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Salesforce is the top-most Customer Relationship Management (CRM) service provider in the world today. This software dominates the field of Cloud CRM by having over 40 percent of the market share. Check out these popular Salesforce developer interview questions to crack Salesforce-related job interviews easily:
Q1. Compare Salesforce DEV 401 with Salesforce DEV 501.
Q2. What is the benefit of Salesforce CRM?
Q3. What are custom objects in Salesforce?
Q4. Define object relationships in Salesforce.
Q5. List various object relations in Salesforce.
Q6. What is an app in Salesforce?
Q7. Explain the advantages of Salesforce using the SaaS platform.
Q8. How does Salesforce deploy sales tracking?
Q9. What are workflows in Salesforce? What are actions in a workflow?
Q10. What is a master-detail relationship?
The three sections of this blog are:
1. Salesforce Basic Interview Questions
2. Salesforce Intermediate Interview Questions
3. Salesforce Advanced Interview Questions
Check out this video on Salesforce Interview Questions and Answers:
Basic Salesforce Interview Questions for Freshers
1. Compare Salesforce DEV 401 with Salesforce DEV 501.
Criteria |
Salesforce DEV 401 |
Salesforce DEV 501 |
What do we learn in DEV 401 and DEV 501? |
Building customized applications, analytical functions, etc. |
Apex scripts, Developer Console, deploying MVC architecture, etc. |
Who can apply for DEV 401 and DEV 501? |
Software and IT Professionals |
App and CRM Developers, System Admins, etc. |
What is the average annual salary of DEV 401 and DEV 501? |
US $99,000 |
US $141,000 |
2. What is the benefit of Salesforce CRM?
Here are some of the top benefits of Salesforce CRM:
- Ensuring faster and better sales opportunity
- Deploying an analytical approach to customer acquisition
- Reducing cost and improving customer satisfaction
- Automation of repetitive and less important tasks
- Improved efficiency and enhanced communication on all fronts
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3. What are custom objects in Salesforce?
Simply put, custom objects are database tables in Salesforce. All data related to an enterprise can be stored in Salesforce.com, and for that, there is a need for a junction object, which is a custom object. The custom object has a Master-Detail relationship. We can create a Master-Detail relationship between two objects, and then connect a child object as a related list. Custom objects, which can be listed in Custom Settings, have a set of static data that is reusable.
In the process, the custom object has to be defined first, and then the following steps need to be followed:
- Join records with the custom object
- Custom object data is displayed in custom lists
- Create a custom tab for the custom object
- Build page layouts
- Create a dashboard and a report for analyzing the custom object
Moreover, the custom tab, app, and object can be shared.
4. Define object relationship in Salesforce.
In Salesforce, we can link the standard and custom object records in a related list. It is done by the object relationship overview. Various types of relationships can be created to connect specific business cases with specific customers. It is possible to create a custom relationship on an object and define various relationship types.
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5. List various object relations in Salesforce.
Object relations in Salesforce can be of the following types:
- One to many
- Many to many
- Master-Detail
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6. What is an app in Salesforce?
An app in Salesforce is a container that contains a name, a logo, and a group of tabs that work as a unit to provide specific functionality. Users can switch between apps using the Force.com app’s drop-down menu at the top-right corner of every page.
7. Explain the advantages of Salesforce using the SaaS platform.
Some of the main benefits of Salesforce SaaS are:
- Its pay-as-you-go model perfectly suites all customers
- No hassle of infrastructure management
- All applications are accessed via the Internet
- Easy integration between various applications
- The latest features are provided without any delay
- Guaranteed uptime and security
- Scalable performance for various operations
- Ability to access via mobile devices from anywhere
8. How does Salesforce deploy sales tracking?
Salesforce is very meticulous when it comes to recording intricate details such as sales numbers, customer details, customers served, repeat customers, etc. Salesforce makes it easy to create detailed reports, charts, and dashboards for keeping track of sales.
9. What are Workflows in Salesforce? What are Actions in a Workflow?
A workflow in Salesforce is basically a container or business logic engine that automates certain actions based on particular criteria. If the criteria are met, the actions get executed. When they do not, the record will get saved but no action will be executed.
There are two types of actions in a workflow in Salesforce:
- Immediate actions: Actions that get executed immediately when the record is created or edited
- Time-dependent actions: Actions that get executed after a certain duration of time, such as 10 days before a records’ close date. After a certain time period, the workflow rules in Salesforce will re-evaluate the record just to make sure that the rule criteria are met. If the record meets the criteria, the aligned actions will be executed.
10. What is a Master–Detail relationship?
A Master–Detail relationship is basically a parent–child relationship, in which ‘Master’ represents the parent and other details represent the child. If the parent is deleted, then the child also gets deleted. Roll-up summary fields can only be created on Master records, which will calculate the SUM, AVG, and MIN of the child records.
11. What is a Connected App?
A connected app is a framework used to integrate an application with Salesforce with the help of APIs and standard protocols. It uses standard SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect protocols to authenticate, authorize, and provide single sign-on (SSO), for external apps. With the help of the Connected app, Salesforce admins can set up security policies and control who can use the corresponding apps.
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12. Can two profiles be assigned to one user?
Depending on the profile assigned, users get access to Salesforce. One profile can be assigned to many users. Let’s consider an example scenario where the admin creates a sales profile. Now the admin has to give access to one sales profile to multiple members of the sales team.
But the admin cannot give a user access to more than one profile because sales reps should only have access to the sales profile. So two profiles cannot be assigned to one user.
13. What are the Salesforce subsidiaries?
The following is the list of some major Salesforce subsidiaries:
Tableau
- Pardot
- Heroku
- Mulesoft
- Demandware Inc
- SalesforceIQ
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14. What is an Audit trail?
If an organization has various Salesforce Administrators, the Audit trail lets you track all the recent changes made by other admins. It can store up to 6 months of data.
Intermediate Salesforce Interview Questions
15. What happens to the Detail (Child) record when a Master (Parent) record is deleted?
In a Master–Detail relationship, when a Master record is deleted, the Detail record also gets deleted, automatically.
On the other hand, in a Lookup relationship, the Child record will not be deleted, even if the Parent record is deleted.
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16. Can you have a roll-up summary field in the case of a Master–Detail relationship?
Yes, we can have a roll-up summary in the case of a Master-Detail relationship but not in the case of a Lookup relationship. This is because a roll-up summary field is used to display a value in the Master record based on the values of a set of fields in the Detail record.
17. What is an sObject type?
A sObject is any object that can be stored in the Force.com platform database. Apex allows the use of a generic sObject abstract type to represent any object.
For example, ‘vehicle’ is a generic type, and ‘car’ and ‘motorbike’ are concrete types of ‘vehicle’.
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18. What are triggers in Salesforce? How are they different from workflows?
Triggers in Salesforce are called Apex triggers. These are distinct and are available specifically for common and expected actions like lead conversions. It is just a code that is executed before or after a record is inserted or updated.
A trigger is different from a workflow as the former is a piece of code; whereas, a workflow is an automated process and uses no code.
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19. What is trigger.new?
Trigger.new returns a list of records that have been added recently to sObjects. The records that are yet to be saved in the database are returned. Only insert and update triggers have the sObject list, and records can only be modified before.trigger.
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20. What is the minimum test coverage required to deploy a trigger?
- System Administrator: Customization and administration of an application
- Standard User: Can edit, view, update, or delete one’s own record
- Read Only: Able to just view the records
- Solution Manager: Comes with the standard user permission but also can manage categories and published solutions
- Marketing User: Able to import leads into the organization, along with standard user permissions
Check out: Permission Sets in Salesforce
21. Explain the Force.com platform.
Force.com is the entire infrastructure and codebase on which the complete Salesforce application exists. In other words, Salesforce is built on Force.com, which is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that lets us simplify the design, development, and deployment of cloud-based applications and websites. Salesforce Developers can work with Cloud Integrated Development Environment and deploy the applications on Force.com servers.
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22. List various types of reports available in Salesforce.
Below are the types of Salesforce reports:
- Tabular report: In this, the grand total is displayed in a table format.
- Matrix report: This is an in-depth report wherein there are both row-based and column-based groups.
- Summary report: A summary report is a report in which the grouping is on a column basis.
- Joined report: Joining two or more reports into one creates a joined report.
23. How many reports can be added to the Salesforce dashboard?
A Salesforce dashboard can be seen as a visual and pictorial representation of a dashboard with the facility to add up to 20 reports.
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24. Explain various Salesforce dashboard components.
Various Salesforce dashboard components are explained below:
- Gauge: It is used for showing a single value within a range of custom values.
- Metric: This is used for displaying a single key–value pair. It is possible to click the empty text field next to the grand total and enter the metric label directly on the components. All metrics placed above and below one another in the dashboard column would be displayed as a single component.
Other dashboard components are explained below:
- Table: The report data can be shown in a column form using a t
- Visualforce page: It is used for creating a custom component or showing information not available in other component types.
- Custom S-component: This contains the content that is run or displayed in a browser like an Excel file, ActiveX Control, Java applet, or custom HTML web form.
25. What is Visualforce in Force.com?
Visualforce can be defined as the user interface for the Force.com platform. It is a component-based framework that can include over 100 in-built components. It includes a tag-based markup language, and each Visualforce tag corresponds to a page or a field.
The Visualforce framework works on the standard MVC paradigm. It is possible to have tight integration with the database and also deploy auto-generated controllers for database objects. Developers can use Apex codes to write their own controllers. It is also possible to access AJAX components, or they can create their own components.
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26. What is a static resource in Salesforce?
A static resource lets us upload content that is in the form of .jar and .zip formats, style sheets, JavaScript, and so on. It is recommended to deploy a static resource rather than uploading files to the Documents tab since it is possible to pack a set of files into a directory hierarchy and upload it. These files can easily be referred to on a Visualforce page.
27. Differentiate between Salesforce Object Query Language and Salesforce Object Search Language.
- Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) lets us search for only one object. We can query for all types of fields in SOQL. Data Manipulation Language (DML) operations can be performed on the query results.
- Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) lets us search for multiple objects. But, in SOSL, we can query only for texts, emails, and phone numbers. Also, DML operations cannot be performed on the search results.
28. What are the different methods of Batch Apex class?
Database.Batchable interface contains three methods that must be implemented:
Start method:
global (Database.QueryLocator | Iterable<sObject>) start(Database.BatchableContext bc) {}
Execute method:
global void execute(Database.BatchableContext BC, list<P>){}
Finish method:
global void finish(Database.BatchableContext BC){}
29. What is the difference between Standard and Custom Controller?
- Standard Controllers: Standard Controllers are created for all standard Salesforce pages. They consist of the same logic and functionalities that are utilized in any standard Salesforce page. They can be easily utilized with both standard and custom objects.
- Custom Controllers: Custom Controllers is a class written in Apex and it overrides the standard functionality of a standard controller of a page. It executes the logic of a page without utilizing the Standard Controllers. We use custom controllers whenever we want to run a Visualforce page fully in system mode, which means that the security and permissions of the current user will not be recognized.
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30. What are the different data types that a standard field record name can have?
A standard field record consists of either auto-number or text field, read-only data type with a maximum limit of 80 characters. It depends on whether the field name consists of a unique text ID or numerical ID.
To create auto numbers, the format should be described while defining the field and later when every record is added, the number gets auto-generated. For example:-
Sr No-{1}
Sr No-{2}
Check out Data Types and Field Types in Salesforce.
31. Where we can use Lightning Components?
We can use Lightning components for various purposes, lets see some of them:
- To drag-and-drop Components in the Lightning App Builder and Community Builder.
- To add more Lightning Components to Lightning Pages.
- To add Lightning Components to Lightning Experience Record Pages.
- To override Standard Actions.
32. What are the tools included in lightning?
- Lightning Component Framework – It provides components and extensions that can be utilized to develop reusable custom components, standalone apps, and customize the Salesforce1 Mobile App.
- Lightning App Builder – An UI tool that lets you build apps rapidly with the help of drag and drop components provided by Salesforce.
- Lightning Connect – An integration tool to easily integrate Salesforce to consume data from any external source OData specification.
- Lightning Process Builder – Lightning Process Builder in Salesforce is a visualization tool for the automation of business processes.
- Lightning Schema Builder – It is a visualization tool used to view and create objects, fields, and relationships.
Check out our tutorial on various Components of Salesforce!
33. What are Governor Limits in Salesforce?
Governor Limits are some of the biggest challenges for a Salesforce developer. As whenever the Apex code exceeds the limit, it issues a run-time exception and it cannot be handled. The following is the list of some of the key Governor Limits in Salesforce:
- Push Notification Limits
- Per-Transaction Apex Limits
- com Platform Apex Limits
- Size-Specific Apex Limits
- Miscellaneous Apex Limits
- Static Apex Limits
- Email Limits

Advanced Salesforce Interview Questions for Experienced Professionals
34. What are the different types of collections in Salesforce Apex?
Collections are the type of variables used to store multiple numbers of records (data). Types of collections in Salesforce are:
35. What are maps in Apex?
Maps are used to store data in the form of key–value pairs, where each unique key maps to a single value.
Syntax:
Map<String, String> country_city = new Map<String, String>();
36. What is an Apex transaction?
An Apex transaction represents a set of operations that are executed as a single unit. These operations include DML operations that are responsible for querying records. All the DML operations in a transaction either get completed successfully or get rolled back completely if an error occurs even in saving a single record.
37. What is the difference between public classes and global classes in Salesforce Apex?
A global class is accessible across the Salesforce instance, irrespective of namespaces.
Whereas, public classes are accessible only in the corresponding namespaces.
38. What are getter and setter methods?
The get (getter) method is used to pass values from the controller to the VF page.
Whereas, the set (setter) method is used to set the value back to the controller variable.
39. Which fields are automatically indexed in Salesforce?
The following fields are automatically indexed in Salesforce:
- Custom fields marked as an external ID or a unique field
- Primary keys (ID, Name, and Owner fields)
- Audit dates (such as SystemModStamp)
- Foreign keys (Lookup or Master-Detail relationship fields)
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40. A time-dependent workflow action cannot be created for which workflow?
A time-dependent workflow cannot be created for ‘created, and every time it’s edited.’
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41. What is a sandbox in Salesforce? What are the types of Sandboxes available?
A sandbox is a similar copy of a Salesforce production for testing, development, and training. The content and size of a sandbox may vary depending on the type of the sandbox and the edition of the production organization which is associated with the sandbox. There are four types of sandboxes available:
- Developer Sandbox
- Developer Pro Sandbox
- Partial Data Sandbox
- Full Sandbox
42. What is Apex class?
An Apex class is a template from which Apex objects can be created. These classes consist of other classes, variables, user-defined methods, exception types, and the static initialization code.
43. What is Salesforce CRM?
It is a cloud-based CRM that doesn’t require IT experts to set up or manage the cloud. One can simply log in and connect to the customers directly. The CRM Salesforce system is a well-organized platform that provides information to its customers from different sources. It is a customer-centric system that integrates customers’ information for an organization’s benefit.
44. What is Salesforce Lightning?
Salesforce Lightning is a platform that provides tools to every organization to build next-generation UI and UX in Salesforce. Lightning creates a modern productivity-boosting user experience. It is used to create a fast, beautiful, and unique user experience, just like real lightning, so that sales teams can sell their products faster. Lightning Experience uses an open-source Aura framework. It is a completely re-designed framework to create a modern user interface.
45. Why use Batch Apex instead of Normal Apex?
There are various reasons why Batch Apex is better than Normal Apex.
- A Normal Apex uses 100 records per cycle to execute SOQL queries. Whereas, a Batch Apex does the same in 200 records per cycle. So, it is very fast when the execution of SOQL queries is considered.
- A Normal Apex can retrieve 50,000 SOQL queries, but in Batch Apex, 50,000,000 SOQL queries can be retrieved.
- A Normal Apex has a heap size of 6 MB; whereas, a Batch Apex has a heap size of 12 MB.
- When executing bulk records, Normal Apex classes are more vulnerable to encountering errors as compared to Batch Apex. The latter is normally error-less.
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46. How can you call an Apex class in Salesforce?
Ways to call an Apex class in Salesforce are as follows:
- From the Visualforce page
- From Developer Console
- From JavaScript links
- By using a trigger
- From another class
- From home page components
47. How will you create a many-to-many relationship?
A many-to-many relationship can be created by using a junction object. A Junction object is a custom object that has two Master–Detail relationships.
48. What are the different types of Reports available in Salesforce?
Based on the structural differences, Salesforce has four different types of reports:
Tabular Report |
A tabular report displays data in the form of an Excel-like table that provides a list of items with the grand total. |
Joined Report |
A joined report is a combined report having multiple blocks that show data from different reports, either of the same or of different report types. |
Matrix Report |
A matrix report works for 2-dimensions and allows to group records row-wise and column-wise. |
Summary Report |
In a summary report, the view is in a table form only, but it has more functionalities like grouping rows (only), viewing subtotals, and creating charts. |
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49. How does Salesforce track sales?
There are unique procedures followed by every company for tracking their sales. Various companies track the performance of sales by data analysis. The tracking system of Salesforce allows companies to collect basic details for evaluating the performance, such as:
- Customers who are served daily
- Number of daily sales
- Day-to-day report of sales from Sales Managers
- Sales figures on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, depending on organizations’ needs
- Details of the repeat customers who serve as the key factor for the growth of any organization
50. What is a junction object?
Junction objects help associate two objects. They are custom objects in Salesforce that allow building a Master-Detail relationship established between two different data objects. It uses a many-to-many relationship to link many junction objects to several records.
Example: If a candidate applies for a job, then the job profile can be connected to many applicants, and the candidate can be linked to several other jobs as well. Here, the junction object will be the ‘job profile.’
Check out our blog to learn about map class in salesforce!
51. What is the difference between a role and a profile in Salesforce?
Role:
A role helps manage and regulate the Salesforce access that affects reports. Also, it allows controlling user visibility over data within an organization. Users who can access the data and perform operations on it are given a specific role. Candidates with a specific role can share the reports with other team members.
Profile:
A profile is an essential component of any organization. Moreover, it is compulsory for all users to verify their identity for legal authorization. It helps secure an organization’s data from illegal visitors. It is not permissible to operate Salesforce without having a profile. It also controls the types of records that a user can see.
Also, Check out this blog on Aggregate Query in Salesforce!
52. What is a wrapper class in Salesforce?
A wrapper class is a type of container class in Salesforce that contains a group of objects as its segments. Also, the wrapper class is of an abstract data type.
In Salesforce, we use a wrapper class to envelop collected data. A programmer defines the wrapper class that acts as custom objects, along with its properties.
Moreover, the instances of a wrapper class help represent distinct objects in the corresponding table on a Visualforce page.
53. What are the reasons that can cause data loss in Salesforce?
There are various reasons due to which Salesforce data can be lost, and they are as follows:
- Altering the date and time
- Converting parameters such as number and currency from other data types
- Importing data that, at times, goes wrong
- Moving the text, URL, or email from the text area
- Altering the auto-number and the checkbox
- Modifying the multi-select picklist to other types
54. Can you give an example of a Salesforce API and its usage?
Salesforce provides various APIs so that developers can easily integrate across Salesforce:
REST – With the help of REST API you can easily incorporate Salesforce applications using HTTP methods in either XML or JSON formats. It is the most suitable choice for developing mobile applications or external clients.
Bulk – The Bulk API provides us programmatic access especially for quickly loading and querying large amounts of data into your Salesforce organization.
Streaming – The Streaming API is used to trigger and receive notifications whenever changes are made into Salesforce data, according to the defined criteria.
55. Can you edit an apex trigger/ apex class in the production environment? Can you edit a Visualforce page in the production environment?
No, we cannot modify apex classes and triggers directly in the production environment. It should be done first in Developer edition or testing org or in Sandbox org. Then, a user with Author Apex permission can deploy it in production, which overwrites the last version.
Visualforce pages can easily be generated and modified in Sandbox and in production too if it does not consist of a Custom Controller.
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56. What are the different types of email templates that can be created in Salesforce?
Below is the list of email templates that can be created in Salesforce:
- Text: Text templates can be created or changed by all the users in the organization.
- HTML with Letterhead: Admins and users who have ‘Edit HTML Templates’ can create this type of template based on a letterhead.
- Custom HTML: It is an extension of the previous one. Admins and users having ‘Edit HTML Templates’ can create custom HTML templates even without the need for a letterhead.
- Visualforce: Admins and developers can create this template using Visualforce. It provides advanced functionalities like merging recipient’s data from multiple records.
57. How many ways we can share a record?
With the help of the following methods we can share records in Salesforce:
- Role Hierarchy:
Whenever a user is added to a role, the user above the current user in the role hierarchy will have access to records and inherit permissions. Setup → manages users → roles → setup roles → click on ‘add role’ → provide name and save.
- OWD:
Organization-Wide Default (OWD) lets you set up public read-only or public write-only for users across the organization. Setup → Security Controls → sharing settings → Click on ‘Edit’
- Manual Sharing:
The owner or person higher in the role hierarchy can give manual access to users or a group of users to records\files.
Hope you find our comprehensive blog on Salesforce Interview Questions useful. Do let us know in the comments section if you could make use of these Salesforce topics for your interview.
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