Top Salesforce Developer Interview Questions & Answers for 2024

Salesforce Developer Interview Questions to help you find your next dream Salesforce Developer job.

Table of Contents

Q1. What is a Salesforce Developer?

A Salesforce Developer utilises his/her declarative and programatic skills to configure and customize Salesforce Application.

Key Roles and Responsibilities of a Salesforce Developer:

Design, code, test, debug and document software according to the functional requirements or user stories and coding standards
Experience in translating functional requirements and business rules into technology solutions
Knowledge of Software Development Life Cycle methodologies such as agile & waterfall

Key Skills required for a Salesforce Developer:

Apex Classes, Apex Triggers
JavaScript
Lightning Web Components
Lightning Aura Components
Web Services (SOAP and REST)
SOSL and SQL
VSCode & Git Hub

Q2. What is Apex?

Apex is a strongly typed, multitenant, object-oriented, on-demand programming language that allows developers to execute flow and transaction control statements on the Salesforce platform. All Apex runs entirely on-demand on the Lightning Platform. Apex syntax is similar to Java.

Apex enables developers to add business logic to most system events, including button clicks, related record updates, and Visualforce pages. Apex code can be initiated by Web service requests and from triggers on objects.

Apex provides built-in support for common Lightning Platform idioms, including:

Data manipulation language (DML) calls, such as INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE, that include built-in DmlException handling
Inline Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) and Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) queries that return lists of sObject records
Looping that allows for bulk processing of multiple records at a time
Locking syntax that prevents record update conflicts
Custom public API calls that can be built from stored Apex methods
Warnings and errors issued when a user tries to edit or delete a custom object or field that is referenced by Apex

You can use Apex if you want to:

Create Web services
Create email services
Perform complex validation over multiple objects
Create complex business processes that are not supported by workflow
Create custom transactional logic (logic that occurs over the entire transaction, not just with a single record or object)
Attach custom logic to another operation, such as saving a record, so that it occurs whenever the operation is executed, regardless of whether it originates in the user interface, a Visualforce page, or from SOAP API

Q3. Explain Apex Data Types.

Apex supports the following data types.

Primitive
- Integer
- Double
- Long
- Date
- Datetime
- String
- ID
- Boolean
sObject
Collection
- A list (or array) of primitives, sObjects, user defined objects, objects created from Apex classes, or collections
- A set of primitives
- A map from a primitive to a primitive, sObject, or collection
- A typed list of values, also known as an enum
User-defined Apex classes
System-supplied Apex classes

Q4. Explain Apex Collections.

Apex has the following types of collections:

List (array)
Map
Set

Salesforce Developer Interview Questions - Apex Collections — Apex Collections

List – A list s a collection of elements, such as Integers, Strings, objects, or other collections. Use a list when the sequence of elements is important. You can have duplicate elements in a list. The first index position in a list is always 0.

// Syntax to create a List

List<String> myHobbies = new List<String>();

List<String> myCars = new List<String>{'Audi', 'BMW', 'Honda'};

Map – A map is a collection of key-value pairs. Keys can be any primitive data type. Values can include primitive data types, as well as objects and other collections. Use a map when finding something by key matters. You can have duplicate values in a map, but each key must be unique.

// Syntax to create a map

Map<Integer, String> myHobbies = new Map<Integer, String>();
 
Map<Integer, String> myCars = new Map<Integer, String>{1 => 'Audi', 2 => 'BMW', 3 => 'Honda'};

Set – A set is a collection of unique, unordered elements. It can contain primitive data types, such as String, Integer, Date, and so on. It can also contain more complex data types, such as sObjects.

// Syntax to create a Set

Set<String> myHobbies = new Set<String>();
 
Set<String> myCars = new Set<String>{'Audi', 'BMW', 'Honda'};

Q5. Explain Loops.

Loops tell application to do the same thing again and again based on a condition. Apex supports the following types of loops:

Do-while – A Do-while loop checks the condition after the code has executed
While – A while loop checks the condition at the start, before the code executes.
For – A for loop enables you to more finely control the condition used with the loop. In addition, Apex supports traditional For loops where you set the conditions, as well as For loops that use lists and SOQL queries as part of the condition

Salesforce Developer Interview Questions

Q6. What is Visualforce?

Visualforce consists of a tag-based markup language that gives developers a more powerful way of building applications and customizing the Salesforce user interface. With Visualforce you can:

Build wizards and other multistep processes
Create your own custom flow control through an application
Define navigation patterns and data-specific rules for optimal, efficient application interaction

Q7. Explain different types of Orgs in Salesforce.

Various types of Orgs available in Salesforce are:

Production org – An org that has live users accessing your data
Developer org – An org created with a Developer Edition account
Sandbox org – An org created on your production org that is a copy of your production org used for development and testing. Salesforce offers following types of Sandboxes
- Developer Sandbox – Can be refreshed once per day and provides 200 MB storage, only metadata is copied
- Developer Pro Sandbox – Can be refreshed once per day and provides 1 GB storage, only metadata is copied
- Partial Copy Sandbox – Can be refreshed once every 5 days and provides 5 GB storage, metadata and sample data is copied
- Full Copy Sandbox – Can be refreshed once every 29 days and provides storage as your production org, metadata and all data is copied

Q8. What is an Apex Class?

An Apex class is a template or blueprint from which Apex objects are created. Classes consist of other classes, user-defined methods, variables, exception types, and static initialization code.

// Apex Class Syntax

public class MyClassName {
    // variables
    // methods
}

Q9. What is an sObject?

Every record in Salesforce is natively represented as an sObject in Apex. Standard and custom object records in Salesforce map to their sObject types in Apex. The names of sObjects correspond to the API names of the corresponding standard or custom objects. Similarly, the names of sObject fields correspond to the API names of the corresponding fields.

// sObject creation syntax
Account myAccount = new Account(Name = 'Forcepective'); 

Account myAccount = new Account();
myAccount.Name = 'Forcepective';

Q10. What are DML Statements?

Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements are used to create and modify records in Salesforce. Each DML statement accepts either a single sObject or a list (or array) of sObjects. Operating on a list of sObjects is a more efficient and recommended way for processing records. Following DML statements are available in Apex:

insert – creates one or more sObject records
update – updates one or more sObject records using ID
upsert – creates new records and updates sObject records within a single statement, using a specified field to determine the presence of existing objects, or the ID field if no field is specified
delete – delete one or more sObject records using ID
undelete – restores one or more existing sObject records
merge – merges up to three records of the same sObject type into one of the records, deleting the others, and re-parenting any related records.

Salesforce Developer Interview Questions - DML Statements

Q11. Explain Database Methods.

Apex contains the built-in Database class, which provides methods that perform DML operations and mirror the DML statement counterparts. These Database methods are static and are called on the class name.

Unlike DML statements, Database methods have an optional allOrNone parameter that allows you to specify whether the operation should partially succeed. When this parameter is set to false, if errors occur on a partial set of records, the successful records will be committed and errors will be returned for the failed records. Also, no exceptions are thrown with the partial success option. The Database methods return result objects containing success or failure information for each record

// Database methods

Database.insert();
Database.update();
Database.upsert();
Database.delete();
Database.undelete();
Database.merge();

// Insert method with the allOrNone set to false
Database.insert(listOfRecords, false);

// Insert method with the allOrNone set to true or blank
// This is same as insert listOfRecords DML statement
Database.insert(listOfRecords, true);
Database.insert(listOfRecords);

// insert and update operations return an array of Database.SaveResult objects
Database.SaveResult[] results = Database.insert(recordList, false);

Q12. What is SOQL?

Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) use to read saved records. SOQL is similar to the standard SQL language but is customized for the Salesforce Platform. When SOQL is embedded in Apex, it is referred to as inline SOQL.

// Syntax of base SOQL query
SELECT fields FROM ObjectName [WHERE Condition] [ORDER BY field ASC/DESC] [LIMIT n]

// Get Contact FirstName and LastName
Contact[] myContacts = [select FirstName, LastName from Contact

Q13. What is SOSL?

Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) is a search language that is used to perform text searches in records. SOSL can be used to search fields across multiple standard and custom object records in Salesforce. SOSL is similar to Apache Lucene.

// Basic SOSL syntax
FIND 'SearchQuery' [IN SearchGroup] [RETURNING ObjectsAndFields]

// Find Account Contact and Case records containing text Forcepective
FIND 'Forcepective' IN ALL FIELDS RETURNING Account(Name), Contact(FirstName,LastName), Case(Description)

Q.14 What are Apex Triggers?

A trigger is Apex code that executes before or after specific data manipulation language (DML) events occur, such as before object records are inserted into the database, or after records have been deleted. A trigger is associated with a standard or custom object and can call methods of Apex classes.

There are two types of triggers.

Before Triggers – are used to update or validate record values before they’re saved to the database.
After Triggers – are used to access field values that are set by the system (such as a record’s Id or LastModifiedDate field), and to affect changes in other records. The records that fire the after trigger are read-only.

Trigger Events:

before insert
before update
before delete
after insert
after update
after delete
after undelete

// Apex Trigger syntax

trigger ContactTrigger on Contact (before insert) {
	System.debug('Welcome to Forcepective');
}

Q15. What are Trigger Context Variables?

All triggers define implicit variables that allow developers to access run-time context. These variables are contained in the System.Trigger class.

Trigger Context Variables:

Variable	Usage
`isExecuting`	Returns true if the current context for the Apex code is a trigger,
`isInsert`	Returns `true` if this trigger was fired due to an insert operation
`isUpdate`	Returns `true` if this trigger was fired due to an update operation
`isDelete`	Returns `true` if this trigger was fired due to a delete operation
`isBefore`	Returns `true` if this trigger was fired before any record was saved
`isAfter`	Returns `true` if this trigger was fired after all records were saved
`isUndelete`	Returns `true` if this trigger was fired after a record is recovered from the Recycle Bin
`new`	Returns a list of the new versions of the sObject records This sObject list is only available in `insert`, `update`, and `undelete` triggers, and the records can only be modified in `before` triggers
`newMap`	A map of IDs to the new versions of the sObject records. This map is only available in `before update`, `after insert`, `after update`, and `after undelete` triggers.
`old`	Returns a list of the old versions of the sObject records. This sObject list is only available in `update` and `delete` triggers.
`oldMap`	A map of IDs to the old versions of the sObject records. This map is only available in `update` and `delete` triggers.
`operationType`	Returns an enum of type System.TriggerOperation corresponding to the current operation
`size`	The total number of records in a trigger invocation, both old and new

Salesforce Developer Interview Questions

Q16. What is Apex Transaction?

An Apex Transaction represents a set of operations that are executed as a single unit. All DML operations in a transaction either complete successfully, or if an error occurs in one operation, the entire transaction is rolled back and no data is committed to the database. The boundary of a transaction can be a trigger, a class method, an anonymous block of code, a Visualforce page, or a custom Web service method.

Q17. What is a Test Class?

A Test Class validates the code in the trigger and class. This class is defined using the @isTest annotation. Classes defined this way should only contain test methods and any methods required to support those test methods. Classes defined with isTest don’t count against your org’s limit of 6 MB of Apex code.

In order to deploy code to production:

Unit tests must cover at least 75% of your Apex code, and all of those tests must complete successfully.
Every trigger must have some test coverage.
All classes and triggers must compile successfully.

Q18. Explain Asynchronous Apex.

Asynchronous Apex is used to run processes in a separate thread, at a later time. Asynchronous processes are started in a new thread, with higher governor and execution limits. Apex offers following ways for running your Apex code asynchronously:

Queueable Apex – Provide job chaining and allow more complex data types to be used
Scheduled Apex – Schedules to run at a specific time.
Batch Apex – Run large jobs that would exceed normal processing limits
Future Methods – Run in their own thread, and do not start until resources are available

Q19. What is Debug Log?

A debug log can record database operations, system processes, and errors that occur when executing a transaction or running unit tests. Debug logs can contain information about:

Database changes
HTTP callouts
Apex errors
Resources used by Apex
Automated workflow processes, such as:
- Workflow rules
- Assignment rules
- Approval processes
- Validation rules

Debug can be set for specific users, classes and triggers.

Q20. Explain Exceptions in Apex.

Apex uses Exceptions to note errors and other events that disrupt the normal flow of code execution. throw statements can be used to generate exceptions, while try, catch, and finally can be used to gracefully recover from an exception.

A throw statement allows you to signal that an error has occurred. To throw an exception, use the throw statement and provide it with an exception object to provide information about the specific error.

The try, catch, and finally statements can be used to gracefully recover from a thrown exception:

The try statement identifies a block of code in which an exception can occur.
The catch statement identifies a block of code that can handle a particular type of exception. A single try statement can have zero or more associated catch statements. Each catch statement must have a unique exception type. Also, once a particular exception type is caught in one catch block, the remaining catch blocks, if any, aren’t executed.
The finally statement identifies a block of code that is guaranteed to execute and allows you to clean up your code. A single try statement can have up to one associated finally statement. Code in the finally block always executes regardless of whether an exception was thrown or the type of exception that was thrown. Because the finally block always executes, use it for cleanup code, such as for freeing up resources.

// throw syntax
throw exceptionName;

// try, catch and finally syntax
try {
  // Try block
} catch (Exception e) {
  // Catch block
} finally {
  // Finally block
}