The Salesforce Platform App Builder certification provides assurance to clients that they are working with someone who is experienced and qualified in this field. This certification is meant for individuals who can build and deploy custom Applications using clicks and not code. In other words, you should be proficient in business process automation without writing a line of code. 

This is your Salesforce Platform App Builder certification exam guide. 

If you are new to Salesforce, check out the Salesforce Beginners Guide. 

Platform App Builder Exam Details

The exam pattern is multiple-choice/multiple-select questions. 

  • Total Time Allotted: 105 Minutes
  • Total Number of Questions: 60
  • Price: USD 200 (Retake is USD 100)
  • Passing Percentage: 63%
Salesforce Platform App Builder
Salesforce Platform App Builder

Platform App Builder Exam Topics

First of all, make sure you check out the latest and greatest Salesforce Platform App Builder Guide on Salesforce Trailhead. 

At the time of writing this blog winter release is in effect, but for certification purposes, the content should not change much. It is worth noting that the exam questions do change often.

Below are topics covered in the exam. I’ve tried to include the official Trailhead links from Salesforce that you can browse through and go straight to the source. 

All of the above links have free flashcards and sample questions that you can take to assess your knowledge. There are a lot of video courses out there, however, if you are cash strapped and do not want to spend on unnecessary courses, practice the complete trailhead above and you are guaranteed to pass the real exam.

Exam Tips

To make sure you are exam ready, below are some tips: 

1. Practice mock exams till you score at least 90%. There are a lot of them out there and Salesforce changes the content every now and then. So, make sure you check that the practice exams are up to date. 

Salesforce Platform App Builder Practice Exams

2. Nothing beats practicing in your own sandbox. To understand the nuts and bolts of the exam contents, use process builder to automate business processes. This will help you memorize the steps and help you answer the exam questions.

3. You may see a couple of questions around changing field types and the data loss that may or may not could incur, so memorize and test these combinations.

4. Make sure you’ve got your fundamentals cleared. As you can see fundamentals is weighted at 23%. There is more emphasis on understanding when you have reached the boundaries of a declarative solution, and when a programmatic solution is required. 

5. As you would have noticed, business logic and process automation tools is the highest weighted section, so make sure you pay extra attention to this. Below are some important links from where you would see some questions in the actual exam:

6. Make sure you know about rollup summary fields, record types, report charts, custom reports, object/record access, relationships. You’d see a few questions around Master-Detail Relationships vs. Lookup Relationships. Below are some important links for Data Modeling and Management: 

7. Be sure to know most considerations for field update actions, especially whenever the update is triggered by a workflow or a process.

8. Expect few questions around how Lightning Components are used, and where they can be placed, as well as the difference between standard, custom, and AppExchange components.

Conclusion

Salesforce certifications are great for job seekers because they’re highly marketable and preferred by employers. Job markets for Salesforce roles are very particular about hiring certified professionals. This exam covers many foundational Salesforce Platform features and teaches you about Salesforce architecture, design, and scalability. If you have this certification, you definitely have a competitive edge to land your next job in Salesforce arena. 

Further Reading: Salesforce Admin Certification Guide