Top 50 Tricky Power Apps interview questions and answers for experienced – Part 2

This is part 2 of the series of top 50+ tricky Power Apps interview questions and answers for experienced professionals. In part 2, we will cover the real-time scenario-based interview questions and answers from the Power Platform. Part 1 is here: Top 50+ Power Apps interview questions and answers for experienced – Part 1.

Power Apps interview questions and answers for experienced

In the below section, we will cover the scenario-based Power Apps interview questions and answers.

Is SPFx framework replaced by Power Apps (this is relevant question if you are from SharePoint development background)?

No, the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) and Power Apps are two separate technologies that serve different purposes within the Microsoft ecosystem.

SPFx is a client-side development framework for building SharePoint web parts and extensions that run in the context of SharePoint Online or SharePoint on-premises. SPFx provides a modern development model and allows developers to use familiar web development technologies such as React, Angular, and TypeScript to build custom SharePoint solutions.

Power Apps, on the other hand, is a low-code platform for building custom business applications that can connect to a variety of data sources, including SharePoint. Power Apps allows users to create and deploy custom apps without requiring extensive coding skills, making it easier to create solutions quickly.

While both technologies can be used to build custom solutions on top of SharePoint, they serve different purposes and are not intended to replace each other.

What is the best way to maintain versioning in Power Apps?

There are several ways to maintain versioning in Power Apps, depending on the specific needs of your organization and the complexity of your application. Here are a few options:

Use the built-in version control in Power Apps: Power Apps has a built-in version control system that allows you to create and manage different versions of your app. You can access this feature by going to the File menu and selecting Version history. From there, you can create new versions of your app, add comments to describe the changes, and roll back to previous versions if needed.

• Use GitHub or another version control system: If you’re comfortable using version control systems like Git, you can use these tools to manage the versioning of your Power Apps solutions. This will give you more control over the versioning process and allow you to manage your app’s code more effectively.
• Use solution packaging: Power Apps allows you to package your solutions into a single file that contains all the components of your app, including custom connectors, gateways, and data sources. You can use this feature to create and manage different versions of your app and deploy them to different environments.
• Use a third-party tool: There are several third-party tools available that can help you manage the versioning of your Power Apps solutions. These tools often provide additional features such as branching, merging, and code diffing, which can be useful for more complex applications.

Ultimately, the best way to maintain versioning in Power Apps will depend on your specific needs and the complexity of your application. It’s important to consider factors such as the size of your development team, the number of environments you’re deploying to, and the frequency of updates when choosing a versioning strategy.

Can you explain the concept of security roles in Power Apps?

In Power Apps, security roles are a way to control user access to different parts of an app or to specific data sources. A security role is a collection of permissions that define what a user can and cannot do within the app.

There are two types of security roles in Power Apps:

• Built-in security roles: These roles are predefined by Power Apps and cannot be modified. There are several built-in roles, including Admin, Maker, and User. Each role has a specific set of permissions that determine what actions the user can perform within the app.
• Custom security roles: These roles are created by app makers and can be customized to meet the specific needs of the app. Custom roles can be created by selecting the “Create a custom role” option in the Security tab of the app settings. App makers can define the permissions for the custom role by selecting the appropriate options, such as view, edit, or delete.

Once security roles have been defined, they can be assigned to individual users or groups. This can be done by selecting the “Assign roles” option in the Security tab of the app settings. Users can be assigned one or more roles, depending on their needs and level of access required.

Overall, security roles in Power Apps are an important tool for ensuring that users have the appropriate level of access to app resources and data. By defining and assigning roles, app makers can help prevent unauthorized access and maintain the integrity of their app.

Suppose you have customized a SharePoint list form using Power Apps, and you want to deploy this customized form to another site—how do you do this? Can we automate this deployment through the CI/CD pipeline?

As of today (March 2023) we cannot automate the deployment process using the CICD pipeline for the SharePoint list form, which is customized using the Power Apps, because for the automatic deployment using the Azure CICD pipeline, the solution should be a managed solution. However, the SharePoint list customized using the Power Apps is not a managed solution. Maybe in the future, Microsoft will make this possible.

To deploy a customized SharePoint list form created using Power Apps to another site, you can use the packaging feature in Power Apps. This will allow you to package the app and its associated components into a single file that can be imported into the target site.

Here are the general steps to deploy a customized SharePoint list form using Power Apps:

• Export the app: In Power Apps, select the app that you want to deploy and click on the “Export package” option in the File menu. This will generate a .msapp file that contains the app and its associated components.
• Import the app: In the target site, go to the Power Apps maker portal and select the “Import canvas app” option. Upload the .msapp file that you exported in step 1.
• Set up the data connections: Once the app is imported, you will need to configure any data connections that the app relies on to function correctly. This may involve setting up new data sources or updating existing ones.
• Publish the app: After the app and its data connections have been set up, you can publish the app to the target site.

Regarding automation through CI/CD pipeline, it is possible to automate the deployment of Power Apps solutions using tools like Power Automate (formerly known as Flow). Power Automate provides a set of actions and connectors that can be used to automate the packaging, importing, and publishing of Power Apps solutions. By creating a flow that triggers on a specific event (such as a code commit to a repository), you can automate the entire deployment process, including the configuration of data connections. This can help streamline the deployment process and reduce the risk of human error.

How to dynamically load dropdown list column values from the SharePoint list—let’s say there is an invoice number column in the SharePoint Online list, and you want to dynamically load this column into the SharePoint dropdown list?

To dynamically load dropdown list column values from a SharePoint Online list in Power Apps, you can use the “Choices” function along with the “Distinct” function. Here are the general steps:

1. Add a dropdown control to your Power App form.
2. In the Properties pane, set the Items property of the dropdown to the following formula:

Distinct(Choices('SharePointListName'.InvoiceNumberColumn))

Note: Replace ‘SharePointListName’ with the name of your SharePoint list, and ‘InvoiceNumberColumn’ with the name of the column containing the invoice numbers.

3. Save and publish the app.

This formula will retrieve all the distinct values from the specified column in the SharePoint list and use them as the choices for the dropdown control. As new items are added to the SharePoint list, they will automatically be added to the dropdown list as well.

Note that this approach assumes that the column containing the invoice numbers is a single-value column. If it is a multi-value column (such as a choice column that allows multiple selections), you will need to modify the formula accordingly. Additionally, if the SharePoint list contains a large number of items, you may want to consider adding additional filters or reducing the number of distinct values displayed to improve performance.

How can we implement this in Power Apps? Let’s say the user will select the country drop-down list, and automatically in the next drop-down list all states for the selected country will be displayed (example: the user selects country as USA in the first drop-down list, and automatically the state drop-down list will be populated with the states value)—how can we implement this? Assume that the country and state data sources are stored either in a SharePoint Online list or in Excel on OneDrive.

To implement cascading dropdowns in Power Apps where the options in the second dropdown are dependent on the selection made in the first dropdown, you can use a combination of filters and lookup functions. Here are the general steps:

1. Create two dropdown controls for country and state, respectively.
2. Set the Items property of the first dropdown to the list of countries. If the countries are stored in a SharePoint Online list, you can use the “Choices” function to retrieve the list of countries:

Choices('SharePointListName'.CountryColumn)

Note: Replace ‘SharePointListName’ with the name of your SharePoint list, and ‘CountryColumn’ with the name of the column containing the country names.

   3. Set the OnChange property of the first dropdown to a formula that filters the list of states based on the selected country. If the states are stored in a SharePoint Online list, you can use the "Filter" function to retrieve the list of states for the selected country:

Filter('SharePointListName', CountryColumn = Dropdown1.Selected.Value).StateColumn

Note: Replace ‘SharePointListName’ with the name of your SharePoint list, ‘CountryColumn’ with the name of the column containing the country names, and ‘StateColumn’ with the name of the column containing the state names.

4. Set the Items property of the second dropdown to the list of states returned by the formula in step 3:

Dropdown1.Selected.StateColumn

Note: Replace ‘Dropdown1’ with the name of your first dropdown control, and ‘StateColumn’ with the name of the column containing the state names.

5. Save and publish the app.

This formula will retrieve all the distinct values from the specified column in the SharePoint list and use them as the choices for the dropdown control. As new items are added to the SharePoint list, they will automatically be added to the dropdown list as well.

Note that this approach assumes that the state data source is a single-value column in the SharePoint list or Excel spreadsheet. If it is a multi-value column (such as a choice column that allows multiple selections), you will need to modify the formula accordingly. Additionally, if the SharePoint list or Excel spreadsheet contains a large number of items, you may want to consider adding additional filters or reducing the number of distinct values displayed to improve performance.

See Also: Quickly learn SharePoint cascading dropdown in PowerApps

The customer information details are stored in the SharePoint Online list – let’s say you want to provide an App Version of the list to the user where the user can perform CRUD operations for the customer such as create, read, update, and delete – how can we implement this in Power Apps?

To provide an app version of a SharePoint Online list where users can perform CRUD operations for customer information, you can use Power Apps to create a custom app. Here are the general steps:

• Create a new canvas app in Power Apps and select the SharePoint Online list as the data source.
• Add a gallery control to the app to display the list of customers. Set the Items property of the gallery to the name of the SharePoint list:

'SharePointListName'

• Add form controls for creating and editing customer information. For example, you can add a form control for creating new customers and another form control for editing existing customer information.
• Set the DataSource property of each form control to the name of the SharePoint list:

  'SharePointListName'

• Customize each form control as needed to display the appropriate fields for creating or editing customer information.
• Add buttons to the app for creating, editing, and deleting customers. For example, you can add a button to the gallery control for editing customer information, and another button to the form control for creating new customers.
• Set the OnSelect property of each button to a formula that performs the appropriate CRUD operation. For example, the formula for creating a new customer might look like this:

NewForm(Form1); SubmitForm(Form1)

This formula will create a new customer record in the SharePoint list using the data entered in the Form1 control.

• Save and publish the app.

This will provide an app version of the SharePoint Online list that allows users to perform CRUD operations for customer information. Users can create new customer records using the form control, edit existing customer information using the gallery control and form control, and delete customer records using the Delete button. You can customize the app as needed to meet your specific requirements, such as adding additional fields or applying security restrictions to restrict access to certain users.

If you want to display all customer details from the SharePoint Online list inside the PowerApps Canvas APP, which control will you use and what are the steps?

To display all customer details from the SharePoint Online list inside a PowerApps canvas app, you can use a gallery control. Here are the steps:

• Open PowerApps and create a new canvas app.
• Connect to the SharePoint Online list that contains the customer details.
• Insert a gallery control into the app by clicking on “Insert” from the ribbon and selecting “Gallery” from the list of controls.
• Set the Items property of the gallery control to the name of the SharePoint list, like this:

'SharePointListName'

• Customize the gallery control as needed to display the customer details. For example, you can add labels to the gallery to display the customer name, address, and other details.
• Save and publish the app.

This will display all customer details from the SharePoint Online list inside the PowerApps canvas app. Users can scroll through the gallery to view all customer records, and click on individual records to view more details or edit the record if appropriate. You can customize the gallery control further as needed, such as by adding search or filter capabilities to help users find specific records.

In SharePoint Online, the customer list has a million items; what is the best way we can display this customer information in the Power Apps?

When working with a SharePoint Online list that contains a large number of items, it is important to use techniques that optimize performance and minimize the impact on system resources. Here are some ways to display customer information from a large SharePoint Online list in Power Apps:

• Use delegation: When querying a large SharePoint Online list, it is important to use delegation to ensure that the query is processed on the server and not on the client. Delegation is a Power Apps feature that enables the use of server-side processing for large data sources. When using delegation, the query is processed in batches on the server, rather than retrieving all the items in the list at once.
• Use filtering: Use filtering to retrieve only the items that meet specific criteria. This reduces the number of items that need to be retrieved and displayed in the Power Apps, which can improve performance.
• Use pagination: Use pagination to retrieve items in batches of a specific size. This helps to avoid retrieving all the items in the list at once, which can cause performance issues.
• Use galleries with virtualization: Use galleries with virtualization to display a large number of items efficiently. Virtualization ensures that only the items that are visible on the screen are loaded into memory, which reduces the amount of memory used by the app and improves performance.
• Use caching: Use caching to store frequently used data in memory or on the device. This can improve the performance of the app by reducing the number of requests that need to be made to the SharePoint Online list.

By using these techniques, you can display customer information from a large SharePoint Online list in Power Apps efficiently and with good performance.

In SharePoint Online, the customer list has Title, Customer ID, Customer Name, and Address columns with thousands of records. If you want to update only the “Title” columns for all customers, how can we do that? Please explain the technical approach.

To update the “Title” column for all customers in a SharePoint Online list using Power Apps, you can follow these steps:

• Create a new Power Apps canvas app or open an existing one.
• Connect to the SharePoint Online list that contains the customer details.
• Insert a button control onto the screen.
• Add a formula to the button’s OnSelect property that will update the “Title” column for all customers. The formula should use the Patch function to update the “Title” column for each record in the SharePoint Online list.

ForAll('SharePointListName', Patch('SharePointListName', ThisRecord.ID, {Title: "New Title Value"}))

This formula uses the ForAll function to iterate over all the records in the SharePoint Online list, and the Patch function to update the “Title” column for each record. The ThisRecord.ID parameter specifies the ID of the current record being processed.

• Save and publish the app.

When the user clicks the button, the formula will update the “Title” column for all customers in the SharePoint Online list.

Note that the Patch function will only update the specified column, so any other columns in the SharePoint list will remain unchanged. If you need to update other columns, you can modify the formula to include additional columns.

Let’s say you have a button and a label in the Canvas APP; for each click on the button, the label should be incremented by 1, like 0; 1, 2; 3, 4; 5, etc. How can we implement this?

To implement this in Power Apps, you can follow these steps:

• Insert a button control onto the canvas and set its Text property to “Click Me”.
• Insert a label control onto the canvas and set its Text property to “0“.
• Add an OnSelect property to the button control and set it to the following formula:

UpdateContext({counter: counter + 1})

This formula creates a variable named “counter” and sets it to the current value of the counter variable plus 1.

• Add a Text property to the label control and set it to the following formula:

Text(counter)

This formula displays the value of the counter variable in the label control.

Now, when the user clicks the button, the OnSelect formula will increment the value of the counter variable by 1, and the Text formula for the label control will display the updated value of the counter variable. This will create the effect of incrementing the label by 1 for each click on the button.

Let’s assume the scenario: you need to design a customer sales order page in the Canvas app, where there will be two sections: a header and line items. In the header section, you will enter customer details like the customer’s name, address, contact number, etc., and in the line items section, you will enter all the products the customer has purchased. Finally, the customer header information and line item information (product details) should be saved to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list. How will you design this? Briefly describe the technical approaches.

To design a customer sales order page in the Canvas app with two sections – header and line items, where the header section captures customer details and the line item section captures the products purchased by the customer, and then save the information to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list, the following technical approaches can be used:

1. Use PowerApps Canvas App: The first approach is to use PowerApps Canvas App to design the customer sales order page. This involves creating a canvas app in PowerApps, connecting to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list as a data source, designing the app screens for the header and line items sections, and using PowerApps formulas to capture and save the customer and product details to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list.
2. Use Microsoft Power Automate: The second approach is to use Microsoft Power Automate, which is a cloud-based service that allows users to create automated workflows between different applications and services. In this approach, a Power Automate workflow can be created to capture customer and product details from the sales order page and then save the information to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list.
3. Use Microsoft PowerApps and Power Automate: The third approach is to use both Microsoft PowerApps and Power Automate. In this approach, a PowerApps canvas app can be designed to capture customer and product details, and then a Power Automate workflow can be used to save the information to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list.

In all of the above approaches, the header section of the customer sales order page will capture the customer’s name, address, contact number, etc., while the line items section will capture all the products the customer has purchased. The data captured in the header and line items sections will then be saved to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list. To achieve this, the following steps can be taken:

1. Create a SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list with the required columns to capture the customer and product details.
2. In the PowerApps canvas app, design screens for the header and line items sections, with fields for capturing the customer and product details.
3. Use PowerApps formulas or Power Automate workflows to capture the data entered by the user in the header and line items sections and save it to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list.
4. Test the sales order page to ensure that it captures and saves the customer and product details correctly to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list.
5. Publish the sales order page to make it available to users.

Overall, designing a customer sales order page with a header and line items section and saving the information to the SharePoint Online Sales Order custom list can be achieved using PowerApps, Power Automate, or a combination of both. The specific technical approach used will depend on the organization’s requirements and resources.

See Also: PowerApps repeating section data to SharePoint list step by step tutorial

Let’s assume that, on your Canvas app page, you have the following: customer ID, customer first name, customer last name, etc. And you have a customer invoice list in SharePoint Online where one of the columns is “Invoice ID”, The format of this column is Customer ID + Customer First Name. So, how are you going to update the “Invoice ID” column in Power Apps?

To update the “Invoice ID” column in Power Apps, we can use PowerApps formulas or Microsoft Power Automate. Here are the steps:

• Open the Canvas app in Power Apps where the customer ID, customer first name, and customer last name fields are located.
• Create a formula to combine the values of the customer ID and customer first name fields to generate the Invoice ID. This can be done using the Concatenate function in Power Apps.

Example: Concatenate(CustomerID, "-", CustomerFirstName)

• Assign the result of the formula to a variable. This can be done using the Set function in Power Apps.

Example: Set(varInvoiceID, Concatenate(CustomerID, "-", CustomerFirstName))

• Use the Patch function to update the “Invoice ID” column in the SharePoint Online Customer Invoice list with the value of the variable.
• Example: Patch(‘Customer Invoice’, {ID:RecordID}, {InvoiceID:varInvoiceID})

In the above example, ‘Customer Invoice’ is the name of the SharePoint Online Customer Invoice list, RecordID is the ID of the record being updated, and InvoiceID is the name of the column being updated with the value of varInvoiceID.

Alternatively, Microsoft Power Automate can also be used to update the “Invoice ID” column in the SharePoint Online Customer Invoice list. Here are the steps:

• Create a flow in Power Automate with a trigger that is set to run when a new item is created or updated in the SharePoint Online Customer Invoice list.
• Use the Compose action to generate the Invoice ID by combining the values of the customer ID and customer first name fields.

Example: concat(triggerBody()?['CustomerID'], '-', triggerBody()?['CustomerFirstName'])

• Use the Update item action to update the “Invoice ID” column in the SharePoint Online Customer Invoice list with the value of the Compose action.

In conclusion, to update the “Invoice ID” column in Power Apps, we can use formulas or Power Automate. Formulas can be used directly in the Canvas app to generate the Invoice ID and update the column using the Patch function. Power Automate can be used to generate the Invoice ID and update the column in response to a trigger.

See Also: String concatenation function in PowerApps: best way to work with – Microsoft 365

How can we develop a customer-facing public web site in Power Platform?

Using the Power Page or Power Apps portal, we can develop a customer-facing public web site in Power Platform. See below what the Power Pages and Power Apps portals are in Power Platform.

What is Power Pages in Power platform?

Power Pages is a new feature in the Microsoft Power Platform that allows users to quickly create and publish web pages and portals without needing to write any code. Power Pages is a low-code solution that simplifies the process of creating custom web pages that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as customer portals, partner portals, or employee portals.

With Power Pages, users can create responsive and interactive web pages by simply dragging and dropping pre-built components onto a canvas. These components include forms, charts, tables, lists, and more. Users can customize the look and feel of their pages by selecting from a variety of themes, fonts, and colors. Power Pages also includes built-in connectors that allow users to integrate data from various sources, such as SharePoint, Dynamics 365, or Common Data Service.

Power Pages also provides users with advanced features such as user authentication, role-based security, and multilingual support. Users can also set up workflows and business logic using Power Automate and Power Apps to automate processes and improve efficiency.

Power Pages is a powerful tool that enables businesses to create customized web pages and portals quickly and easily, without the need for extensive coding skills. With its rich set of features, Power Pages can help businesses improve customer engagement, increase productivity, and streamline processes.

What is Power Apps Portal in Power Platform?

Power Apps Portal is a feature in the Microsoft Power Platform that allows businesses to create custom web portals for external and internal users. Power Portal is a low-code solution that simplifies the process of creating and deploying portals, without the need for extensive coding skills.

Power Apps Portal provides a framework for creating secure, responsive, and interactive web portals that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as customer self-service portals, partner portals, or employee portals. Users can access the portal from any device, including mobile devices, and can interact with the portal using a web browser.

Power Apps Portal includes a range of pre-built templates and components that allow users to quickly create customized portals. These components include forms, charts, tables, lists, and more. Users can also customize the look and feel of their portals by selecting from a variety of themes, fonts, and colors.

Power Apps Portal also includes built-in connectors that allow users to integrate data from various sources, such as SharePoint, Dynamics 365, or Common Data Service. This integration enables users to create portals that provide real-time access to business data, enabling better decision-making and improved productivity.

Power Apps Portal provides users with advanced features such as user authentication, role-based security, and multilingual support. Users can also set up workflows and business logic using Power Automate and Power Apps to automate processes and improve efficiency.

In conclusion, Power Portal is a powerful tool that enables businesses to create customized web portals quickly and easily, without the need for extensive coding skills. With its rich set of features, Power Portal can help businesses improve customer engagement, increase productivity, and streamline processes.

See Also: Power Platform interview questions and answers for experienced

• 50 Tricky Power Automate Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
• Top 50+ Power Apps interview questions and answers for experienced – Part 1
• Build applications faster—with fewer resources

What is Next? Power Platform job interview questions and answers

In the next upcoming Power Platform Interview Questions and Answers series, we will come up with more real-time scenario-based Power Platform interview questions and answers that will cover Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages, SharePoint Online, Dataverse, etc. Generally, these types of scenario-based questions are asked in the big MNCs, so by referring to these questions, you can easily crack any big MNC interviews and get into your high-paying dream job, both in product- and service-based companies.

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