When a Custom Connector Is Truly Required in Power Automate

AB-410 By islever Editorial Last updated

Short answer

B Building a custom connector for SharePoint Online lists is unnecessary because the standard SharePoint connector already retrieves that data.

Question

Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen.
A company integrates external systems into Power Automate by using cloud flows.
The company must connect to external services with different characteristics and determine whether a custom connector is required.
You need to propose a solution to meet the requirements.
Solution: Create a custom connector to retrieve data from SharePoint Online lists.
Does the solution meet the goal?
  1. Yes
  2. No Correct Answer

Key Takeaways

The question asks whether a custom connector is required, not whether it would work — the trap is choosing Yes for SharePoint Online, which already has a built-in connector.

This AB-410 series question tests whether a custom connector is required to read SharePoint Online lists from a cloud flow. Because Power Automate includes a standard SharePoint connector, the proposed custom connector does not meet the goal, so the answer is B (No).

Common mistake: Answering A (Yes) because a custom connector can technically retrieve SharePoint list data; the goal is necessity, and the standard SharePoint connector already covers it.

Expert Analysis

Reading the qualifier The series preamble tells you the goal: connect to external services "with different characteristics" and determine whether a custom connector is required. So the test is not "does a custom connector work?" but "is a custom connector necessary for this particular service?" The proposed solution commits to building a custom connector for one specific system, so you must judge necessity, not feasibility.

SharePoint Online already has a built-in connector Power Automate ships with a standard SharePoint connector that exposes the actions this scenario needs — Get items, Get item, Get files, and so on — against SharePoint Online lists. Because the service is already supported out of the box, writing a custom connector for it adds needless maintenance, OpenAPI definition work, and authentication configuration while delivering no capability the standard connector lacks. Option A (Yes) therefore fails: the solution does not answer the underlying question of whether a custom connector is required.

What the answer must be Since a custom connector is not required for SharePoint Online, the proposed solution does not meet the goal, so the correct answer is B (No).

How this pattern plays out in the rest of the series Expect sibling questions where the target is an internal or legacy service with no standard connector — for example an on-premises SOAP endpoint or an undocumented API. There, a custom connector is required, and the answer flips to Yes. The trap in this question is assuming that because custom connectors are powerful, they are always the right tool. In Power Platform doctrine, the decision rule is: use the standard connector if one exists; build a custom connector only when no standard or certified connector covers the service.

Official Reference

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/sharepoint/

This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

In series-based yes/no questions, rewrite the goal as a decision rule — here, "is a custom connector required?" — then test the proposed solution against that rule rather than against technical feasibility. For each external system named, ask first whether a standard or certified connector already exists in Power Automate; if it does, any custom-connector answer is No. Reserve Yes for services with no out-of-the-box connector, such as internal or undocumented APIs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is a custom connector wrong for SharePoint Online lists?

Power Automate includes a standard SharePoint connector with actions such as Get items and Get item, so it already retrieves list data. A custom connector would duplicate existing functionality without meeting the goal of determining whether one is truly required.

When would a custom connector actually be required?

A custom connector is required when no standard or certified connector exists for the service — for example an internal REST API, a legacy SOAP endpoint, or an undocumented third-party system with custom authentication.

Does building a custom connector for SharePoint cause any downside?

Yes. It adds an OpenAPI definition to maintain, separate authentication configuration, and extra solution packaging, all while providing no capability beyond the built-in SharePoint connector.

More AB-410 FAQ →

Community Votes

B
100%

100% of anonymous learners picked answer B. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 1 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 1

  1. ah2006 👍 1 Answered B
    SharePoint = Standard Connector

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