Interviews can be compared to climbing a summit. At the bottom, it seems like a steep climb to the top. And the trail to the tip-top peak is a journey of putting your best foot forward and pushing yourself to places you never thought possible.
Harald is the Co-Founder of Hutte, bringing his vision of no-code DevOps to life. His passion enables teams and individuals to focus on what matters most – bringing value to the users they build for.
Samantha Spiro
Senior Content Manager & Editor-In-Chief
Samantha is Hutte's Content Manager and Chief Editor. She has over six years of experience as both a content writer and a copywriter. Bringing the written word to life is the name of her game.
Article Highlights
The article provides a comprehensive guide to prepare for Salesforce admin interviews, covering 40 commonly asked questions.
It explains key Salesforce concepts such as CRM, Force.com platform, Salesforce Lightning, and various report types.
The content delves into Salesforce objects, profiles, roles, and relationships, including master-detail and lookup relationships, essential for admin roles.
Just as there are seven summits that adventurers endeavor to conquer, there are seven phases that each interviewee must go through to successfully progress from the candidate stage to signing an offer. These phases include:
Before the interview.
Opening moves.
Answering interview questions.
Closing the interview.
Following up.
Negotiating salary and benefits.
Making a final decision.
And the niche Salesforce admin world is no exception. It’s anticipated that 3.3 million jobs will be filled in the Salesforce community by the end of 2022.
Millions of candidates will sit across a table (or across a computer screen) to be interviewed in hopes of landing their dream Salesforce job.
With stats like this, it’s no wonder people can feel anxious anticipating the interview questions they’ll be asked. This article will dive into 40 common Salesforce admin interview questions.
1. What is a CRM?
CRM stands for customer relationship management. It is a software tool companies use to help them manage customer interactions. A CRM replaces conditional highlighting, various spreadsheets, databases, and applications that many businesses use to manage their client data. This results in improved organizational skills, greater efficiency, better time management, and impressed clients.
2. Explain the Force.com platform?
Force.com is the whole system and codebase on which the entire Salesforce external application exists. Salesforce is also based on Force.com, which is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that allows us to improve on the plan, advancement, and organization of cloud-based applications and sites.
Engineers can work within a cloud-integrated development tools environment (Cloud IDE) and send the applications to the servers of Force.com.
3. What is Salesforce.com?
Salesforce.com is a cloud computing supplier with numerous cloud services, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud – the sky's the limit from there.
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Salesforce is a well-known CRM device for support, sales, and marketing teams worldwide. Salesforce admins allow organizations to use cloud innovation to relate to accomplices, clients, and expected clients more efficiently.
4. What is Salesforce Lightning?
Salesforce Lightning is a reimagined version of Salesforce intended to improve an organization’s deals. With an advantageous new plan, greater efficiency apparatuses, and AI usefulness, Lightning helps smooth out business processes.
You can compile customized, responsive applications without creating a line of efficient code, and you can drive your representatives' efficiency using the Lightning part-based system.
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Lightning is also helpful for upgrading Salesforce pages, speeding up application improvement and execution, and more.
5. What is a profile in Salesforce?
The profile in Salesforce is characterized by various types of custom settings and user permissions that define what an internal and external user can do in Salesforce. This allows you access to records in Salesforce. There are multiple standard profiles accessible in Salesforce.
6. What is a dashboard in Salesforce?
A Salesforce dashboard in Salesforce is a visual portrayal of a company’s Salesforce trend report. While on there, organizations can preview their key measurements and execution processes all in one place. A single dashboard is also able to display 20 reports (and report values) at once.
7. What is a report in Salesforce?
Reports will give your Salesforce admins a good picture of the organization. Your business can then use the reports to monitor the progress towards achieving its objectives, increment income, and control consumption.
Reports will also assist with anticipating patterns and creating benefits.
8. What is a matrix report in Salesforce?
Matrix reports are a level of access structured by gathering the record’s components. It is used when you need to see information by two distinct aspects that aren't connected, like by date and item.
9. What is a summary report in Salesforce?
A summary report details a posting of information with groupings and subtotals. It is used when subtotals are required because of the worth of a specific field dependency or when you need to make a progressively gathered report.
10. What is a tabular report in Salesforce?
Tabular reports are the simplest and fastest way to look at your data. Similar to a spreadsheet, they consist simply of an ordered set of fields in columns, with each matching record listed in a row.
They're often best used for tasks like generating a mailing form or list.
11. What is a joined report in Salesforce?
A joined report consists of up to five report blocks, which you add to the report to create multiple views of your data. You can add regular and summary fields for each block, create standard and cross-block custom summary formulas (a block field or formula field), apply filters, and sort columns.
12. What is an object in Salesforce, and what types of objects are there?
In Salesforce, objects are data set tables or database tables used to store an organization's information. There is object-level access, and they include:
Standard objects: They include contacts, accounts, cases, leads, items, contracts, reports, and dashboards.
Custom objects: They are objects created by engineers in light of the business process. They store the important and one-of-a-kind data of an organization. It gives a design for information sharing. The custom object also incorporates page layouts, custom fields, connections to different objects, and a custom UI tab.
13. What is a junction object in Salesforce?
Junction objects build many-to-many connections between objects in Salesforce. Think about the example of seeking out an application. There can be a situation where a task is connected to many competitors, or an up-and-comer can go after numerous different positions.
With a junction object, an outsider object, ‘employment form,’ is used as a junction object to display the data model.
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Junction objects are typically formed using two master-detail types of relationships. By using a lookup relationship (or relationship types), they can be formed.
14. How is Data Loader related to Salesforce.com?
There are many ways to bring in and send out information in bulk from Salesforce. However, Salesforce Data Loader is the first way to do this. You can use Data Loader to embed, update, erase, or trade Salesforce records.
15. What is a role in Salesforce?
The role determines the information that will be visible to a specific client and object. By creating roles, you can set the sharing rules to determine which access to records users can and can’t see.
For example, roles can be set to “organization-wide default (OWD)” or “public read and write” for an object.
Additionally, roles have elements like an association chart to give users the necessary records, such as user visibility. In comparison, administrators can still pull the records from the overall group.
16. Can two users have a similar profile in the Salesforce platform?
Individuals who work under one division might be allowed similar custom profiles. If you consider a sales profile as an example, many individuals work under it and are given a similar profile. This means that a few groups can have a similar profile.
17. What is a queue?
Queues act as public groups or customized groupings of users, which are named exclusively through roles. But they are used for record ownership rather than for sharing rules.
The exception to the rule comes in when you create cases where you'd need to assign an open case to a group of individuals. This is so that whoever is accessible first can deal with the object.
It’s important to remember that queues are not accessible on every standard object.
18. What is the sharing rule in Salesforce?
Sharing rules are applied when a user wants to allow different users, like public groups, roles, or territories, access to an object. Sharing rules are custom settings that create the necessary programmed organization-wide exemptions per user.
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You can characterize the total sharing rules up to 300 for a specific object, including criteria-based or guest user sharing rules up to 50 (if it’s available for a specific object).
19. What are permission sets in Salesforce?
If you want to grant certain users permission to specific tools and functions, you will use a permission set.
You can use permission sets for various sorts of users to expand their access level without changing their profiles. You can make a permission set rather than making a different profile each time.
20. What is the approval process in Salesforce?
The approval process in Salesforce is an automated process cycle that computerizes how Salesforce records are supported in your organization. The approval process in Salesforce is a blend of steps for a record to be supported or dismissed by a user, queue, or public group.
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Additionally, an approval process indicates the actions to take when a record is approved, dismissed, reviewed, or first submitted for endorsement.
21. What is an audit trail in Salesforce?
An audit trail enables you to track changes made to your organization closely. It records all modifications concerning the administration, customization, security, sharing, data management, development, and more of your Salesforce organization.
You’ll be able to get detailed information and insights about the changes made, the date and time, and the username of the people who rolled out the improvements.
22. What are email alerts in Salesforce?
Workflow types of email templates and alerts are simple text messages created by an AI interaction that are sent to assigned beneficiaries. You can set up email alarms for processes, Flows, workflow rules, a workflow queue, or approval processes.
23. What is Salesforce chatter?
The chatter feature in Salesforce allows you to collaborate with people in your organization. You can connect with your coworkers and share data safely in real-time.
You can create public and private groups – like Facebook Groups – and invite your coworkers to join those groups. You can also share your comments, add images, and ‘like’ other comments and posts.
24. What are record types in Salesforce?
Salesforce record types allow us to link different business processes and show different picklist values and page layouts to various users based on their user profiles.
With record types, you will want to apply various page layouts per object and according to user profiles.
25. What is a master-detail relationship?
A master-detail relationship is a connection between a ‘parent’ and ‘kid’ record, where the master record informs the parent record, and the record detail informs the kid record.
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This is helpful when we need to control the presentation of detailed records because of the value of the master record.
The master object ultimately takes control over the way the detailed object behaves. The lifespan of the ‘kid’ is interconnected to the 'parent.’ This means that if the parent gets erased, the kid also gets erased.
Regarding detail records or child records, you can make roll-up summary fields in master records that will work out their sum, average, and minimum.
For example, we can look at a messenger organization model, where a delivery schedule is generally connected to a particular area. If someone erases a specific area from the rundown, all the connected delivery timetables will be removed. This is possible exclusively through a master-detail relationship.
26. What is a lookup relationship in Salesforce?
These types of relationships are valuable for making a connection between two objects without relying on the parent object. This is again a type of parent-child relationship where there is just one parent, yet numerous children exist.
In this relationship, erasing a master record won't naturally erase the child object's lookup field type or field dependency. So, the child's records in the child object won't be impacted or erased. This also means that the child fields won't get their parent-dependent field's owner, sharing, or security policies and settings.
With a lookup relationship, you are allowed to connect two distinct objects and an object with itself (aside from the internal user object).
27. What is Apex in Salesforce?
Apex is an object-focused programming language that allows developers to conduct Flow and transaction control statements on Lightning in connection with calls to the Lightning application programming interface.
Apex lets engineers add business logic to numerous framework elements, including Visualforce pages, button clicks, and related record refreshes. This code can be started by demands made from web administrations and types of triggers made on objects.
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All Apex code run entirely on request on the Lightning platform. All code is composed and saved to the necessary stage. Through the UI, end-users trigger the execution of Apex code.
28. Name the ways we can share a record?
Role hierarchy:
Whenever an internal user is added to a role, the existing user will check the types of records and acquire the authorizations for the new user.
To set this up, you must go to: “Setup,” “Find roles,” and “Set up roles.” You’ll then click “Add role,” type in the name, and click “Save.”
OWD:
You can give organization-wide authorizations and characterize the organization's benchmark settings.
It is also helpful in characterizing a user's openness level when it comes to viewing other users' records.
Manual sharing:
Manual sharing allows you to share common questions in a record or document with a group of users.
Criteria-based sharing rules:
You can share records with users that meet certain conditions or criteria. For example, you can share records with a group of users solely from the United States.
To set this up, go to: “Setup,” “Security controls,” and “Sharing settings.” You’ll then select the object, create a name, and add your conditions or criteria. You’ll then click on “Save.”
Apex sharing:
Apex sharing enables record-level access control for all custom objects and many standard fields and objects (such as an account, contact, opportunity, and case).
You can share your records by making a record to the common object.
29. What are the advantages of using record types?
It improves the relevant experience of client communication.
You will have better organization as there are fewer fields to keep up with.
30. What are workflow rules in Salesforce?
A workflow (sometimes a time-dependent workflow) allows you to automate standard internal methods and processes to save time across your organization. A workflow rule is ultimately a core compartment for many workflow instructions. These instructions can be summarized into an “if/then” statement.
An example would be: If you have any COVID-19 symptoms, then you must stay at home. The criteria of your workflow is the ‘if’ part of your instruction. The action component of your workflow is the ‘then’ part.
31. What are page layouts in Salesforce?
Page layouts control the format and association of buttons, field updates, Visualforce, custom links, s-controls, and related records on object record pages.
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They help finalize UI pages by determining which fields, related records, and custom links are required, read-only, and apparent to the user.
We can make many page layouts and apply them to various user groups. You can also use the one-page format for a single group of users per object, per record type.
32. What is a sandbox in Salesforce?
A sandbox is a duplicate of the production organization. It is used mainly for testing purposes. It's extremely valuable since sandboxes are disconnected from your Salesforce production organization, allowing you to try groundbreaking thoughts on the copy database connection without interfering with the first production organization.
You can use a sandbox at whatever point you need to test things like a recently formed Visualforce page. You can work on the application without trouble and then migrate the metadata and information to the production organization.
33. What is the developer sandbox in Salesforce?
It is a duplicate of the production organization, as it copies all of the data from an application. It then designs it to the sandbox. It is primarily used for the development and testing of tasks.
This sort of sandbox has restrictions of up to 200MB of test information. You can also refresh a developer sandbox one time per day.
34. What is the developer pro sandbox in Salesforce?
It copies every one of your organization's reports, dynamic dashboard components, mobile applications, and customizations under Salesforce’s setup. However, it rejects all your custom text values standard object records and custom object records, and object reports.
This kind of sandbox has a restriction of up to 1GB of test information. You can also refresh Developer Pro sandboxes one time each day.
35. What is a partial data sandbox in Salesforce?
A partial information sandbox is a developer sandbox in addition to the information you characterize in a sandbox format. It is used exclusively as a testing environment. It incorporates the reports, static dashboards, applications, and customizations under Salesforce’s setup.
These sandboxes can hold your organization's custom and standard object records and report up to 5GB of information alongside a limit of 10K records for every picked object. You can refresh this type of sandbox every five days.
36. What is a full sandbox in Salesforce?
A full sandbox replicates your creations, including custom and standard object records and reports. It is used exclusively as a testing environment. You can refresh full sandboxes every 29 days.
37. What are validation rules in Salesforce?
Validation rules in Salesforce make up a recipe that assesses the information in at least one field in a record to satisfy the guidelines you determine before the single user can save the record. It then returns "valid" or "bogus" field values in light of the assessment of the information.
Validation rules are responsible for showing a blunder message to the user when the condition is "valid" because of an invalid value.
Validation rules are also valuable for upholding trustworthiness requirements against the information. If one rule falls flat, Salesforce continues to check another validation rule held inside the field or record to show a suitable blunder message at that specific field or over the overall record.
38. What is automation in Salesforce?
The default level of Salesforce gives you different automation tools to automate your organization's business processes. They are:
Workflow.
Process Builder.
Flow Builder.
Approvals.
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Each instrument comes with its one-of-a-kind elements. Determining which tool is best for you, as the user in Salesforce, will depend on what business processes you want to automate.
Field-level security (FLS) in Salesforce lets you confine clients' level of secure access to see and alter data fields. It uses the ‘CRUD’ (create, read, update, and delete) activity.
40. What is a related list in Salesforce?
Related records show the ongoing record being seen. An administrator can make a custom object called "Deals Order" that looks like the standard account object. With a click of a button, they can show the list of deal orders on the record page. The end client can get to this connected data in a single spot.
A question I like to ask in an interview is: "Can you describe a complex Salesforce problem you encountered in a previous role and how you resolved it?" This question is particularly effective for several reasons.
It requires the candidate to demonstrate their ability to tackle real-world challenges. The candidate's response will show their familiarity with Salesforce features and functionalities. It also provides a window into the candidate's hands-on experience.
Samantha Spiro
Senior Content Manager & Editor-In-Chief
Now that you're prepped for your interview, what's next?
A job interview and application can be tricky, especially if you're trying to demonstrate your knowledge of technology for a niche job role. That’s why interview preparation is in demand in the industry.
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If you want to showcase that you're an industry expert and have mastered something, you'd typically need to explain it in great depth. And that isn't usually what interviewers are interested in.
Your objective is to provide a concise yet comprehensive response that shows off your understanding without going on for too long. You want to let the interviewer move on while still letting them know that you can expand on your answers (to demonstrate your knowledge) if that's what they prefer.
We reviewed these commonly asked questions to help you ace that next interview. Until then, don’t stop trailing your way up the summit of Salesforce!
Sourabh is a Salesforce Developer at Workday. He has a deep knowledge of the Salesforce.com platform (Sales Cloud and Service Cloud), including experience in delivering complex SFDC solutions.
