Salesforce Interview Questions and Answers

Here are some frequently asked Salesforce interview questions.

1. What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. It's a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that helps businesses manage customer interactions, integrate with other systems, and build custom applications. It's designed to be more accessible and cost-effective than traditional on-premise CRM systems.

2. What is a Salesforce App?

A Salesforce app is a container for related tabs, processes, and functionalities. Users can switch between apps. Salesforce provides standard apps (like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud) and allows you to create custom apps.

Creating a Custom App:

  1. Navigate to Setup -> App Setup -> Create -> Apps -> New.
  2. Select Custom Application, provide an app name.
  3. Click Next, and customize the app's settings (image, objects, etc.).
  4. Click Save.

3. What are Objects in Salesforce?

Objects are like database tables in Salesforce. They store data. There are standard objects (pre-built) and custom objects (user-defined).

Standard Objects: Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, etc.

Custom Objects: Created to store information specific to your organization.

4. What are User Profiles in Salesforce?

User profiles define a set of permissions and settings for Salesforce users. They control what users can see and do within the system. Admins assign profiles to users based on their roles.

5. Assigning Profiles to Users.

You can assign the same profile to multiple users. Each user can only have one profile, but additional permissions can be granted through permission sets.

6. Force.com vs. Salesforce.com.

Salesforce.com is a SaaS (Software as a Service) offering. Force.com is a PaaS (Platform as a Service) allowing developers to build custom applications on the Salesforce platform.

7. Relationships in Salesforce.

Relationships connect Salesforce objects. Types include:

  • Master-Detail: Tightly coupled; deleting the master record also deletes the detail records.
  • Lookup: Loosely coupled; deleting the master record leaves the detail records intact.
  • Self-Relationship: An object relates to itself (e.g., a manager-employee relationship within a single object).
  • External Lookup: Connects to data outside of Salesforce.
  • Many-to-Many: Uses a junction object to link records from two objects.
  • Hierarchical: Creates a tree-like structure.

8. Master-Detail Relationship.

In a master-detail relationship, the detail records depend on the master record. Deleting the master record also deletes the detail records. Roll-up summary fields can be created on the master object to aggregate data from detail records.

9. Lookup Relationship.

In a lookup relationship, the detail records are independent of the master record. Deleting the master record leaves the detail records unaffected.

10. Reports in Salesforce.

Salesforce allows you to create various reports to track data, analyze trends, and make informed business decisions. Types include tabular, summary, matrix, and joined reports.

11. Governor Limits in Salesforce.

Governor limits are restrictions on resources (like the number of SOQL queries or DML operations) within a transaction or execution context. They prevent a single app from monopolizing system resources in a multi-tenant environment.

12. Storing Different Record Types in Salesforce.

Salesforce offers several ways to store files and other data, including Attachments, Files, ContentVersions, and integration with external storage like Google Drive.

13. Fiscal Year in Salesforce.

The fiscal year defines a company's financial year. Salesforce supports standard (Gregorian) and custom fiscal years. Admins configure the start and end months.

14. Maximum Master-Detail Fields per Object.

Two.

15. Maximum Lookup Fields per Object.

Forty.

16. Benefits of Salesforce.

Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that offers a variety of benefits to organizations across industries. Here are some key advantages of using Salesforce:

1. Centralized Customer Data

Salesforce helps organizations store and manage all customer data in one place, providing a 360-degree view of customers. This centralized database allows businesses to better understand customer needs, preferences, and interactions across various touchpoints.

2. Improved Sales Performance

Salesforce provides tools for sales teams to track leads, opportunities, and sales activities in real time. This helps sales representatives prioritize tasks, close deals faster, and improve overall sales performance.

3. Enhanced Collaboration

Salesforce facilitates collaboration among team members, departments, and external partners. Its cloud-based nature allows users to access shared data, update records, and communicate seamlessly from anywhere at any time.

4. Scalability and Customization

Salesforce is highly scalable and can grow with your business. You can customize the platform to fit specific business needs, whether through pre-built solutions or developing custom applications using Salesforce’s extensive API and AppExchange marketplace.

5. Automation of Business Processes

Salesforce offers tools like Process Builder, Workflow Rules, and Flows, which help automate routine tasks and business processes. Automation leads to increased efficiency, reduced human errors, and greater consistency in operations.

6. Data-Driven Insights and Analytics

With Salesforce, you can use its reporting and analytics tools to gain actionable insights into your business performance. Customizable dashboards and reports allow you to track key performance indicators (KPIs), identify trends, and make data-driven decisions.

7. Integration with Other Tools

Salesforce can integrate with a wide range of third-party applications, enabling seamless data flow across platforms. Whether it’s marketing automation tools, accounting software, or communication platforms, Salesforce can connect to your existing tech stack.

8. Enhanced Customer Service

Salesforce’s Service Cloud enables businesses to offer exceptional customer support. With tools like case management, live chat, and knowledge bases, companies can deliver faster and more personalized service, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

9. Cloud Accessibility

Being a cloud-based platform, Salesforce allows users to access their data and applications from anywhere, at any time, as long as they have an internet connection. This ensures flexibility and mobility for your workforce, leading to higher productivity.

10. Security and Compliance

Salesforce provides robust security features, including data encryption, secure login protocols, and user access controls. It also complies with various industry regulations, helping businesses protect sensitive information and maintain compliance.

17. Salesforce Sandboxes.

A sandbox is a copy of your Salesforce production environment used for testing and development. Changes made in a sandbox don't affect your production data.

Types of Sandboxes:

  • Developer Sandbox: Small, for quick testing and development.
  • Developer Pro Sandbox: Larger than a Developer sandbox, still for development and testing.
  • Partial Copy Sandbox: A copy of your production data, but only includes data from a specific period.
  • Full Sandbox: A complete copy of your production organization's data and settings.

18. What is Apex in Salesforce?

Apex is Salesforce's proprietary programming language. It's used to add custom business logic to Salesforce applications. It's object-oriented and resembles Java syntax.

19. What is Visualforce?

Visualforce is a framework for building custom user interfaces (UIs) within Salesforce. It uses a markup language that allows you to create custom pages and components.

20. Editing Apex and Visualforce in Production.

You should generally avoid directly editing Apex code (triggers and classes) in production. Make changes in a sandbox, then deploy to production. Visualforce pages can typically be edited directly in production, but caution is advised.

21. Why are Visualforce Pages Served from a Different Domain?

Serving Visualforce pages from a separate domain enhances security by mitigating potential cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities.

22. Static vs. Dynamic Dashboards.

Static dashboards display the same information for all users. Dynamic dashboards customize the displayed data based on the user viewing the dashboard (e.g., showing a user their own sales figures).

23. Automatically Indexed Fields in Salesforce.

Salesforce automatically indexes certain fields to improve query performance. These typically include primary keys (ID, Name, Owner), foreign keys (lookup and master-detail fields), and system audit fields.

24. What are Skinny Tables?

Skinny tables in Salesforce are read-only, optimized tables containing frequently accessed fields. They improve performance for read operations. Salesforce manages skinny tables automatically.

25. What is an Audit Trail in Salesforce?

The audit trail records changes made to your Salesforce organization's configuration. It provides a history of modifications, useful for tracking and security.

26. Deleting Users in Salesforce.

You generally can't directly delete users in Salesforce; instead, you deactivate them. This preserves data associated with the user.

27. Changing Licenses After Profile Creation.

Typically, you can't change a user's license after the profile has been assigned. You would usually need to create a new profile with the correct license assigned.

28. What is Deployment in Salesforce?

Deployment is the process of moving customizations (code, metadata) from a development environment (sandbox) to a production environment (your live Salesforce org).

29. Methods for Deployment in Salesforce.

  • Change sets
  • Force.com IDE (Eclipse-based)
  • Ant Migration Tool
  • Salesforce Packages

30. Standard vs. Custom Controllers in Visualforce.

Standard controllers provide pre-built functionality for standard Salesforce objects. Custom controllers allow for more flexibility and control over the UI logic.

31. What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing involves delivering computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet ("the cloud").

32. Types of Cloud Services.

Cloud services are typically categorized as Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

33. Salesforce Certifications.

(A list of Salesforce certifications would be included here.)

34. Salesforce Environments (Orgs).

A Salesforce org is a unique instance of the Salesforce platform, providing a workspace for users, development, testing, and production.

35. Checking User Licenses in Salesforce.

Navigate to Setup -> Monitor -> System Overview -> Data Storage to view user licenses.

36. MVC Architecture in Visualforce.

Visualforce utilizes the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern for building user interfaces, separating data (Model), presentation (View), and logic (Controller).

37. When to Use Apex.

Apex is valuable for tasks beyond standard Salesforce functionality:

  • Creating custom email services
  • Building web services
  • Complex validation
  • Custom business processes
  • Transaction control

38. How Does Apex Work?

Apex code runs on the Salesforce servers. The code is compiled into bytecode, stored, and then executed by the Salesforce platform's runtime environment when triggered by events (like button clicks or record updates).

39. Types of SOQL Statements in Salesforce.

SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) is used to query data from Salesforce. It's similar to SQL and is used in Apex code, Visualforce pages, and other parts of the platform.

40. Reasons for Data Loss in Salesforce.

Data loss can occur due to data type changes that aren't properly handled (like changing from a multi-select picklist to another data type), or when changing the date and date-time fields.

41. What is a Workflow in Salesforce?

A workflow is an automated process that performs actions based on defined rules and criteria. This can include sending emails, updating records, and other actions triggered by record changes.

42. WhoId vs. WhatId.

WhoId typically refers to people (contacts, leads), while WhatId refers to accounts or other related objects.

43. Data Skew in Salesforce.

Data skew occurs when a single parent record has an unusually high number of child records (over 10,000). This can affect performance. Types of skew include account, ownership, and lookup skew.

44. Collections in Apex.

Apex collections (lists, maps, sets) are used to store multiple values. They are efficient for handling large amounts of data.

45. Static Resources in Salesforce.

Static resources allow you to upload files (images, JavaScript, CSS, etc.) that can be accessed by Visualforce pages and other components.

46. Action Support vs. Action Function in Visualforce.

Both call controller methods via AJAX. Action support allows for AJAX calls between Visualforce components. Action functions call controller methods from JavaScript but don't directly support cross-component AJAX.

47. Types of Email Templates in Salesforce.

  • HTML with Letterhead: Uses a predefined letterhead.
  • Custom HTML: Allows creating HTML email templates without a letterhead.
  • Visualforce: Provides advanced features and dynamic content using Visualforce markup.

48. Handling Commas in Data Loader Uploads.

Enclose field values containing commas within double quotes (e.g., "value, with, commas").

49. Maximum Number of Callouts per Transaction.

100.

50. Pagination in Salesforce and Visualforce.

Pagination displays large datasets across multiple pages. In Visualforce, you can customize page sizes using controller extensions.

Example (Illustrative)

<apex:commandButton value="Next" action="{!next}" />