Basic Salesforce Developer Interview Questions

What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that enables businesses to manage their sales, customer service, marketing, and other business operations. It provides tools and services to improve customer relationships, increase productivity, and drive growth.

What are the different types of Salesforce editions?
Salesforce offers several editions tailored to different business needs:

• Salesforce Essentials: Designed for small businesses.
• Salesforce Professional: Suitable for medium-sized businesses with more advanced needs.
• Salesforce Enterprise: Provides extensive customization and integration capabilities.
• Salesforce Unlimited: Offers the highest level of customization and support.
• Salesforce Developer: Focused on development and testing.

Explain the Salesforce architecture.
Salesforce architecture consists of several layers:

• Presentation Layer: The user interface that users interact with, including pages, forms, and reports.
• Application Layer: Handles the business logic and processes. It includes Apex (Salesforce’s programming language) and Visualforce (a framework for creating custom pages).
• Database Layer: Stores all the data related to Salesforce objects and records. It is designed to be scalable and secure.

What is Apex?
Apex is a strongly-typed, object-oriented programming language developed by Salesforce. It allows developers to execute code on the Salesforce platform server-side. Apex is used for creating custom business logic, triggers, and controllers for Visualforce pages.

What are Visualforce pages?
Visualforce is a framework that allows developers to create custom user interfaces for Salesforce applications. Visualforce pages are built using a tag-based markup language, and they can be used to design custom layouts and integrate with Apex controllers to handle business logic.

Explain the concept of Salesforce objects.
Salesforce objects are database tables that store data related to a specific business process or function. There are two types of objects:

• Standard Objects: Predefined by Salesforce, such as Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, and Leads.
• Custom Objects: Created by users to store information specific to their business needs.

What are Salesforce triggers?
Triggers are pieces of Apex code that execute before or after specific events occur in Salesforce, such as inserting, updating, or deleting records. They are used to perform custom actions, enforce business rules, or automate processes.

How do you handle governor limits in Salesforce?
Governor limits are Salesforce's way of ensuring that resources are used efficiently and fairly across all tenants. Developers need to write code that adheres to these limits by optimizing SOQL queries, reducing DML statements, and using bulk processing techniques. For example, using batch Apex to process large datasets can help stay within the limits.

What is the difference between SOQL and SOSL?

• SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language): Used to query records from a single Salesforce object. It’s similar to SQL but designed for Salesforce's data model.
• SOSL (Salesforce Object Search Language): Used to search for text, email, or phone fields across multiple Salesforce objects. It’s more versatile for performing text-based searches.

Explain the concept of Salesforce workflows.
Workflows are automated processes that help manage tasks and business rules in Salesforce. They can be used to automate actions such as sending email alerts, updating fields, or creating tasks. Workflows are triggered by changes in Salesforce records and help streamline business processes.

What are validation rules in Salesforce?
Validation rules are used to ensure that data entered into Salesforce meets specific criteria before it is saved. They prevent incorrect or incomplete data from being stored by applying rules based on field values and other conditions.

Describe the different types of relationships in Salesforce.
Salesforce supports several types of relationships between objects:

• Lookup Relationship: A simple link between two objects where one object references another.
• Master-Detail Relationship: A stronger link where the detail record inherits the owner and sharing settings from the master record. The detail record also gets deleted if the master record is deleted.
• Many-to-Many Relationship: Achieved using a junction object to relate two objects in a many-to-many fashion.

What is the Salesforce AppExchange?
The AppExchange is Salesforce’s marketplace for third-party applications, components, and services. It offers a wide range of tools and integrations that can enhance Salesforce functionality, ranging from CRM applications to marketing tools and analytics solutions.

How do you deploy Salesforce changes from one environment to another?
Salesforce changes can be deployed using various methods:

• Change Sets: Allow you to deploy components between related Salesforce environments.
• Salesforce CLI: Provides command-line tools for deployment.
• ANT Migration Tool: A Java/Ant-based tool for deploying metadata.
• Unmanaged Packages: For distributing and deploying custom code and components.

What is the difference between a public and a private group in Salesforce?

• Public Groups: Can be accessed by all users in the organization and are often used for broad access to shared resources.
• Private Groups: Restricted to specific users or roles, providing controlled access to resources and information.

Explain the role of the Salesforce Developer Console.
The Salesforce Developer Console is a web-based tool that provides an integrated development environment for writing and testing Apex code, running SOQL queries, and analyzing debug logs. It’s a convenient tool for developers to test and troubleshoot their code.

What is the difference between an Aura Component and a Lightning Web Component (LWC)?

• Aura Components: An older framework used for building user interfaces in Salesforce. It uses a component-based architecture and supports more complex interactions.
• Lightning Web Components (LWC): A newer, modern framework that leverages web standards and provides better performance and ease of use compared to Aura Components.

What is Salesforce DX?
Salesforce DX (Developer Experience) is a set of tools and features designed to improve the development process on the Salesforce platform. It includes a new command-line interface (CLI), source-driven development, and enhanced collaboration capabilities.

How do you ensure security in Salesforce applications?
Security in Salesforce applications is ensured through various mechanisms:

• Profiles and Permission Sets: Define user access and permissions.
• Field-Level Security: Controls visibility and editability of specific fields.
• Sharing Rules: Manage record access and visibility based on user roles and criteria.
• Apex Security: Implement code-level security practices to prevent unauthorized access.

What is the Salesforce Lightning Experience?
The Salesforce Lightning Experience is a modern user interface that provides a more intuitive and productive user experience. It includes features like customizable dashboards, enhanced reports, and improved navigation, designed to help users work more efficiently.