Hiring Salesforce developers is very different from regular coder recruitment.
Salesforce is the lifeblood of your business, serving every aspect from marketing to delivery and community management.
As a result, sloppy Salesforce administration will have an immediate negative effect on company revenue.
Therefore, the professionals you hire need to have an understanding of business processes first and foremost. The questions below will help you get an idea of whether the people you are interviewing to provide you or other are the right match for you. But you could start your interview with the simpler and the more general Salesforce admin interview questions and answers.
Table of Content
50 Most Popular Salesforce Interview Questions
We have collected the most commonly asked questions on Salesforce interviews with suitable answers, and here they are.
1. Q: What are roles and profiles in Salesforce, and what is the difference between them?
A: Roles and profiles are sets of permissions that can both be added to all user records in Salesforce.Roles are optional, whereas Profiles are obligatory for user setup.
Profiles are sets of rules and procedures that determine how and when the user will have access to records.
Roles work as a hierarchy, and they allow access to data records to users lower down in the hierarchy. Roles facilitate data sharing, and you can temporarily assign new roles to users.
Profiles, on the other hand, always stay the same.
2. Q: Can you name three types of object relationships available in Salesforce?
A: There are three types of object relationships in Salesforce:
- master-dealer relationship,
- lookup relationship,
- and external lookup.
Lookup is the most basic relationship. It creates a child-parent connection between two objects.
The master-detail relationship is also a parent-child type of connection, albeit a more strict one. The master object completely controls the behavior of the detail object. The detail object inherits security, and if the master object gets deleted, the detail one is gone as well.
External lookup relationships exist to connect child standard, custom, or external objects to parent external objects. External IDs are used to define the external lookup relationship with the parent external object.
3. Q: What is SOQL and what is it used for?
This is one of the most common Salesforce software engineer interview questions.
A: SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) is a special query language that lets you create and run query strings that will select the data from your Salesforce database.
SOQL is a lot like SQL (Structured Query Language) that is used in databases.
SOQL is mostly used within Apex and Visualforce.
4. Q: What’s the difference between Salesforce.com & Force.com?
A: is a Software as a service (SaaS) tool with pre-made solutions like Sales, Marketing, Healthcare, and . These tools are designed for specific industry applications (including ) and require little technical background from users.Force.com is a Platform as a service (PaaS) environment that allows you to build your own custom tools for custom purposes.
5. Q: What is a Sandbox?
A: A Sandbox is a safe testing environment in Salesforce that is used for code testing and experiments without altering the production environment functionality.
Most often Salesforce developers are using Sandbox to test a new application created on Force.com or Visualforce page. One more option to test out code is to use a .
6. Q: What options are available to you for deploying from a Sandbox to Production?
A: In order to deploy new features and apps from Sandbox to Production you can go several ways.You package your test environment components and deploy them to your production Salesforce environment if you either:
- use the Salesforce feature named Change Sets;
- use the ANT Migration Tool;
- use Force.com IDE;
- use Unmanaged packages.
7. Q: How are bucket fields used in Salesforce?
A: Bucket fields are a part of Salesforce reports. These fields are not created on the platform and they exist only in the reports.Bucket fields are used for grouping and categorizing data in reports. When you set up a bucket column, you will have to define multiple categories or buckets, that will help you group report values together.
8. Q: What's an app in Salesforce?
A: An app in Salesforce is a container or a view that binds together and displays a set of required tables. In a way, an app is a group of tabs that do and show whatever you need them to.You can customize standard Salesforce apps (e.g. Sales, Call center) or that will display the columns and tabs you need.
9. Q: What types of apps can we create in SF?
A: Salesforce allows us to create two types of apps: custom apps and console apps.
Custom apps are easier to build as they are just a combination of tabs and objects that work together to solve a specific problem.
Console apps require Visualforce, Apex, and Javascript development skills. These apps are using the special Salesforce UI: the Console.
Console apps are mostly made to improve productivity since they fit all the data into one screen.
10. Q: What are the types of reports that we have in Salesforce?
Now let’s touch upon Salesforce business analytics (BA) interview questions.
A: There are four types of reports that will let you display data in Salesforce: tabular, matrix, summary report, and joined reports.
Different report types exist because the data you want to display may often be stored in multiple objects. If you need to join data together from several objects you need to spend some time setting up your report.
Tabular reports are the simplest report type, they only show lines of data.
Summary reports get displayed once you click “group by this field”. These reports are used for showing groups of data.Matrix reports are used to display high volumes of complex data.Joined reports allow merging two or more standalone reports in order to compare data.
11. Q: What is the Audit trail?
A: The Audit trail is a Salesforce feature that lets you track changes that have been made in your organization. You can see both the changes that you or other administrators make.
The Audit trail displays the date and time of the change, usernames of the users that made the changes, and what exactly has been changed.
12. Q: What are Triggers in Salesforce?
A: A trigger is a piece of code that triggers one of the following actions:
- insert;
- update;
- delete;
- merge;
- upsert;
- undelete;
There are before and after triggers, and they are used to update or validate record values either before they are saved to the Salesforce database, or after.
13. Q: What is the “Master-Detail Relationship?
A: The master-detail relationship can be described as a parent-child relationship as well. The master object controls the detail object, one master object can have many detail objects (though a detail object can have only one master object).
The master field can not be empty, and if one of the records in the master object is deleted all the corresponding fields in all the child objects are deleted as well.
The master-detail relationship is defined between several custom objects. A standard object can also participate in a master-detail relationship, as long as it is the master.
14. Q: Explain the term “Data Skew” in Salesforce.
A: Data skew relates to performance issues that occur when a single user, or members of a single role, own most of the data records in a particular Salesforce object. Normally 10K+ records attributed to one user are going to cause data skew issues.
15. Q: What are Permission sets in Salesforce?
A: A permission set allows users to set user access permissions without changing their profiles or roles. Rather than creating new profiles, Salesforce admins can create various permission sets and assign them to users.
16. Q: What are the default indexed fields in Salesforce?
A: Some fields are indexed by default in Salesforce. Those are:
- Name;
- ID;
- Owner fields;
- Master-detail relationship fields;
- Lookup fields;
- Last modified dates;
- Audit dates.
17. Q: Can you give some examples of custom fields in Salesforce?
A: Salesforce offers admins to create various custom fields and add them to objects. According to the official instructions having over 800 There are no limits in terms of custom fields, names, and contents. They can contain Text, Dates, Numbers, Phone numbers, Geolocations, etc.
18. Q: What is the main difference between data table vs page block table tags?
A: Both the data tables and page blocks will display data in tabular formats. However, data tables have no styling and display data in simple HTML format. PageBlock table, on the other hand, uses your Salesforce CSS styles.
Also, PageBlock tables have a required attribute, “value”, while data tables have no required attributes or values.
19. Q: What can cause data loss in Salesforce?
A: Unfortunately, data loss is quite possible while working with Salesforce. Most often data loss is caused by migration between data types (number to money, percent to number, text to email, etc.), date and time changes, migration from checkbox or multi-select formats to any other format type.
Other data loss causes in Salesforce include accidental deletion, SOQL mistakes and bad execution code, broken data imports, or problems with integrations.
It’s essential to always back up data and use professional Salesforce admins experienced with big data.
20. Q: How does Salesforce track sales details?
A: Salesforce gives all the advanced tools to properly track sales details.
Sales details are tracked either using raw data or generated reports from sales managers. Data like the number of daily customers, repeat customer activity, or regular sales numbers can be used to get an idea about sales stats.
21. Q: What are the different data types that a standard field record name can have?
A: The usual data type for field record names is either a number or a text string that is under 80 characters long.
If you are going to use automatically generated numbers, you need to specify that format.
22. Q: What is Apex?
Salesforce Apex interview questions are an obligatory part of any interview.
A: Apex is an object-oriented programming language that lets adapt Salesforce to their needs. Basically, Apex allows writing necessary business logic into the Salesforce platform.
In a way, Apex resembles Java and is evoked with record updates, triggers, external web service requests, and other user-initiated events.
23. Q: Where can I use Apex?
A: Salesforce developers can use Apex to create:
- e-mail services;
- web Services;
- business processes that lie outside the regular workflow;
- custom transaction logic.
Using Apex we can also imprint custom logic onto other operations and run complex procedures and .
24. Q: What is Batch Apex in Salesforce?
A: Batch Apex is a tool that lets you process large amounts of data (millions of records) asynchronously. Batch Apex exists to make sure Salesforce users do not exceed platform memory limits. When records are processed in batches, the platform operates steadily no matter how much data is processed within the job.
25. Q: What is the Apex scheduler?
A: Apex scheduler is a handy Salesforce tool that lets you run specific Apex classes at a certain time. In order to use the scheduler, a Salesforce developer will have to write an Apex class that uses a schedulable interface. That class has to be scheduled for execution on the desired schedule.
26. Q: Can you customize Apex & Visualforce directly in a production org?
A: For safety reasons, Apex processes can not run on a live production org. In order to customize Apex Salesforce developers have to deploy it through Sandbox after thorough tests.
Visualforce is different in this regard. You can customize it directly in production. However, altering code that’s in production is never the best option.
27. Q: What are the two options for when Apex Triggers can run?
A: Apex triggers can be set up to run either before the record is saved or after.
Before triggers and operations are used to check and validate the information being inserted.
After triggers are used to access and work with existing data.
28. Q: When should Apex be used over Workflow rules or Process Builder?
A: Very often Apex allows Salesforce admins to perform operations that can be done using or the Process builder tool.
Whether you need to use Apex or other tools depends on your specific needs.
For instance, you would have to use Apex whenever you need to pull information from an external system.
Data set size is also a factor. Apex handles big data sets much better than Workflow rules or the Process builder do.
29. Q: What are Governor Limits? Can you name 3 examples?
A: are limitations aimed at forcing developers to write efficient code that does not waste platform resources. Governor limits help keep applications scalable, but they often require creative workarounds.
Some of the governor limit examples are:
- total number of SOSL queries issued 20;
- total number of records retrieved by a single SOSL query 2,000;
- total number of DML statements issued 2 150;
- total number of records retrieved by Database.getQueryLocator 10,000.
30. Q: What is Apex test coverage? What’s the minimum test coverage required to deploy?
A: Apex code coverage is part of the Apex testing framework that helps you make sure your code is safe, efficient, and scalable.
In order to generate code coverage information, you need to write test methods to test Apex triggers and classes.
The more executable lines of code are exercised by test methods, the higher the code coverage percent.
The minimum deployment requirement is 75% test coverage.
31. Q: What are some Apex best practices?
A: While working with Apex, pay attention to some of the best practices that expert Salesforce developers use. Some of them are:
- make sure your code is ready for bulk operations (that is, can handle more than one record at a time);
- streamline Multiple Triggers on the Same Object (this is necessary to avoid extra queries that query the same dataset or possibly have redundant for statements);
- use Limits Apex Methods to Avoid facing Governor Limits;
- writing Test Methods to Verify Large Datasets;
- avoid hardcoding IDs and keep them stored in the Apex code to make sure it’s dynamic and flexible.
32. Q: What is an Apex Email Service?
Very often Apex-related take up to 50% of each interview.
A: Apex Email service is a tool that lets you process contents, headers, and attachments of incoming emails. Using Apex development you can create services that extract data from inbound emails and turn it into contact or any other type of records.
33. Q: What are the different types of Collections you can have in Apex?
A: There are three types of collections in Apex: lists, sets, or maps. Each collection has no limit as to how many items it can include.
- Lists (ordered collections that are different with their indices; any data types can be in list elements).
- Sets (unordered collections of unique elements; no duplicates).
- Maps (collections of key-value pairs where every key maps to one value).
34. Q: What is Visualforce?
A: Visualforce is a framework for the development of custom complicated user interfaces that are hosted on the Lightning platform.
The framework includes an HTML-like markup language. In this language, each tag corresponds to an interface component like a list, page section, or a field.
35. Q: What is a Static Resource?
A: Static resources can be uploaded and referenced by Visualforce pages. Most often static resources are archives, .zip and .jar files, images, style sheets, JavaScript, and so on.
What is the difference between a standard and a custom controller?Standard controllers give the admin all the standard page actions, like editing or saving a record.Custom controllers are created by Salesforce developers to facilitate custom business processes and override standard Visualforce controllers.
36. Q: What is a Lightning Component?
Now let’s proceed with the .
A: The lightning component is a UI framework that is used for developing modern one-page web apps. Lightning Component binds the server with the client and uses Javascript on the client-side and Apex on the server-side. Apps created with the Lightning Component are dynamic and work on both mobile and desktop devices.
37. Q: Explain the differences between Workflow and Process Builder?
A: Both workflow rules and Process Builder are tools that expand Salesforce functionality with automation scenarios. All the functionality in both is a point and click so you don’t have to be a techie to set them up.
and are based on single criteria. When they are triggered they perform a certain function, like sending an email or creating a new task.
The process builder is a newer and more advanced tool with more functions. Process builders can create records, update child records, launch a flow, and much more.
Process builders can also be triggered when multiple criteria are met, not just one.
38. Q: How are sharing rules used in Salesforce?
A: allow sharing access to a set of data records to a profile, role, or a public user group. There are two levels of access you can share: read-only and read/write.
39. Q: Can you use sharing rules to restrict data access?
A: Not really. Sharing rules are used to extend privileges, not limit them. Normally all users in the organization are starting with the same privileges, and then the admin uses sharing rules to extend privileges for some groups.
40. Q: Can you explain the use of custom settings?
A: Custom settings allow Salesforce developers to create custom data sets and associate them to profiles, organizations, or specific users. Custom settings will allow you to store a variety of data that can be accessed by other Salesforce apps.
41. Q: Explain the use of a roll-up summary field and where it can be used.
A: Roll-up summary fields are used to calculate info within a set of child records to a parent record.
Roll-up summary fields are great for evaluating the performance of individual accounts (the number of closed leads would be the child records to the parent account record).
42. Q: What’s the difference between Record Types & Page Layouts?
A: Page layout defines the way each record page looks to a user.
All the buttons, custom links, Visualforce, related lists, and other parts of the page are determined by page layouts.Record types are set up to offer different page layouts, business processes, and picklist values.
43. Q: Explain the use of an Outbound Message?
A: Workflow rules produce automation functions (an outbound message is an example of such a function). Outbound messages have field values that can be sent over to external web services and serve as third-party process triggers.
44. Q: What is OAuth?
A: OAuth is an open access delegation standard. OAth is used to give access to information to other web apps or sites without the use of passwords.
45. Q: What is a Connected App?
A: Connected apps are integrations of third-party apps with Salesforce with the help of APIs. Connected apps can use either SAML or OAuth protocols for authentication.
46. Q: Can you give an example of a Salesforce API and its usage?
A: Salesforce offers several APIs that let you query the databases in certain ways. Some of the examples are:
- REST API. It could be called the simplest integration method, they use either XML or JSON formats;
- Bulk API. It’s used for loading data into the Salesforce organization. Whenever you need to quickly import third-party data into Salesforce, consider the Bulk API;
- Streaming API. It’s used to reflect changes in Salesforce data. The API is producing results that match SOQL queries defined by a user.
47. Q: What are External ID fields used for?
Based on our own experience, external ID-related Salesforce developer interview questions cause a lot of difficulties among candidates.
A: External IDs are yet another Salesforce integration tool. They are used in order to match external systems with a unique reference ID. Very often it’s easier to load, update, and reference these external records using IDs from the systems they originate from, not Salesforce IDs.
48. Q: What is a use case for Salesforce Connect?
A: Salesforce Connect is a tool that uses external data objects, which allow real-time data integration into Salesforce. The best part is even though you see the external data in Salesforce in real-time, Salesforce storage limits are not used. For instance, a large database with transaction history can be integrated into a Salesforce project via Salesforce Connect without hogging the cloud resources.
49. Q: What does “transfer record” mean in the profile?
A: “Transfer record” is a kind of Salesforce function that is used to grant certain permissions to users. Even if the record has read-only access, a user with privileges to share records with others can share that record with other users.
50. Q: What is a Salesforce dashboard and how can it be used?
A: The dashboard is what most users see and work with the most, it’s a graphic representation of the project data. The dashboard can be organized in multiple ways and display up to 20 reports at a time.
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Final Thoughts
to help you run your processes is no easy task. It requires a lot of preparation and a clear vision of what you expect in the end. Hopefully, you've found the Q&A's provided in this post handy. In any case, if you need a from the pros, don't hesitate to reach out to us, we'd be glad to assist!
