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Before jumping on to the answer of What is Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 1 (Commonly known as PD1), Let us first gather details of What Salesforce is? and Why it is booming in the last few years?
- Salesforce(SF) engages in the design and development of cloud-based enterprise software for customer relationship management (CRM).
- It provides support on various clouds like Sales, Service, Community(nowadays experience cloud), e-commerce, Healthcare, Finance, etc.
- It’s a SaaS (Software as a service) so you just need to build your application on their readily available platforms.
Regardless of the readily available and effective features provided by the Salesforce platform, many businesses need a tailored application as per their requirement. That is where Salesforce Developer comes into play. Salesforce has introduced Development specific certifications called PD1, PD2.
What is Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 1 (PD1)?
People who possess knowledge, skills, and experience building custom applications on the Lightning Platform are encouraged to take the Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I Certification.
The PD1 credential incorporates the fundamental programmatic capabilities of the Lightning Platform to develop custom business logic and interfaces to extend Salesforce using Apex and Visualforce. A candidate must pass the PD1 certification exam to get the credential.
When should an aspirant apply for PD1 certification?
Eligibility
PD1 is suitable for app builders, developers, technical architects, system administrators, IT managers, product managers, and those looking to make a career in Salesforce application development.
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites for taking the Salesforce Platform Developer 1 Certification. However, it is always better to undergo concepts of Salesforce Admin first.
Check out: Domains Covered in the Salesforce Admin Certification Exam
It would take no more than 30-40 hours to gain the knowledge of SF Admin fundamentals.
On top of it, a little bit of development experience/awareness will give you few extra miles.
PD1 is also a prerequisite to the Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II(PD2).
Why is Salesforce PD1 Significant?
To start with Salesforce certifications can help you build your resume and showcase an employer that you are serious about your Salesforce journey.
A Salesforce Developer in the U.S. can expect to make on average $112,000 annually-According to Indeed & ₹ 9,44,601 per year in India.
There has been a massive increase in jobs that require Salesforce skills, and the Salesforce ecosystem is predicted to 3.3 million new jobs and over $850 billion in revenues worldwide by 2022 – According to a recent study by the International Data Corporation (IDC).
I believe the above stats are enough to explain the significance of PD1.
Although clearing certification is not the only criteria to get a dream job in Salesforce, it is a preliminary requirement. To your surprise, “a few” organizations do not accept an application without certification.PD1 will indeed give an extra weightage to your CV/application amongst a vast number of aspirants.
What are the benefits of Salesforce Platform Developer Certification PD-1
- Global Recognition – All the companies worldwide are using Salesforce, which makes it quite popular and competitive at the same time. Due to the same reason, Salesforce Developers are in high demand. A Salesforce Platform Developer I individual is bound to have more career opportunities and hence, global recognition.
- Adequate Experience – A Salesforce Platform Developer, you are supposed to have one to two years of experience and have at least six months of Lightning experience. It means that the individual is highly skilled in designing custom applications and is ready to take the next certification, i.e., Salesforce Platform Developer II.
What should a Salesforce Platform Developer-1 know?
You should start your journey by creating a Salesforce Developer Account as this will enable you to get access to a free Salesforce Developer Instance.
PRO-TIP
This development environment can be a sandbox for all your practice needs on the below topics:
| Programmatic capabilities of Lighting Platform | Lightning Process Builder |
| Apex & Visualforce | Lightning framework |
| Apex triggers | Understanding Lightning components |
| Declarative vs programmatic methods | Development Lifecycle |
| Object-oriented programming languages | Salesforce Mobile capabilities |
| MVC Architecture | Data-driven applications & relational database |
Exam Details for Platform Developer I
- Number of questions: 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions
- Time allotted to complete the exam: 110 minutes
- Passing score: 65%
- Registration fee: USD 200, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
- Retake fee: USD 100, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
- Delivery options: Proctored exam delivered onsite at a testing center or in an online proctored environment. Click here(https://trailhead.salesforce.com/help?article=Scheduling-an-Exam) for information on scheduling an exam.
- References: No hard-copy or online materials may be referenced during the exam.
Note* All Salesforce certification can be applied from only one platform and that is https://www.webassessor.com/
Exam Outline: Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I
- Salesforce Fundamentals (10%)
- Data Modeling & Management (12%)
- Logic & Process Automation (46%)
- User Interface (10%)
- Testing (12%)
- Debug & Deployment tools (10%)
Time Taken To Prepare For The Salesforce PD-I Exam:
Salesforce Platform Developer I certification takes about 2-3 months for a thorough preparation using the official study guide and Trailhead. It requires long hours of study during the weekends for professionals.
Exam tips for Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 1
Working on the Salesforce Dev project is one aspect, and clearing the actual certification is altogether a different aspect.
Some tips to help you prepare better for the certification:
- It is a common myth that to clear this certification, programming experience is required. However, you don’t need to be an expert. Having knowledge of Object Oriented Programming language is good to have but not mandatory.
- Basic knowledge of APEX programming language either through self-study or through training is needed to pass this certification.
- Understand the concept of exception handling, SOQL, SOSL, Apex unit tests, etc.
- It is important to keep in mind that certification exam will have different scenario-based questions.
- There will never be single one-liner questions. In some cases, you will be provided with snippets of code during this exam, so be prepared to answer questions on this. And hence, certification needs separate preparation apart from hands-on work. Certification Practice exams can make a huge difference.
- Definitely, hands-on experience is also required to understand the question statement. And for that, the trailhead is the best source.
- Automation (workflow rule, process builder, approval process, flow). Pay special attention to understand flow in detail.
- Make sure you understand LWC and aura (events, propagation, bubble) as you’d see confusing exam questions from these topics.
- Make sure to know about Governor Limits, Order Of Execution, the Salesforce APIs, Trigger context variables, and developer/scratch orgs.
- If you don’t know the correct answer, bookmark the question for later and move on. Don’t spend more time thinking about it. If possible, try to eliminate two answers that seem wrong so the probability of getting a right answer on a guess goes up.
- Some questions you’d see from Access and security (org wide security, profiles, permission sets, sharing rule and manual sharing). Study all the features that are available in those settings. Additionally, make sure you understand who sees what, to understand the layers.
- Objects and Fields (master-detail, lookup relationships, junctions). Understand record types, page layouts, various types of fields, what happens when a field is created, converted, deleted.
Salesforce Platform Developer 1 Practice Exams
Over here at the ReviewNPrep, we offer an amazing course/exam guide that will help you to clear your Salesforce PD-1 Certification, which has all the scenario-based questions with a complete in-depth explanation of each answer option.
Our team of experts has explained each concept in detail and explained it with relevant screenshots and resources.
For more info, check out the Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 1(PD1) Practice tests. These practice tests also include recent changes made to the exam. Also, some sample questions for you to try out for free.
Each of the 3 practice tests provides an entire exam’s worth of questions, enabling you to confirm your mastery of the topics and providing you with the confidence you’ll need to take the exam.
The Mock exam in the set is timed, so you’ll know when you’re taking more time than the official test allows, and at the end of the test, you’ll receive a personal breakdown of the exam questions you answered correctly and incorrectly (DETAILED EXPLANATIONS) to improve your knowledge and make you more prepared to pass the actual exam.
This PD 1 Practice Exam Course covers EVERYTHING you need to pass the exam on your first try!
It is recommended to read the explanations provided after each practice test, not only for the correct choices but also for the incorrect ones. This will help improve your understanding of this feature-rich platform and increase your exam score dramatically.
By paying attention to these and repeating all the tests until you get 90% or more on each one, you should be able to ace the real Salesforce Platform Developer 1 exam with confidence.
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Salesforce practice exams available on our marketplace
End-Note
Salesforce Platform Developer I is directed at polishing the core concepts and skills of the individuals developing custom applications on the Salesforce platform. A certified developer is required to complete the Platform Developer I certification maintenance modules on Trailhead once per year to renew the certification. Maintaining certification is One of the benefits of holding a Salesforce credential is always being up to date on new product releases.
Don’t forget to check out Our Preparation Journeys that are contributed by certified Salesforce professionals aka community members to help each other – You can be a part of it as well!
Have questions? Participate in Salesforce discussions on our Forums. Click here.
Special shoutout to Dhurvak Chokshi for providing his valuable contribution to this blog and contributing his practice exams on marketplace.reviewnprep.com.
