Practitioner

These are the judgement calls a Power Automate practitioner actually faces: building flows across everyday apps, reading what Copilot gives you, and fixing failures. Pick the best option for each scenario, and you'll see an explanation after each one.

Passing this checkpoint: work through the level first, then score 70% or more here.

Skipping this level: already confident? Take this cold and score 80% or more to test out and jump ahead. Below that, nothing is lost, you just study the level as normal.

1. You build a flow to add form responses to an Excel spreadsheet, but the 'Add a row into a table' action can't find any table and reports the columns as empty. The data is clearly there in rows and columns. What's the most likely cause?The spreadsheet has too many rows for Power Automate to read.The sheet was never formatted as a proper Excel table via Insert > Table; it only looks tabular, so the connector can't see a named table or its columns.Excel files can't be used with Power Automate at all; you must use SharePoint.The flow needs a paid licence to read Excel.
2. Your flow triggers on 'When a new response is submitted' from a Microsoft Form and writes the answers to a spreadsheet, but every logged row comes out blank. What did you most likely miss?You need to submit the form twice before it works.The Forms trigger only returns a response ID, so you must add a 'Get response details' step to fetch the actual answers before you can use them.Microsoft Forms can't be connected to a spreadsheet.The spreadsheet columns are in the wrong order.
3. You build an approval flow: a leave request goes to a manager to approve or reject. You handle the 'approved' path (record it and confirm) but leave the 'rejected' path empty. What's the problem?Nothing; if it's rejected, doing nothing is correct.A rejected request silently vanishes and the requester never hears back; both outcomes of the condition should do something, even if 'no' is just an email.The flow won't save unless both branches are identical.Rejections aren't possible with the 'Start and wait for an approval' action.
4. You describe a flow to Copilot and it produces a finished-looking flow in seconds. Every step shows a green tick when you test it, but the spreadsheet ends up with the date in the amount column. What does this tell you about checking Copilot's work?Green ticks prove the flow is correct, so the spreadsheet must be fine.Green ticks only prove the flow ran; Copilot can map the wrong dynamic content into a field, which runs perfectly while saving the wrong data, so you must read each field mapping and check the real result.Copilot never makes mapping errors, so something else is wrong.You should delete the flow and re-describe it from scratch.
5. In an expression, you write formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'dd/mm/yyyy') to show today's date, but the output looks wrong: the middle number keeps changing to something that isn't the month. What's the fix?utcNow() is broken; use a fixed date instead.Lowercase 'mm' means minutes, not month; change it to capital 'MM' to show the month.You can't format dates in Power Automate expressions.Add more digits: 'dddd/mmmm/yyyy'.
6. A flow that ran fine for weeks now fails. You open the run history and the failed run shows a red icon on step 3, and steps 4 and 5 are also red. Where should you focus?On step 5, the last red step, because that's where it ended up.On step 3, the first red step; steps 4 and 5 are red only because step 3 failed and they never got to run.On step 1, because failures always start at the trigger.Rebuild the whole flow; reading the error is a waste of time.
7. A flow starts failing the day after you changed your Microsoft password. The error on the failed step mentions 'Unauthorized' and a 401 code. What's the cause and fix?The flow is corrupted and must be rebuilt from scratch.The connection's sign-in expired after the password change; use 'Fix connection' to re-authenticate, then resubmit the failed run to confirm.You've run out of free flow runs; buy more.The other service is down; wait and it will fix itself.
8. You need a shared record that several colleagues will add to and edit in the browser, and you want to automate against it. A teammate insists it must be an Excel file. What's the better-informed view?Excel is always the right choice for any Power Automate data.A SharePoint list is often the better fit when several people edit shared records in the browser, because it's structured by design with no 'format as a table' step to forget, though Excel is fine when you want a true spreadsheet to sort and chart.Neither works; Power Automate can't handle shared data.You must use both at once for it to work.
9. Dan sets up an approval flow so expense claims over £500 need his sign-off. He assigns the approval to a colleague who's about to go on two weeks' leave, and doesn't set up cover. What's the risk, and what does it teach?No risk; the flow will just approve everything automatically while she's away.The flow will pause at the approval and wait indefinitely for someone who isn't seeing the requests, stalling every large claim; approvals need a reachable approver and a plan for cover.The risk is only that the emails will look untidy.The flow will reject all claims automatically after a day.

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Power Automate: Practitioner

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