A 100% stacked area chart shows quarterly sales mix without extra DAX measures

PL-300 By islever Editorial Last updated

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Short answer

C A 100% stacked area chart renders the quarterly proportional mix with no additional measures.

Question

You have a Power BI semantic model named Model1 that contains two fields named Sales and Quarter. Model1 contains a DAX measure that sums the Sales column. You need to create a report that will contain the visual shown in the following exhibit. The solution must NOT require additional DAX measures. Which type of visual should you use? - Exhibit: A 100% stacked area chart shows quarterly sales mix without extra DAX
  1. ribbon chart
  2. line chart
  3. 100% stacked area chart Correct Answer
  4. area chart

Key Takeaways

A 100% stacked area chart normalizes stacked areas to a full 100% axis by itself — the proportional quarterly mix the exhibit displays comes from the visual, not from hand-written percent-of-total measures.

Model1 has Sales and Quarter fields plus a sum measure, and the exhibit shows four product categories stacked to a constant 100% across quarters, so the visual type must reproduce that with no additional measures.

Common mistake: Reading the exhibit as a simple trend and picking a line chart — the y-axis runs 0% to 100% with categories stacked, which no plain line chart renders from Sales and Quarter alone.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

The exhibit plots Product A through D stacked with a y-axis fixed at 0-100% over Q1-Q3 — the signature of a 100% stacked area chart (C). This visual computes the per-quarter proportion of each category internally, so the existing Sales sum measure and the Quarter field are all it needs; no additional DAX measures are required, exactly as the question demands.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

A line chart (B) draws one line per product on an absolute value axis — it shows trends, not the proportional whole the exhibit displays, and matching the 0-100% stacked appearance would require new percent measures. An area chart (D) stacks to absolute totals, not to a normalized 100%, so its axis cannot match the exhibit. A ribbon chart (A) is a ranked bar race across categories and axes — visually unrelated to continuous stacked areas.

Community Comment Notes

A commenter describes the 100% stacked area chart as showing how constituent parts of a whole change over time with the y-axis always at 100%, matching the exhibit. The line-chart camp argues from trend analysis but overlooks the 0-100% stacked axis that defines the visual in the image.

Official Reference

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/consumer/end-user-visual-type

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Community Votes

C
80%
B
20%

80% of anonymous learners picked answer C. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 4 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 4

  1. namuuu 👍 1 Answered B
    The report requires a visual that shows how Sales changes over time (by quarter). A line chart is the most appropriate choice because: Purpose of a Line Chart: A line chart is ideal for visualizing trends and patterns over a continuous dimension, such as time (Quarter in this case). It displays the progression of values (e.g., Sales) across sequential periods. No Additional DAX Measures Required: Since the DAX measure already sums the Sales column, the line chart can directly use the measure for plotting the aggregated sales values against the Quarter field.
  2. Odidepse 👍 1 Answered C
    B does not show referring to the visual diagram where you have different product category stacked up, question outlines 'You need to create a report that will contain the visual shown in the following exhibit.', that is clearly menat for 100% stacked area chart. Cannot be B line chart as per the exhibited visual shown which is stacked category..
  3. SylUK 👍 1 Answered C
    C is the answer 100% stacked area chart: A 100% stacked area chart shows how the constituent parts of a whole have changed over time. The y axis scale is always 100%. Each area of colour represents one part of the whole. The parts are stacked up, usually vertically. (Found in Google)
  4. 0e11c58 👍 2 Answered C
    Checked google

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