Interview Questions

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is the world’s #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Salesforce provides cloud-based, CRM applications for sales, service, marketing, and more.

Salesforce has essentially changed how enterprise software is delivered and used. Its software is cloud-based and hence doesn’t need IT experts to set up anything. Salesforce has defined the ideal way as how to connect with customers. Building meaningful and lasting bond with the customers, identifying their needs, address problems faster and deploy apps that are customer focused is all possible through Salesforce.

Salesforce Technologies is one of the leading and very hot Technology in IT industry. Through Salesforce.com Technology thousands of Job opportunity are created for Salesforce developers and Salesforce Administration Job Seekers.

As per Forbes magazine, nearly 55% of enterprises predict cloud computing will enable new business model in three years. So Salesforce is one of the Cloud Computing Technology which have bright future in the upcoming years. Salesforce provides different enterprise cloud computing applications to all size industries and businesses.

Salesforce applications are provided on subscription basis primarily through direct sales effort and indirectly through partners.

What is Cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a kind of outsourcing of computer programs. Using cloud computing, users are able to access software and applications from wherever they are; the computer programs are being hosted by an outside party and reside in the cloud. This means that users do not have to worry about things such as storage and power, they can simply enjoy the end result.

Cloud computing is shared pools of configurable computer system resources and higher-level services that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management effort, often over the Internet. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale, similar to a public utility.

What is CRM?

CRM means “Customer Relationship Management “. We can understand from the full form where CRM is an application used to automate Sales and marketing functions by a using a Software called CRM Software. By using CRM Software every Company / Organization plans to increase their revenues and profits. This strategy of increasing revenue is done mainly by attracting Customers, clients, Sales etc.

Salesforce Admin Interview questions

More Salesforce admin interview questions

What are some CRM provider

  • Salesforce CRM.
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
  • Oracle CRM.
  • SAP CRM.
  • Sage CRM.
  • NetSuite CRM.
  • Oracle CRM on Demand.
  • SugarCRM.

What are different types of cloud computing?

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS)

What is PaaS?

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The branch of cloud computing that allows users to develop, run, and manage applications without having to get caught up in code, storage, infrastructure and so on.

There are several types of PaaS. Every PaaS option is either public, private, or a hybrid mix of the two. Public PaaS is hosted in the cloud, and its infrastructure is managed by the provider. Private PaaS, on the other hand, is housed in onsite servers or private networks and is maintained by the user. Hybrid PaaS uses elements from both public and private and is capable of executing applications from multiple cloud infrastructures.

What is SaaS?

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Using the cloud, software such as an internet browser or application is able to become a usable tool.

What is IaaS?

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

A third party hosts elements of infrastructure, such as hardware, software, servers, and storage, also providing backup, security, and maintenance.

What are different Salesforce Editions?

  • Essentials: Designed for small businesses that want to get started with a CRM system quickly. It includes intuitive walkthroughs and a setup assistant to get started, an easy-to-use UI, and administration tools to customize your deployment as you grow.
  • Professional: Designed for businesses requiring full-featured CRM functionality. It includes straightforward and easy-to-use customization, integration, and administration tools to facilitate any small to midsize deployment.
  • Enterprise: Meets the needs of large and complex businesses. It gives you advanced customization and administration tools, in addition to all the functionality available in Professional Edition, that can support large-scale deployments. Enterprise Edition also includes access to Salesforce APIs, so you can easily integrate with back-office systems.
  • Unlimited: Maximizes your success and extends it across the entire enterprise through the Lightning Platform. It gives you new levels of platform flexibility for managing and sharing all your information on demand. Includes all Enterprise Edition functionality, Premier Support, full mobile access, unlimited custom apps, increased storage limits, and other features.
  • Developer: Provides access to the Lightning Platform and APIs. It lets developers extend Salesforce, integrate with other applications, and develop new tools and applications. Developer Edition also provides access to many of the features available in Enterprise Edition.

What is difference between Salesforce.com and Force.com?

Salesforce.com and fore.com are relatively same but they are different in their functionality. Salesforce.com is used to develop CRM functionality based application where force.com is used to customize our data model, business logic and User interface.

What is Database.com?

Database.com is a type of service provided by Salesforce.com to enhance the power of Salesforce.com CRM applications. Database.com provides “Data as a Service” to subscribers.

What is App in Salesforce?

App means an Application. In Salesforce an Application consists a group of tabs which are designed to work as a single function. We have number of applications in Salesforce.com some of them are sales, marketing, chatter, site.com, work.com etc.

We can create new application and also customization for the existing apps in Salesforce.com. To create new app in sfdc go to Setup=>Build=>Create=>App.

Fields and Objects Salesforce Admin Interview questions

What is an object in Salesforce?

An Objects is represented as a database table which stores organization data . Objects consists of set of fields and we store data against that field. To view data Salesforce provided  TABS.ENROLL FOR FREE DEMO

To create custom fields go to Setup=>Build=>Create=>Object.

Different types of object in Salesforce.com? 

In Salesforce.com we have two types of objects. They are

  • Standard Objects :- Standard objects are called so because they are created and provided by Salesforce.com.
  • Custom Objects :- Custom objects are those which are created by an User in salesforce.com.

How many relationship types are in Salesforce?

  • Master-detail 
  • Many-to-many
  • Lookup
  • External lookup
  • Indirect lookup
  • Hierarchical

What is Master-detail  relationship?

Master-detail closely links objects together such that the master record controls certain behaviors of the detail and subdetail record. For example, you can define a two-object master-detail relationship, such as Account—Expense Report, that extends the relationship to subdetail records, such as Account—Expense Report—Expense Line Item. You can then perform operations across the master—detail—subdetail relationship.

What is Many-to-many relationship?

Many-to-many You can use master-detail relationships to model many-to-many relationships between any two objects. A many-to-many relationship allows each record of one object to be linked to multiple records from another object and vice versa. For example, you create a custom object called “Bug” that relates to the standard case object such that a bug could be related to multiple cases and a case could also be related to multiple bugs.

Lookup Links two objects together. Lookup relationships are similar to master-detail relationships, except they do not support sharing or roll-up summary fields. With a lookup relationship, you can:

  • Link two different objects.
  • Link an object with itself (with the exception of the user object; see Hierarchical). For example, you might want to link a custom object called “Bug” with itself to show how two different bugs are related to the same problem.

What is External lookup? 

External lookup An external lookup relationship links a child standard, custom, or external object to a parent external object. When you create an external lookup relationship field, the standard External ID field on the parent external object is matched against the values of the child’s external lookup relationship field. External object field values come from an external data source.

What is Indirect lookup?

Indirect lookup An indirect lookup relationship links a child external object to a parent standard or custom object. When you create an indirect lookup relationship field on an external object, you specify the parent object field and the child object field to match and associate records in the relationship. Specifically, you select a custom unique, external ID field on the parent object to match against the child’s indirect lookup relationship field, whose values come from an external data source.

What is Hierarchical relationship?

Hierarchical A special lookup relationship available for only the user object. It lets users use a lookup field to associate one user with another that does not directly or indirectly refer to itself. For example, you can create a custom hierarchical relationship field to store each user’s direct manager.

What is a roll-up summary field?

A roll-up summary field calculates values from related records, such as those in a related list. You can create a roll-up summary field to display a value in a master record based on the values of fields in a detail record. The detail record must be related to the master through a master-detail relationship. For example, you want to display the sum of invoice amounts for all related invoice custom object records in an account’s Invoices related list. You can display this total in a custom account field called Total Invoice Amount. 

For more details refer official link roll-up summary field

Security related Salesforce Admin Interview Questions

What are different Levels of data access in Salesforce?

Organization level security

For your whole org, you can maintain a list of authorized users, set password policies, and limit logins to certain hours and locations.

Object level security

Access to object-level data is the simplest thing to control. By setting permissions on a particular type of object, you can prevent a group of users from creating, viewing, editing, or deleting any records of that object. For example, you can use object permissions to ensure that interviewers can view positions and job applications but not edit or delete them.

Field level security

You can restrict access to certain fields, even if a user has access to the object. For example, you can make the salary field in a position object invisible to interviewers but visible to hiring managers and recruiters.

Record level security

You can allow particular users to view an object, but then restrict the individual object records they’re allowed to see. For example, an interviewer can see and edit her own reviews, but not the reviews of other interviewers. You can manage record-level access in these four ways.

  • Organization-wide defaults
  • Role hierarchies
  • Sharing rules
  • Manual sharing

What is Organization-wide defaults?

Organization Wide Defaults(OWD) in salesforce is the baseline level of access that the most restricted user should have. Organizational Wide Defaults are used to restrict access. You grant access through other means like(sharing rules, Role Hierarchy, Sales Teams and Account teams, manual sharing, Apex Sharing ). In simple words Organization Wide Defaults(OWD)specify the default level of access users have to each other’s records.

What is role hierarchy?

It give access for users higher in the hierarchy to all records owned by users below them in the hierarchy. Role hierarchies don’t have to match your organization chart exactly. Instead, each role in the hierarchy should represent a level of data access that a user or group of users needs.

What are the difference between a Role and Profile?

Roles are one of the ways you can control access to records. They also impact reports (e.g. “My Teams” filter). Roles come into play if your security model (OWDs) are set to private.

Profiles help determine record privileges. Assuming the User can see the record, Profiles determine what the User can do, view or edit on that record. Profiles control other system privileges as well (mass email, export data, etc)

In simple words, Roles are one of the ways you can control access to records and Profiles determine what the User can do, view or edit on that record.

What are Sharing Rules?

Sharing Rules are automatic exceptions to organization-wide defaults for particular groups of users, so they can get to records they don’t own or can’t normally see. Sharing rules, like role hierarchies, are only used to give additional users access to records. They can’t be stricter than your organization-wide default settings.

What is Manual sharing?

It allows owners of particular records to share them with other users. Although manual sharing isn’t automated like org-wide sharing settings, role hierarchies, or sharing rules, it can be useful in some situations, such as when a recruiter going on vacation needs to temporarily assign ownership of a job application to someone else.

What is Profile?

Each user has a single profile that controls which data and features that user has access to. A profile is a collection of settings and permissions. Profile settings determine which data the user can see, and permissions determine what the user can do with that data.

  • The settings in a user’s profile determine whether she can see a particular app, tab, field, or record type.
  • The permissions in a user’s profile determine whether she can create or edit records of a given type, run reports, and customize the app.

Profiles usually match up with a user’s job function (for example, system administrator, recruiter, or hiring manager), but you can have profiles for anything that makes sense for your Salesforce org. A profile can be assigned to many users, but a user can have only one profile at a time.

What are standard profiles?

  • Read Only
  • Standard User
  • Marketing User
  • Contract Manager
  • System Administrator

What is Permission Set?

A permission set is a collection of settings and permissions that give users access to various tools and functions. The settings and permissions in permission sets are also found in profiles, but permission sets extend users’ functional access without changing their profiles.

Permission sets make it easy to grant access to the various apps and custom objects in your org, and to take away access when it’s no longer needed.

Users can have only one profile, but they can have multiple permission sets.

What is “View all” and “Modify all” permission?

View all and Modify all permissions are usually given to system administrator. When you grant “View All” or “Modify All” for an object on a profile or permission set, you grant any associated users access to all records of that object regardless of the sharing and security settings.

In essence, the “View All” and “Modify All” permissions ignore the sharing model, role hierarchy, and sharing rules that the “Create,” “Read,” “Edit,” and “Delete” permissions respect. Furthermore, “Modify All” also gives a user the ability to mass transfer, mass update, and mass delete records of that specific object, and approve such records even if the user is not a designated approver.

These tasks are typically reserved for administrators, but because “View All” and “Modify All” let us selectively override the system, responsibilities that are usually reserved for the administrator can be delegated to other users in a highly controlled fashion.

Is it possible to restrict permission for users using permission set?

No, Permission Set always extends the permission. It does not restrict permission to users.

If a user does not have access to a specific record type, will they be able to see the records that have that record type?

Yes, Record type controls only visibility of record on UI but not its access to users. If user does not have access to record type then user will not be able to create records for that record type using UI. But user will we able to see records if they have appropriate permission to do so.

Report and Dashboard related Salesforce Admin Interview Questions

What are Salesforce Reports?

A Reports is a set of records displayed in the form of rows and columns.
Reports data can be filtered, grouped, and displayed graphically as a chart. Reports are stored in Folder – which controls who has access.

What are the different Report Formats?

Tabular Reports, Summary Reports, Matrix Reports, Joined Reports.

What is Tabular Report?

It is the simplest and fastest report formats. It displays the rows as records and fields are listed as columns just like a spreadsheet. It supports sorting of records.

What is Summary Report?

This report allows the user to group rows of data, summarize the field value which also supports sorting and display subtotals.

What is Matrix Report?

In this report, records are summarized in a grid format. It allows the records to be grouped by both columns and rows.

What is Joined Report?

In this type of report, User can create multiple report blocks that provide different different views of your data. In this format of report, we organize the data in the form of block. You can add upto 5 blocks in a single report. Each block is defined as a Sub-report(Report Type). It can have its own field, columns, sorting and filtering.

What is Conditional Highlighting in Salesforce report?

Conditional Highlighting is a powerful way to show values in report within given
limits. Using Conditional Highlighting, We can specify colours for different ranges of values in reports.

What is Bucket Field?

Bucketing lets you quickly categorize report records, without having to create a formula or a custom field.

Which field type does Bucketing field support?

It supports the field type of Picklist, Number, Text.

What are Dashboards?

Salesforce Dashboard is the visual representation of snapshots that are generated from Salesforce reports data. Using Salesforce Dashboard components, you can convert business requirements in Graphical representation using Sales force reports. Like reports, Dashboard are also stored in Folders.

What are the different Dashboard Component?

Scatter Chart, Line Chart, Funnel Chart, Vertical Bar Chart, Donut Chart, Horizontal Bar Chart, Pie Chart, Gauge, Metric, Table, Visual force Pages.

Other Salesforce admin interview questions

What is Workflow? 

Workflow rules are the automated process used in business process to send Email Alerts, Assign a Task, Update a field on rule criteria or action based criteria requirements.

What are the types of Workflow actions?

  • Task – Assign a Task
  • Email Alert: Send an Email.
  • Field update: Update a Field.
  • Outbound Message: Send an Outbound Message to External System.

What is Time-dependent Workflow?

The workflow that are scheduled to happen at a later time.

What is Approval Process?

Approval Process are used in the business process to Approve or Reject the record.
It involves Approval or Rejection of records, where one person creates the record and
submits that record for Approval.

What are Assignment Rules?

Assignment Rules automatically assign incoming Leads & Cases to specific agents so that the right people work on the right leads and cases.

What are Queues?

Queues allow the group of users to manage a shared workload more efficiently It prioritize your support team’s workload by creating lists from which specific agents can jump in to solve certain types of cases.

What are Auto-Response Rules?

Auto Response Rules Automatically send personalized email templates for new cases and new leads from your website.

What is Escalation Rules?

Escalation Rules ,  Automatically escalate cases to the right people when the cases aren’t solved by a certain time.

What is Chatter in Salesforce?

Chatter is a Salesforce real-time collaboration application that lets your users work together, talk to each other, and share information.

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