Salesforce Admin Interview Questions and Answers


 Hi there, if you are reading this blog then I believe you are planning for your next Salesforce Developer Interview or maybe you just want to enhance your knowledge based on the interview questions being asked in the dev interviews.

The questions below are based on my knowledge and understanding of the salesforce ecosystem, and feedback collected from a small group of salesforce devs/ admin.

Still before attempting any interview my suggestion would be to have proper knowledge and don't rely only on the interview questions. This is just to give you an idea about the questions/scenarios that you may face in your interview.

Here's a comprehensive list of 50 Salesforce Admin interview questions and answers, covering various aspects of Salesforce administration:

1. What is Salesforce?

Answer: Salesforce is a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that provides tools for sales, service, marketing, commerce, and more. It allows businesses to manage relationships with customers and prospects, streamline processes, and improve profitability.


2. What is an Object in Salesforce?

Answer: Objects in Salesforce are database tables that store data specific to an organization. They can be standard objects (like Accounts, Contacts) or custom objects created to meet specific business needs.


3. What are Profiles and Permission Sets in Salesforce?

Answer:

  • Profiles: Define a user's access to objects, fields, and tabs in Salesforce. They control what users can see and do within the platform.
  • Permission Sets: Grant additional permissions to users without changing their profiles, allowing more granular control over access.


4. Explain the difference between a Role and a Profile.

Answer:

  • Profile: Controls what a user can do within Salesforce (e.g., object permissions, field-level security).
  • Role: Determines what data a user can see, typically for sharing settings and report visibility.


5. What is a Record Type, and when would you use it?

Answer: Record Types allow you to offer different business processes, picklist values, and page layouts to different users based on their profile. They are useful when a single object needs to serve multiple purposes (e.g., different sales processes for different product lines).


6. What are Validation Rules in Salesforce?

Answer: Validation Rules ensure data integrity by checking that data entered meets certain criteria before it can be saved. They are defined with a formula and display an error message if the criteria are not met.


7. How can you restrict access to certain records in Salesforce?

Answer: Access to records can be restricted using:

  • Organization-Wide Defaults (OWD): Sets the baseline level of access to records.
  • Role Hierarchies: Allow higher roles to access records owned by lower roles.
  • Sharing Rules: Define additional access based on record ownership or criteria.
  • Manual Sharing: Allows individual record access sharing.


8. What are the different types of reports in Salesforce?

Answer:

  • Tabular Report: A simple list of records with no grouping.
  • Summary Report: Grouped data with subtotals.
  • Matrix Report: Data grouped by rows and columns.
  • Joined Report: Multiple report blocks showing related data.


9. What is a Dashboard in Salesforce?

Answer: A Dashboard is a visual representation of reports in Salesforce. It consists of components like charts, graphs, and tables that provide insights into data and help users make informed decisions.


10. What is the difference between Public Groups and Roles?

Answer:

  • Roles: Define a hierarchy that controls record access across the organization. Each user is assigned a role, which dictates their access to records.
  • Public Groups: Collections of users, roles, and other public groups. Public Groups are used to simplify the sharing of records and permissions.

Roles are primarily used for defining data access, while Public Groups are used for sharing rules, manual sharing, and as a way to group users for security and data sharing purposes.


11. What is a Lookup Relationship?

Answer: A Lookup Relationship links two objects in Salesforce, allowing you to relate one record to another without strict dependency. It is a loosely coupled relationship where the child record does not depend on the parent.


12. What is a Master-Detail Relationship?

Answer: A Master-Detail Relationship tightly links two objects where the child (detail) record inherits sharing and security settings from the parent (master). Deleting the master record also deletes the detail records.


13. How do you create a Many-to-Many relationship in Salesforce?

Answer: A Many-to-Many relationship is created using a junction object, which is a custom object that has two Master-Detail Relationships to the objects you want to relate.


14. What is Field-Level Security in Salesforce?

Answer: Field-Level Security controls which fields users can view or edit based on their profile or permission set. It is used to restrict access to sensitive information within an object.


15. What is a Page Layout?

Answer: Page Layouts control the layout and organization of fields, related lists, buttons, and other items on a record detail or edit page. Different page layouts can be assigned to different profiles to customize the user experience.


16. How can you automate field updates in Salesforce?

Answer: Field updates can be automated using:

  • Workflow Rules
  • Process Builder
  • Flows
  • Apex Triggers


17. What are Sharing Rules?

Answer: Sharing Rules are used to extend record access to users in specific roles, public groups, or territories. They provide additional record access beyond what is defined by Organization-Wide Defaults and Role Hierarchies.


18. Explain the purpose of Data Loader.

Answer: Data Loader is a client application used for bulk data import, export, update, delete, and upsert operations in Salesforce. It supports .CSV files and is useful for handling large volumes of data.


19. What is the difference between a Lookup Filter and Validation Rule?

Answer:

  • Lookup Filter: Limits the records that can be selected in a lookup field based on criteria.
  • Validation Rule: Ensures data entered meets specific criteria before being saved.


20. What is Chatter in Salesforce?

Answer: Chatter is a collaboration tool in Salesforce that allows users to share information, post updates, and collaborate within the organization. It includes features like groups, feeds, file sharing, and @mentions.


21. What are Permission Set Groups?

Answer: Permission Set Groups allow administrators to group multiple permission sets together and assign them to users collectively, making it easier to manage and apply complex permission configurations.


22. What is Lightning Experience?

Answer: Lightning Experience is the modern, improved user interface for Salesforce that offers a more dynamic and efficient way of working with data compared to the classic interface. It includes features like Lightning App Builder, Lightning Components, and a responsive design.


23. What is a Queue in Salesforce?

Answer: A Queue is a holding area in Salesforce where records (like Cases, Leads) are stored until they are assigned to a user. It helps manage workloads by allowing groups of users to collectively own and work on records.


24. How do you handle Duplicate Records in Salesforce?

Answer: Duplicate records can be managed using:

  • Duplicate Rules: To prevent duplicates at the time of data entry.
  • Matching Rules: To define criteria for identifying duplicates.
  • Duplicate Jobs: To clean up existing duplicate records.
  • Data Import Wizard and Data Loader: To merge or clean up duplicates.


25. What are Dynamic Dashboards?

Answer: Dynamic Dashboards allow users to view the dashboard data as themselves or as another user, making it possible to share insights without creating multiple dashboards. This feature is useful for managers who want to see data from the perspective of their team members.


26. What are the different ways to back up data in Salesforce?

Answer: Data can be backed up using:

  • Data Export Service: A built-in tool to export data weekly or monthly.
  • Data Loader: For manual exports.
  • Third-Party Backup Solutions: For automated and more frequent backups.
  • Reports: For exporting specific data sets as needed.


27. What is a Sandbox, and what types are available in Salesforce?

Answer: A Sandbox is a copy of your production environment used for development, testing, and training. Types include:

  • Developer Sandbox
  • Developer Pro Sandbox
  • Partial Copy Sandbox
  • Full Sandbox


28. What is Global Picklist Value Set?

Answer: A Global Picklist Value Set is a reusable list of picklist values that can be shared across multiple objects and fields in Salesforce. It ensures consistency and simplifies management of picklist values.


29. How do you create a Custom App in Salesforce?

Answer: To create a Custom App:

  1. Navigate to Setup.

  2. Go to App Manager and click "New Lightning App."

  3. Define the app settings (name, logo, colors).

  4. Choose the navigation style (Standard, Console).

  5. Add objects, tabs, and utilities.

  6. Assign the app to profiles and complete the setup.


30. What are List Views in Salesforce?

Answer: List Views allow users to see subsets of records based on criteria they define. They can be customized to display specific fields, filter records, and perform mass actions like editing or exporting.


31. What is the Recycle Bin, and how does it work in Salesforce?

Answer: The Recycle Bin in Salesforce temporarily stores deleted records. Users can restore or permanently delete records within a certain period (15 days by default). The Recycle Bin has limits based on the organization size.


32. How does Field History Tracking work in Salesforce?

Answer: Field History Tracking allows you to track changes to specified fields on an object. Salesforce stores historical data for up to 20 fields per object, including the old value, new value, and date of change. It helps in auditing and tracking changes over time.


33. What are Audit Trails in Salesforce?

Answer: Audit Trails track administrative changes in Salesforce, such as changes to profiles, roles, permissions, or other settings. They help administrators monitor changes and ensure compliance with governance policies.


34. How do you set up a Login IP Range for a profile?

Answer:

  1. Go to Setup and select "Profiles."

  2. Choose the profile you want to set the IP range for.

  3. Click "Login IP Ranges."

  4. Add the start and end IP addresses to restrict logins to specific IP addresses, enhancing security.


35. What is Field Dependency in Salesforce?

Answer: Field Dependency allows one picklist (controlling field) to determine the available values of another picklist (dependent field). It helps create dynamic and context-sensitive picklists.


36. What are Flows in Salesforce?

Answer: Flows are part of Salesforce's automation tools, allowing users to build complex business processes using a drag-and-drop interface. They can be used to create records, update fields, send emails, and more without writing code.


37. What is Einstein Activity Capture?

Answer: Einstein Activity Capture automatically syncs emails and calendar events between Salesforce and your email server. It helps in capturing interactions with contacts and leads, providing insights and productivity tools.


38. How do you import data into Salesforce?

Answer: Data can be imported using:

  • Data Import Wizard: For simple import needs.
  • Data Loader: For more complex or large-scale imports.
  • Third-Party Tools: Like Dataloader.io, Jitterbit for advanced data manipulation and imports.


39. What is Salesforce Shield?

Answer: Salesforce Shield offers advanced security features, including Event Monitoring, Field Audit Trail, and Platform Encryption, to help organizations meet compliance and security requirements.


40. What is the purpose of Escalation Rules?

Answer: Escalation Rules in Salesforce automatically escalate cases to higher levels if they are not resolved within a specified time frame. They ensure critical issues are addressed promptly and efficiently.


41. Explain the difference between Public Groups and Queues.

Answer:

  • Public Groups: Collections of users, roles, and other groups that can be used to share records and folder access.
  • Queues: Hold records (like cases, leads) until they are assigned to a user. Queues can be assigned to users, roles, or groups.


42. What are Lightning Components?

Answer: Lightning Components are reusable, self-contained units of code written using the Lightning framework. They are used to build dynamic user interfaces in Salesforce Lightning Experience and can be combined to create pages, apps, and more.


43. What is the AppExchange?

Answer: AppExchange is Salesforce's marketplace for third-party applications, components, and consulting services that extend Salesforce functionality. It offers free and paid solutions that can be installed into a Salesforce instance.


44. How do you enable Two-Factor Authentication in Salesforce?

Answer:

  1. Go to Setup.

  2. Search for "Two-Factor Authentication."

  3. Enable it for the entire org or specific profiles.

  4. Users will be prompted to register a mobile device or email for verification, adding an extra layer of security.


45. What is a Custom Report Type?

Answer: A Custom Report Type defines the relationships and fields available for use in reports. It allows administrators to customize which related objects and fields are accessible, beyond the standard report types provided by Salesforce.


46. What are Lightning Web Components (LWC)?

Answer: Lightning Web Components (LWC) are a modern JavaScript-based framework for building reusable components in Salesforce. They leverage web standards, offering performance benefits and a streamlined development process compared to traditional Lightning Components.


47. What are Email Templates, and how are they used?

Answer: Email Templates are predefined formats for emails in Salesforce. They can include merge fields, images, and attachments, making it easy to send consistent and personalized emails for notifications, marketing, or support.


48. What is Global Actions in Salesforce?

Answer: Global Actions are actions that are available on the Salesforce mobile app, in Lightning Experience, and on the web. They allow users to create records, log calls, send emails, and more from anywhere in the application.


49. How does Data Masking work in Salesforce?

Answer: Data Masking is used to protect sensitive data in Salesforce sandboxes by replacing it with anonymized or masked data. It helps ensure that sensitive data is not exposed in non-production environments.


50. What is Einstein Analytics (Tableau CRM)?

Answer: Einstein Analytics, now known as Tableau CRM, is an advanced analytics and business intelligence platform that allows users to explore data, create visualizations, and gain insights. It integrates seamlessly with Salesforce and provides AI-powered analytics for making data-driven decisions.


These questions and answers cover a broad range of Salesforce administration topics, making them a great resource for interview preparation!

Note: The purpose of sharing above questions & answers are to give you an idea about how it is going to be during interviews. Please don't rely on it and go with proper preparation.


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