2Prepare and Serve Data (Modeling and Serving)

• 2.1Dimensional Modeling and Star Schema

  Understand analysis-friendly data design—star schema (facts and dimensions), Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD), and surrogate keys—key preparation that drives serving (semantic model) quality.

• 2.2Serving Data (SQL Analytics Endpoint and Direct Lake)

  Understand how to serve prepared data for analysis—the SQL analytics endpoint (T-SQL queries), Power BI Direct Lake, and sharing/access—bridging the prepared gold layer to semantic models.