A Business Intelligence (BI) analyst turns raw company data into reports and dashboards that help leaders make decisions. Your day is spent pulling data with SQL, cleaning it, building dashboards, checking that the numbers are right, and explaining what they mean in plain words. Most people in the role have a bachelor's degree (68%), but a portfolio of real projects counts for a lot. The order to learn things is: spreadsheets, then SQL, then a BI tool such as Power BI or Tableau, then data modeling, then storytelling and stakeholder skills, then cloud warehouses and automation. No license is l
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Every stage from beginner to expert, with lessons, practice drills, projects, interview questions and free resources. Free with a Rolearch account.
Stage 1 of 4 · about 10 weeks
Work confidently in Excel or Google Sheets (lookups, pivot tables, charts), learn basic statistics (mean, median, percentiles, correlation), understand business metrics like revenue, margin, churn and conversion, and write beginner SQL (SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, JOIN).
Spreadsheets: formulas, lookups, pivot tables and charts
Almost every BI analyst starts and often ends a quick analysis in a spreadsheet. Managers send you Excel files, and you will use them to check your dashboards. Being fast and accurate here is the base of your credibility.
Basic statistics for business data
Stakeholders ask questions like 'Is this typical?' and 'Do these two things move together?' Simple statistics let you answer honestly and stop you from reporting misleading averages.
Core business metrics and how to define them
A dashboard is only as good as its definitions. Most arguments in meetings are really about what a number means. If you can define revenue, margin, churn, and conversion exactly, you become the person people trust.
Beginner SQL: SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, JOIN
Data lives in databases, not in the files people email you. SQL is how BI analysts pull exactly what they need, and it is tested in almost every interview for the role.
Then 3 more stages (about 72 weeks in all) with lessons, drills, projects, 10 interview questions with strong answers and free resources.