While the internet offers vast information resources on IT and related jobs, there is still a dearth of knowledge relevant to freshers and early-stage developers. Moreover, most of the materials available online do not cover specific tools that employers target. 

For someone looking to enter the job market as a frontend, backend, UI, or full-stack developer, Salesforce training should be one of the top priorities. This blog aims to familiarise you with all the building blocks of the tool. 

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Now, let’s deep dive into this comprehensive list of Salesforce interview questions and answers without further ado!

Top Salesforce Interview Questions & Answers

Salesforce is a CRM service provider that enjoys international recognition in the IT industry. The International Data Corporation has ranked it on the top spot for seven consecutive years now. The cloud platform’s customers include small enterprises to Fortune 500 companies.

Therefore, Salesforce has become a vital skill for software developers to master. Salesforce Developers in India also earn a handsome salary. According to the job search site Indeed, the average annual remuneration currently stands at ₹9,47048 per year. Read more on salesforce developer salary in India.

Here are 20 most commonly asked Salesforce interview questions to help you get started!

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1. What is a custom object in Salesforce? What does it permit the user to do?

A custom object is a database table that stores company data on the cloud-based Salesforce platform. Once you define the custom object, you can perform the following tasks: 

• Make custom fields
• Relate the object to other records
• Create and share custom tab
• Analyse the object data
• Build a page layout
• Track various tasks 
• Construct dashboards 
• Prepare reports

2. Explain Self-Relationship and Object Relationship Overview in Salesforce.

Self-relationship is a lookup relation with the same object that allows the user to create relationships with other objects with the help of the object “merchandise”. Object Relationship Overview helps track product defects. It connects the records of custom objects to standard objects, helping the user define relationships. 

Conclusively, there are three main types of object relations in Salesforce, namely:

• Lookup: It is used to link two objects together in a parent-child relationship.
• Master-detail: It creates a tight parent child-relationship where the child inherits the security of the parent and gets deleted when the parent record is removed.
• Many-to-many: This is a relationship between two-parent objects and an object having two master-detail relationships.

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3. What do you mean by a junction object? What is its purpose?

Objects with many-to-many relationships are also referred to as junction objects. These are used as third-party objects for connecting data models. Suppose a user wants to link a job to multiple candidates or wants a single candidate to be linked to many other jobs. It is possible to accomplish the same with a junction object called “job application”. 

4. What are SOQL and SOSL used for?

SOQL stands for Sales Object Query Language. As the name suggests, it is an SQL-like query language designed explicitly for Salesforce. It is typically used within Apex and Visualforce to retrieve data in the platform. 

On the other hand, SOSL is the Salesforce Object Search Language that constructs text-based queries against the search index. It is used to return data sets when you are unaware of the object or field in which data resides. 

5. List the difference between Programmatic & Declarative Development.

In programmatic development, the developer writes code to achieve a particular task. In Salesforce, this includes components like Apex, Visualforce, and Lighting Web. 

Declarative Development involves clicks instead of code. Users can build UI and automation with the help of Process Builder & Flow tools in Salesforce. 

6. How does Salesforce track sales?

The Salesforce CRM platform records details like the number of customers served per day, daily sales volumes, sales figures for the month or quarter, and detailed reports by sales managers to offer comprehensive insights. It also tells you about repeat sales activity, which guides most actions of a sales organisation. 

7. What are the possible reasons for data loss in Salesforce?

Data loss can happen in the following cases in Salesforce:

• Changing the date and time of the data.
• Migrating the number, percent, and currency to other types of data.
• Shifting to auto-number except for text.
• Changing to other types from auto-number, checkbox, and multi-select picklist.
• Altering text area to email, URL, phone, and text.

8. Describe the key difference between Trigger and Workflow.

Trigger refers to the code executed before or after inserting or updating the record in Salesforce. Workflow is an automated process that follows evaluation and rule criteria and sets off a specific action in response.  

9. What is a Sandbox? What are its types?

A sandbox is a replica database used for testing and development in Salesforce. It facilitates the testing of new ideas without needing to alter the original database.

There are four main types of sandboxes, namely:

• Development: It houses the production organisation’s metadata and helps development and testing in an isolated environment. 
• Developer Pro: It contains the same capability of dealing with larger datasets.
• Partial Copy: It is a testing environment containing the samples of the production organisation’s data and metadata.
• Full: This sandbox contains everything from objects and attachments to data and metadata of the production org. 

10. What are some ways of deploying from Sandbox to Production?

To deploy Sandbox to Production, you can either use the Change Sets feature to package the components for deployment or the ANT Migration tool. 

The emerging Salesforce DevOps trend has also given rise to various apps that make deploying changes much easier than these options. So, it is beneficial to keep track of such advancements. 

11. How is Role different from Profile in Salesforce?

Both Profiles and Roles are added to a user record in Salesforce, but they differ in essence. A Profile is a basic requirement for any user in Salesforce, while a Role is optionally added. 

Profiles have the system permissions for tasks like exporting data and help control CRED (Create, Read, Edit, Delete) features. Conversely, Roles work hierarchically and involve granting permission for accessing and sharing records across the organisation. 

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12. Can two users use the same profile?

Yes, it is possible for the admin in Salesforce.org to create a single profile and then assign it to multiple users. For instance, the Sales Profile can be assigned to an entire team of people in a company. It would have permission for users in Contacts, Campaigns, Leads, Opportunities, and other objects that may be necessary from a managerial point of view. However, each user in Salesforce cannot be assigned more than one profile.

13. What kind of reports are available in Salesforce?

There are four types of reports:

• Tabular: Excel-style tables displaying the list of items and the grand total.
• Matrix: Two-dimensional reports that permit grouping based on rows and columns.
• Summary: Detailed reports similar to tabular reports, but they also offer functionalities of grouping based on rows, creating charts, and viewing subtotals.
• Joined: A combination of two or more types of reports, comprising multiple blocks of data.

One can use Matrix and Summary reports as data sources for dashboards. However, the same option is not available for Tabular and Joined reports. 

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14. Compare static and dynamic dashboards.

Static dashboards are the default view showing organisation-wide data to all users. Dynamic dashboards are tailored to show user-specific data, including details like leads converted, sales closed, and so on. 

15. What kind of email templates can be created in Salesforce?

There are four types of email templates:

• Text: This can be created or altered by all users.
• HTML with letterhead: Admins and users with permission to “Edit HTML Templates” can make this email template based on a letterhead.
• Custom HTML: Admins and users with permission can create this template even without a letterhead. 
• Visualforce: Only administrators and developers are allowed to create this template as it enables data merging and other advanced functionalities. 

16. How can you prevent governor limits?

Governor limits regulate the amount of data that can be stored on a shared database in Salesforce. In this way, they keep a check on the potential monopolisation of resources like Storage, Memory, and CPU. While coding, these limits can cause several obstructions. Thus, one can follow some best practices to avoid hitting the governor limits, such as:

• Using @future correctly.
• Avoiding SOQL, DML operations inside a loop.
• Bulkifying the code.
• Using batch apex for more than 50,000 records.

17. Explain skinny tables and their considerations. 

Skinny tables provide a highly effective way of accessing frequently used fields. They help in bypassing joins and syncing with source tables.

When using skinny tables, one must remember that they cannot have more than 100 columns and fields from other objects. 

18. What would you do to edit an Apex class in a production environment?

The apex class is first edited in the sandbox as you cannot make edits directly in the production environment. From there, you deploy the class in production where a user having “Author Apex” permission can make the required changes. 

19. Define the following: (i) Audit Trail function (ii) Wrapper classes (iii) Data skew.

(i) Audit trail: This function assists in gaining information or tracking changes in the production organisation. It preserves up to six months of data.

(ii) Wrapper class: It helps display different objects in the same table on a Visualforce page.

(iii) Data skew: It is a performance issue that usually occurs when the number of records exceeds 10,000 or when a single user owns too many records.

20. What are the benefits of using Salesforce?

Salesforce is an excellent tool for understanding the needs of your target audience. It brings all customer communications to a single place, improving management and reporting tasks. Integration with apps like Dataloader, Mailchimp, etc., further enables coordinated and unified efforts across the organisation. 

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Future of Software Development in India 

Software development is among the fastest-growing fields in India. A recent research study by NASSCOM India indicates that there is an increased demand for software professionals in niches like fintech, cybersecurity, education technology, eCommerce, and others. 

If you are a fresher or an entry-level professional looking to make a career in this field, check out upGrad’s Executive PG Programme in Software Development. The 13-month online course offers a specialisation in Full Stack Development, taking you through the fundamentals of backend and frontend technologies and preparing you for the 21st-century job market. Such study programmes typically follow a teaching methodology involving case studies, projects, and interactive sessions with industry practitioners. 

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You would receive a certification from a leading institute like IIIT-Bangalore, which will make you a credible candidate for potential recruiters. You would also have the opportunity to get certified in Data Science by upGrad or pursue a career transition boot camp, which is especially relevant for new developers and people from non-tech backgrounds. 

With this, we hope to have brought you up to speed on the top Salesforce interview questions and answers. Make sure to use these questions and insights to learn more, upskill, and excel in your career!