Microsoft Power BI Quiz: Cross Filtering And Cross Highlighting
15 questions · exam conditions
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Cross Filtering And Cross HighlightingQuestion 1 of 15

Clicking a bar in a bar chart makes a pie chart show only that category. Which interaction occurred?

Cross-filters the pie chart
Cross-highlights the pie chart
Slices the bar chart's data
Drills the pie chart's fields
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Microsoft Power BI Quiz

Microsoft Power BI Quiz: Cross Filtering And Cross Highlighting

Practice Cross Filtering And Cross Highlighting in Microsoft Power BI with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Cross Filtering And Cross Highlighting, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Microsoft Power BI.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

Clicking a bar in a bar chart makes a pie chart show only that category. Which interaction occurred?

  1. Cross-filters the pie chart (correct answer)
  2. Cross-highlights the pie chart
  3. Slices the bar chart's data
  4. Drills the pie chart's fields
Explanation: Clicking a bar filters the pie chart to display only the selected category, removing all others from view. That is cross-filtering. The most tempting wrong answer is cross-highlighting, but that only emphasizes the selected data while still showing the other categories.

Question 2

A bar chart is cross-highlighted. Nonmatching bars are dimmed. Their measure values are:

  1. Set to zero and displayed
  2. Unchanged and still displayed (correct answer)
  3. Hidden until selected again
  4. Recalculated by the filter
Explanation: Cross-highlighting only visually dims bars that don't match the selected data; it does not alter their underlying measure values. The dimmed bars remain on the chart with their original values still shown. A common mistake is thinking the values are set to zero, but dimming is visual emphasis, not a data change.

Question 3

A chart's axis is Region, legend is Product. Clicking one bar cross-filters a table. Which fields filter the table?

  1. Region only, not Product
  2. Product only, not Region
  3. Both Region and Product (correct answer)
  4. The measure in the chart
Explanation: A single bar in a chart with Region on the axis and Product in the legend represents one product within one region. When you click that bar, both fields are active in the selection, so the table is filtered by both Region and Product. The tempting answer is Region only, but that ignores that each colored bar is a distinct Product slice of that Region.

Question 4

Selecting two bars keeps all table rows; matching rows are bright, others dim. This is:

  1. Cross-filter with AND logic
  2. Cross-filter with OR logic
  3. Cross-highlight with AND logic
  4. Cross-highlight with OR logic (correct answer)
Explanation: Selecting two bars keeps every table row, so this is cross-highlight, not cross-filter. Matching rows are bright because they belong to either selected bar, and non-matching rows dim because they belong to neither. Multi-select uses OR logic, not AND, since a single row rarely matches two bars at once. The tempting wrong answer is AND logic, but that would require a row to belong to both selections.

Question 5

A sales chart's interaction with a map is None; the map still filters the chart. Clicking a map point will:

  1. Change both the map and chart
  2. Change the chart, not the map (correct answer)
  3. Leave both visuals unchanged
  4. Change only the map's filters
Explanation: With map interactions set to None, the chart does not affect the map; that setting is one-way. The map still cross-filters the chart, so clicking a map point filters the chart while the map itself stays unchanged. The trap is thinking None means no filtering at all, but it only blocks chart-to-map effects.

Question 6

A report page contains a column chart named Sales by Category and a matrix named Sales Detail. While Sales by Category is selected as the source visual, the report designer sets the matrix interaction to None. The designer does not modify interactions while the matrix is selected as the source visual.

What should you expect when report users interact with these visuals?

  1. Selecting a category will not affect the matrix, but selecting a matrix value can still affect the chart. (correct answer)
  2. Selecting either visual will have no effect on the other because the None setting is automatically bidirectional.
  3. Selecting a category will filter the matrix, but selecting a matrix value will not affect the chart.
  4. Selecting either visual will cross-highlight the other because None applies only while editing the report.
Explanation: When working with Power BI visual interactions, the key concept to understand is that interaction settings are directional, not bidirectional. When you select a source visual and configure how other visuals respond to it, you're only defining behavior in one direction — how that source visual affects others. In this scenario, the designer selected the column chart as the source and set the matrix interaction to None. This means clicking a bar in the chart will not filter or highlight the matrix. However, the designer never touched the interaction settings with the matrix selected as the source. Because Power BI's default interaction from a matrix to a chart is cross-filtering or cross-highlighting, that default remains intact. So when a user clicks a value in the matrix, it can still affect the chart. That's exactly what answer A describes, making it correct. Answer B is wrong because None is never automatically bidirectional — Power BI requires you to configure each direction of interaction independently. Assuming symmetry is a common trap. Answer C reverses the logic entirely: it claims the chart filters the matrix (which is blocked by the None setting) and that the matrix won't affect the chart (which ignores the untouched default). Answer D is wrong because interaction settings persist at runtime — None doesn't disappear after editing mode ends; it's a saved report configuration. A reliable study tip: whenever a Power BI question describes interaction settings, mentally track which visual was selected as the source when each setting was applied. Directionality is everything — what flows from the chart and what flows from the matrix are two separate, independent configurations.

Question 7

A monthly sales column chart shows total sales for all regions. A separate regional chart is configured to cross-highlight the monthly chart. A user selects the West region.

How should the monthly chart respond if it supports cross-highlighting?

  1. It should show only West values and recalculate each column as though all other regions were removed.
  2. It should retain the total columns while emphasizing the West contribution and de-emphasizing the remainder. (correct answer)
  3. It should retain all columns unchanged because cross-highlighting does not pass category selections between visuals.
  4. It should remove West values from the totals while emphasizing the values for all unselected regions.
Explanation: When working with Power BI interactivity, it's essential to distinguish between cross-filtering and cross-highlighting — two behaviors that look similar but work very differently. Cross-highlighting preserves the full visual context of a chart while layering selection emphasis on top of it. When a user selects the West region in the regional chart, the monthly sales chart keeps every column at its original total height — because those totals haven't changed. Instead, the West contribution within each column is visually emphasized (typically shown at full opacity), while the non-West portion is de-emphasized (shown at reduced opacity). This is exactly what answer B describes, making it correct. Answer A describes cross-filtering, not cross-highlighting. Cross-filtering would recalculate and redraw each column to show only West values, effectively hiding all other data. That's a fundamentally different interaction type. Answer C is wrong because it claims cross-highlighting passes no selection information between visuals at all — but that's the entire purpose of cross-highlighting. Visuals absolutely do respond to selections made in other visuals when cross-highlighting is enabled. Answer D inverts the logic entirely. It suggests removing the selected region (West) from totals and emphasizing everything else — which is backwards. The selected segment is the one that gets emphasized, not removed. A reliable memory trick: think of cross-highlighting as "highlight the chosen, dim the rest, keep the totals." Cross-filtering, by contrast, removes the unchosen data entirely. On the Power BI exam, questions that mention a selection "de-emphasizing" the remainder while retaining totals are always pointing toward cross-highlighting behavior.

Question 8

A report page has a page-level filter restricting data to 2025. In a month chart, a user holds Ctrl and selects January and February. The chart is configured to cross-filter a transaction visual.

Which filter context should the transaction visual receive?

  1. Transactions from January and February in 2025, because the selected months are combined with OR and then intersected with the page filter. (correct answer)
  2. Transactions from every January and February, because a visual selection temporarily replaces the page-level Year filter.
  3. No transactions, because January and February are combined with AND and a row cannot belong to both months.
  4. Transactions from all months in 2025, because Ctrl selections affect only highlighting and cannot cross-filter another visual.
Explanation: When a Power BI report has multiple filter layers active simultaneously, understanding how those layers stack rather than replace each other is essential. Think of filter context as a funnel: each layer narrows the data further, and no layer cancels another unless explicitly configured to do so. Here's what happens in this scenario: the page-level filter locks the dataset to 2025 records only. When a user Ctrl-clicks January and February in the month chart, Power BI interprets those two selections as an OR condition — meaning any row matching January or February qualifies. That visual-level selection then cross-filters the transaction visual, but it doesn't override the page filter. Instead, both conditions apply simultaneously through intersection (AND logic between layers, OR logic within the selection). The transaction visual therefore receives only records from January 2025 and February 2025 — which is exactly what answer A describes, making it correct. Answer B is wrong because visual interactions never override page-level filters; the page filter remains fully active throughout. Answer C confuses how multi-select works — Ctrl-click combines values with OR within the same field, not AND. A single row only needs to match one of the selected months, so the filter is not impossible to satisfy. Answer D is wrong because Ctrl-click cross-filtering absolutely propagates to other visuals when cross-filter interactions are enabled; highlighting and filtering are distinct behaviors, and cross-filtering does restrict data, not merely highlight it. Your study tip: always distinguish within-layer logic (multi-select = OR) from between-layer logic (page filter AND visual selection = intersection). This layered funnel model covers a wide range of Power BI filter context questions.

Question 9

A category chart uses fields from a Sales table. A target chart uses fields from a SupportCases table. The tables are disconnected in the semantic model. The designer sets the target chart's interaction to Filter, but selecting a sales category does not change it.

What is the most likely reason, and what should the designer do?

  1. Filter interactions require matching visual types, so the designer should convert both visuals to the same chart type.
  2. Edit interactions controls permitted behavior but cannot create a model filter path; the designer should add appropriate model or measure logic. (correct answer)
  3. Disconnected tables support highlighting only, so the designer should change the target interaction from Filter to Highlight.
  4. Cross-filtering requires the target to be selected first, so the designer should reverse the order in which users select the visuals.
Explanation: Whenever you see a question about cross-filtering behavior in Power BI, the first thing to ask yourself is: does a filter path actually exist in the model? Edit Interactions is a UI tool that controls which visuals respond to selections — but it cannot conjure a data relationship that doesn't exist. It only governs permitted behavior along paths that the model already supports. Here, the Sales and SupportCases tables are completely disconnected. When you click a category in the sales chart, Power BI has no relationship or DAX logic to determine which SupportCases rows correspond to that selection. Even with the interaction set to Filter, there is simply no path to propagate the filter across. The correct fix is to establish that path — either by adding a relationship, a bridging table, or using measures with functions like TREATAS or CROSSFILTER to simulate the filter context. That's exactly what B describes, making it the correct answer. A is wrong because visual type has nothing to do with whether cross-filtering works — a bar chart can filter a table visual without any issue, as long as the model supports it. C is wrong because the Highlight vs. Filter distinction is about how a visual responds, not whether disconnected tables allow any interaction at all — Highlight would also fail here for the same reason. D is wrong because cross-filtering in Power BI is directional based on the model and interaction settings, not based on which visual the user clicks first. Study tip: On Power BI exam questions, always separate model-layer problems (relationships, filter propagation) from report-layer settings (Edit Interactions, visual formatting). Edit Interactions can only shape behavior the model already permits — it cannot create new filter paths.

Question 10

A report has a summary page and a detail page. Selecting a year in a chart on the summary page must also constrain visuals on the detail page after ordinary page navigation.

Which design best satisfies the requirement?

  1. Configure Edit interactions on the summary page because those interaction settings automatically extend to every report page.
  2. Use a Year slicer synchronized across both pages, because ordinary chart interactions are scoped to visuals on the current page. (correct answer)
  3. Set every detail-page visual to Highlight because highlighting preserves a selection when users navigate between report pages.
  4. Disable persistent filters and set the summary chart's interaction to Filter so navigation transfers its selected data point.
Explanation: When a Power BI question involves coordinating selections across multiple report pages, you need to think about scope. Most visual interactions in Power BI — clicking a bar, selecting a data point — only filter or highlight other visuals on the same page. They do not carry over when a user navigates to a different page. The tool designed to bridge pages is the slicer sync feature. Option B is correct because a synchronized slicer solves exactly this scoping problem. By publishing a Year slicer to both the summary and detail pages via the "Sync slicers" pane, any selection a user makes persists as they navigate. When they click a year on the summary page (or select it in the synced slicer), that filter state travels with them to the detail page automatically — this is the intended use of slicer sync. Option A is wrong because Edit Interactions controls how visuals affect each other on the same page. Those settings have no concept of cross-page behavior; they are entirely page-scoped. Option C is wrong because Highlight is a visual interaction type (also page-scoped), not a page-navigation feature. Setting visuals to Highlight does nothing to preserve a selection when the user navigates away. Option D is wrong on two counts: disabling persistent filters actually removes the ability to carry state between pages, and a chart's interaction mode (Filter vs. Highlight) still only applies within the current page — not across navigation. Study tip: On Power BI exam questions, the phrase "across pages" is your cue to think slicer sync — it's the primary mechanism for cross-page filter coordination.

Question 11

A page contains visuals A, B, and C. When A is selected as the source, B is configured to Filter and C is configured to None. In a separate configuration, when B is selected as the source, C is configured to Filter.

What happens when a user selects a data point only in visual A?

  1. A filters B, and B automatically relays the resulting filter to C because interactions are evaluated transitively.
  2. A filters both B and C because a None interaction is ignored whenever another visual has a Filter path to the target.
  3. A leaves B unchanged, while C is filtered because B-to-C settings take precedence over A-to-B settings.
  4. A filters B, while C remains unaffected because B does not become a new interaction source merely by being filtered. (correct answer)
Explanation: When working with visual interactions in Power BI, the critical concept to understand is that edit interactions settings are directional and source-triggered, not chainable. Each visual's interaction behavior only activates when that specific visual is the one a user directly clicks on. In this scenario, the user clicks a data point in visual A. Power BI evaluates A's configured interactions: B is set to Filter, so B gets filtered. C is set to None, so C is untouched. That's the full extent of what happens — visual D is the correct answer. A filters B, and C remains unaffected. The tricky part is understanding why B doesn't "pass along" its filter to C. Even though B→C is configured to Filter, that setting only activates when a user directly selects a data point in B. B being filtered by A does not make B a new interaction source. B is a passive recipient here, not an initiator. A is wrong because Power BI does not evaluate interactions transitively. There is no cascading or relay logic built into the interaction system — each chain stops at the directly clicked visual. B is wrong because a None setting isn't "overridden" by indirect paths; it means exactly what it says — no interaction from A to C. C gets the logic entirely backwards, claiming B→C settings take precedence over A→B, which isn't how any of this works. A useful mental model: think of visual interactions like a one-hop rule. The source is always the clicked visual, and the effect travels exactly one step outward.

Question 12

A source column chart uses Quarter on the axis and Channel in the legend. It is configured to cross-highlight a compatible product chart. A user selects the Online portion of the Q1 column.

Which data should be emphasized in the product chart?

  1. All Q1 data across every channel because an axis selection takes precedence over the selected legend series.
  2. All Online data across every quarter because a legend selection takes precedence over the selected axis category.
  3. Only data related to both Q1 and Online because the selected data point contains both category coordinates. (correct answer)
  4. All data except Q1 Online because cross-highlighting emphasizes the complement of the selected data point.
Explanation: When working with cross-highlighting in Power BI, the key concept to understand is that clicking a visual element highlights the intersection of all dimensional coordinates that element represents — not just one dimension in isolation. In this scenario, the column chart has two dimensional axes at play: Quarter (on the axis) and Channel (in the legend). When you click the "Online" segment of the Q1 column, you're selecting a data point that simultaneously belongs to both Q1 and Online. Cross-highlighting passes that full coordinate pair to the target visual, so the product chart emphasizes only data that satisfies both conditions — Q1 and Online. That makes C the correct answer. A is wrong because cross-highlighting doesn't resolve dimensional conflicts by giving one axis "precedence" over another — there's no such hierarchy in Power BI's cross-highlight behavior. Both dimensions travel together to the target visual. B makes the same structural mistake in reverse, falsely claiming the legend dimension wins out over the axis category. Again, Power BI doesn't drop either coordinate — it uses both. D describes a behavior that doesn't exist in Power BI at all. Cross-highlighting never emphasizes the complement of a selection; it emphasizes what matches the selection, while dimming (not hiding) everything else. A useful mental model: think of each data point as having a full "address" made up of all its dimension values. Cross-highlighting forwards that entire address to compatible visuals — every coordinate included, none discarded.

Question 13

A page-level filter limits a report to Active customers. A chart and a card are on the page. The chart-to-card interaction is set to None. A user selects the Consumer segment in the chart.

What should the card display?

  1. A value for all customers because None disables both visual interactions and page-level filters on the card.
  2. A value for Active Consumer customers because the chart selection overrides the None interaction setting.
  3. A value for Active customers because the page filter remains, but the chart selection does not affect the card. (correct answer)
  4. A blank value because the card cannot reconcile a page filter with an interaction configured as None.
Explanation: When working with Power BI filters and visual interactions, it helps to think in layers. Page-level filters form the foundation — they apply to every visual on the page regardless of how those visuals interact with each other. Visual interactions (cross-filtering, cross-highlighting, or None) operate on top of that foundation, controlling how one visual influences another. In this scenario, the page filter restricting the report to Active customers is always active for both the chart and the card. The chart-to-card interaction set to None simply means that when a user clicks something in the chart, that selection will not propagate to the card. It does not strip away filters that already exist at the page level. So when a user selects the Consumer segment in the chart, the card ignores that selection — but it still honors the Active customer page filter. The card continues showing a value for Active customers only, making C the correct answer. Answer A is wrong because the None interaction setting does not disable page-level filters. Those two mechanisms are entirely independent of each other. Answer B is wrong because a None interaction setting explicitly prevents the chart selection from affecting the card — there is no "override" behavior here. Answer D is wrong because there is no conflict for the card to reconcile; the page filter simply applies, and the chart selection is ignored. The card renders normally. A useful rule of thumb: think of page filters as always-on constraints, and visual interactions as optional cross-visual communication. Setting an interaction to None silences the conversation between visuals — it does not touch the underlying filters.

Question 14

A page contains a Year slicer, a product bar chart, and an order matrix. The Year slicer must filter both visuals. Selecting a product in the bar chart must not change the order matrix, although the matrix can retain its default interaction with the bar chart.

Which configuration should you use?

  1. Select the slicer as the source and set the bar chart to None, then set the matrix to Filter.
  2. Select the matrix as the source and set the bar chart to None, leaving all slicer interactions unchanged.
  3. Select the bar chart as the source and set the matrix to None, while leaving the slicer's target interactions enabled. (correct answer)
  4. Select the bar chart as the source and set the slicer to None, which prevents the chart from filtering the matrix.
Explanation: When working with visual interactions in Power BI, you need to think about which visual is the source of the interaction you're configuring. When you select a visual and open "Edit interactions," you're controlling how that visual filters everything else on the page — not how others filter it. Here, the requirement is that clicking a product in the bar chart should NOT affect the order matrix, but the slicer must still filter both visuals normally. This means the bar chart is the problem source — it's the one whose cross-filter behavior needs to be restricted. The correct move is to select the bar chart, then set its interaction with the matrix to None, blocking that path entirely. Leaving the slicer's interactions untouched preserves its ability to filter both the bar chart and the matrix. That's exactly what C describes, making it the right configuration. A is wrong because it starts from the slicer as the source and adjusts the bar chart to None — this would break the slicer-to-bar-chart filtering, which the scenario requires to work. B selects the matrix as the source, which controls how the matrix cross-filters others — irrelevant to the stated problem, since the matrix isn't the one causing unwanted filtering. D is a trap: setting the slicer's interaction with the bar chart to None would prevent the slicer from filtering the bar chart, which directly violates the requirement that the slicer filters both visuals. As a study tip, always ask yourself: which visual is the one doing the unwanted filtering? That's your source. Edit its outgoing interactions, not the target's.

Question 15

A designer wants a source chart selection to preserve the target visual's full context while emphasizing related data. In Edit interactions, the target exposes only Filter and None; no Highlight option is available.

What should the designer conclude?

  1. The target does not support cross-highlighting in this interaction, so it must be filtered or replaced with a compatible visual. (correct answer)
  2. Highlight is hidden until None is selected first, after which Power BI enables all interaction modes for the target.
  3. Filter and Highlight are equivalent for this target, so choosing Filter will preserve and de-emphasize unrelated values.
  4. The source visual is missing a bidirectional relationship, and enabling one will make the Highlight option appear automatically.
Explanation: When working with Edit Interactions in Power BI, it's important to understand that not every visual supports every interaction mode. Power BI determines which interaction options (Filter, Highlight, None) are available for a target visual based on that visual's type and capabilities — this is controlled by the tool itself, not by user settings or relationship configurations. When the Highlight button simply doesn't appear for a target visual, that's Power BI telling you the visual architecture doesn't support cross-highlighting. Cross-highlighting requires a visual that can render two states simultaneously — emphasized values and de-emphasized (grayed-out) values. Visuals like cards, tables, and certain custom visuals lack this dual-state rendering, so Power BI omits the Highlight option entirely. The designer's correct conclusion, then, is A: the target visual doesn't support cross-highlighting in this context, so the designer must either use Filter or swap in a compatible visual (like a bar or column chart) that does support highlighting. B is wrong because Highlight isn't hidden behind a prerequisite step — its absence reflects a hard capability limitation, not a toggle sequence. C confuses two fundamentally different behaviors: Filter removes unrelated data entirely, while Highlight preserves it in a dimmed state; they are not equivalent, and Filter will not replicate the "preserve full context" goal the designer wants. D misidentifies the cause — relationship directionality affects filter propagation between tables, not whether a visual exposes the Highlight interaction mode. As a study tip, remember that in Edit Interactions, a missing Highlight button always signals a visual type limitation — never a configuration issue you can fix through relationships or settings.