Free Salesforce Analytics-Con-301 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers

To visualize the path students take as they change majors across different grade levels, a Sankey Diagram is highly effective. This type of visualization illustrates the flow and quantity between different stages or categories:

Sankey Diagram: It allows for a visual representation of students' movements between majors over time. Each flow's thickness is proportional to the number of students moving from one major to another, giving a clear, immediate visual cue of major popularity and student migration patterns.

To create a Sankey Diagram in Tableau, you typically need to prepare the data specifically for this type of chart. The data must include source (starting major), target (ending major), and the value (number of students). It often requires custom calculations and data reshaping to get the data in a format that a Sankey can use.

Once the data is prepared, you can use a combination of calculated fields, path binning, and line charts to simulate the flow effect in Tableau. External plugins or web-based integrations might also be employed for more direct implementations.

References

Sankey Diagrams are not natively supported in Tableau but can be implemented through creative use of data preparation and calculations, as suggested in advanced Tableau user communities and demonstrated in various Tableau public galleries.

To flag orders with sales higher than the regional average, the correct calculated field would compare the sum of sales for each order against the average sales of all orders within the same region:

Correct Formula: { FIXED [Order ID] : SUM([Sales]) } > { FIXED [Region] : AVG({ FIXED [Order ID] : SUM([Sales]) }) }

This calculation uses a Level of Detail (LOD) expression:

The left part of the formula { FIXED [Order ID] : SUM([Sales]) } calculates the total sales for each individual order.

The right part { FIXED [Region] : AVG({ FIXED [Order ID] : SUM([Sales]) }) } calculates the average sales per order within each region.

The > operator is used to compare these two values to determine if the sales for each order exceed the regional average.

References

This formula utilizes Tableau's LOD expressions to perform complex comparisons across different dimensions of the data, as explained in Tableau's official training materials on LOD calculations.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

According to Tableau’s Performance Optimization guidance, rendering time becomes the largest bottleneck when excessive marks, dense data, or overly complex visualizations appear on worksheets. Rendering is the last stage in the Tableau Order of Operations and is directly affected by how many marks must be drawn and how visually complex each view is.

Tableau’s performance recommendations explain:

When a performance recording shows that Rendering is the slowest step, the most effective improvement is to reduce the number of marks (records) in the view.

Rendering time is determined by the number of marks, shapes, headers, labels, and visual elements Tableau must draw.

Reducing the amount of data displayed on each worksheet is the most impactful change when rendering is the dominant delay.

Option B directly aligns with this: updating worksheets to reduce the number of records displayed lowers the number of marks, reduces visual density, and improves rendering speed.

Option A is not effective because changing dashboard size does not reduce the number of marks.

Option C would degrade performance because live connections are typically slower than extracts.

Option D improves data preparation and may reduce extract load times, but it does not directly address rendering unless the unused data was contributing to marks in the view. The question indicates the bottleneck is specifically rendering, so reducing marks is the most appropriate action.

Therefore, the most effective solution to reduce rendering time is to reduce the number of records (marks) displayed on worksheets.

Tableau Performance Recording guidance describing rendering as the slowest stage when too many marks are present.

Tableau Performance Checklist recommending reducing the number of marks in views to improve rendering.

Tableau Desktop help sections on best practices for improving visualization performance when rendering dominates.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In Tableau Performance Recording, “Executing Query” refers to the amount of time Tableau spends executing the SQL or hyper query generated by the workbook. When an extract is used, the query is executed against the .hyper extract, not the original database.

Tableau documentation identifies several causes of slow query execution within extracts, including:

Nested row-level calculations

Complex logic in calculated fields

Multiple Levels of Detail (LOD) expressions

Non-optimized expressions that force Tableau to compute additional temporary tables

These directly increase query complexity and cause longer “Executing Query” durations.

Therefore, optimizing the query requires simplifying or replacing:

Nested calculations

Unnecessary LOD expressions

Complex expressions that increase the workload on the extract engine

Option A is incorrect because the number of VizQL processes affects concurrency, not query execution time.

Option B is partially relevant, but dashboard filters affect the overall workload, not the specific query complexity. If the performance recording shows “Executing Query” as the slow section, the query itself (not the filter UI layer) is the problem.

Option D does not apply because extracts use the hyper engine, not the underlying database. Optimizing the original database structure does not change the extract query execution time.

Thus, the consultant should focus on simplifying nested calculations and LODs to reduce extract query complexity.

Tableau Performance Recording guide describing “Executing Query” as dependent on calculation complexity.

Tableau extract engine documentation explaining that nested logic, multiple LODs, and granular calculations generate slower extract queries.

Best practices recommending simplification of calculated fields to improve extract query performance.

The Explorer (can publish) site role in Tableau is designed for users who need to access, edit, and create visualizations based on published data sources, even when they are outside the company network. This role allows users to perform web editing and save their work, making it suitable for sales users who need these capabilities. It is also a cost-effective option as it does not require the full capabilities and associated costs of the Creator license.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The requirement is:

Compute total sales per customer, not per transaction.

Then compute the average of those customer totals, grouped by region.

Tableau documentation states that FIXED LOD expressions are used to calculate values at a specific level of granularity regardless of the view.

To solve the business need:

Step 1:

Calculate total customer sales for each Customer ID within each Region:

{ FIXED [Customer ID], [Region] : SUM([Sales Amount]) }

This produces one number per customer per region.

Step 2:

Compute the average of those totals:

AVG( { FIXED [Customer ID], [Region] : SUM([Sales Amount]) } )

This yields:

Average total customer sales by region

This is exactly option C.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. EXCLUDE Region: Would combine regions and incorrectly calculate overall totals.

B. FIXED Region: AVG(Sales Amount): Computes average of line-level sales, not customer totals.

D. FIXED Customer ID + Region: AVG(Sales Amount): Averages individual transactions, not customer totals.

Only option C matches the required two-step logic.

LOD Expressions: FIXED for computing customer-level aggregates.

Nested LOD usage for first calculating customer totals, then averaging them at a higher level.

Tableau guidance: SUM inside FIXED for per-customer totals, AVG outside for averaging customers.

When a filter is applied directly to the view, it can affect the calculation of percentages in a histogram because it changes the underlying data that the quick table calculation is based on. To avoid this, adding the [Profit] filter to the context will maintain the original calculation of percent shares while filtering out bins with less than a 15% share. This is because context filters are applied before any other calculations, so the percent shares calculated will be based on the context-filtered data, thus preserving the integrity of the original percent labels.

Given the need for up-to-date data on a daily basis and weekly revisions, the best approach is to use an incremental extract refresh daily to update the data source with new transactions. On Saturdays, when incorrect transactions are revised, a full extract refresh should be performed to incorporate all revisions and ensure the data’s accuracy. This strategy allows end users to have access to the most current data throughout the week while also accounting for any necessary corrections12.

To complete the Pareto chart in the "City Pareto" worksheet of your Tableau Desktop and add reference lines to illustrate how the data compares to the Pareto principle, follow these steps:

Open the CC Workbook and Access the Worksheet:

From the desktop, double-click on the CC workbook to open it in Tableau Desktop.

Navigate to the City Pareto worksheet by selecting its tab at the bottom of the window.

Construct the Pareto Chart:

Ensure that sales data is aggregated by city. If not, drag the 'City' dimension to the Columns shelf and the 'Sales' measure to the Rows shelf.

Sort the sales data in descending order to properly align the cities according to their sales contribution.

To create a running total of sales, right-click on the 'Sales' measure on the Rows shelf, select 'Quick Table Calculation', and choose 'Running Total'.

Drag the 'Number of Records' field to the Rows shelf next to the Sales running total. Right-click on it, select 'Quick Table Calculation', and choose 'Running Total'. Set its calculation to 'Percent of Total' from the 'Edit Table Calculation' option to represent the percentage of cities.

Add Reference Lines for the Pareto Principle:

Click on the Analytics tab in the sidebar.

Drag a 'Reference Line' element and drop it onto the chart area.

Set the Reference Line for the Sales axis at 80% to represent the typical Pareto cutoff where 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

Add another Reference Line on the axis representing the percentage of cities, set at 20%, to visually assess the Pareto principle.

Adjust the Appearance of the Chart:

Format the reference lines by right-clicking on them, selecting 'Edit', and choosing a distinct style or color to make them stand out.

Ensure the chart is clear and labels are appropriately adjusted for easy understanding of the data visualization.

Save Your Changes:

From the File menu, click 'Save' to ensure all your changes are stored.

The most efficient way to limit report visibility to specific user groups on Tableau Server is to manage permissions directly on the server. By granting access to the report only to the sales and marketing user groups, the client ensures that only members of these groups can view the report. This method is straightforward and does not require the additional steps involved in setting up row-level security or user filters.