Preparing for a Salesforce Admin interview can be daunting, especially with the vast functionality that Salesforce offers.
As one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) platforms globally, businesses rely heavily on Salesforce to manage customer data, automate workflows, and drive revenue.
This means that the role of a Salesforce Admin is crucial for ensuring the system operates efficiently and effectively.
To help you stand out in your next interview, we’ve compiled essential Salesforce Admin interview questions, along with detailed answers that cover everything from core concepts like objects, fields, and automation to advanced topics such as security, integrations, and troubleshooting.
This guide also highlights key areas such as custom objects, data management tools, and best practices for maintaining data integrity, which are frequently discussed in interviews. Let’s dive in and help you ace your Salesforce Admin interview!
36 Salesforce Admin Interview questions & Answers
1. What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a CRM software, based in cloud that is used for managing customer relations. It offers many products, including as Sales cloud, Service cloud, Marketing cloud, and Analytics cloud to suit different requirements of business.
Some of the tools provided by Salesforce include contact management, salesforce workflow, co-ordinate tools and customized dash-boards. Like any other multi-tenant applications, all the customer share the same environment and version of the application while at the same time they are assured of the privacy of their data.
This is why Salesforce can release new features three times a year because the platform can absorb this kind of release without inconveniencing its users.
2. What are the duties and responsibilities of a Salesforce Administrator?
A Salesforce Administrator is somebody who ensures that Salesforce runs effectively in an organization by setting up platforms and other necessary configurations.
They include user and their access rights: accounts, permissions and roles; objects and fields configuration; reports and older interfaces such as dashboards and reports, workflows and flows; and data integrity.
Salesforce users, specifically admins, are central to getting value from the investment made by the organization in the platform by integrating Salesforce into those business processes and making sure that all is running well.
3. What are Profiles in Salesforce?
They are sets of configurations and rights that determine the permission of the user to the Salesforce platform.
It defines a level of functions that a particular user is allowed to perform in the system; object permissions (such as Read, Create, Edit, Delete), Field Level Security, App, Tab, & Page Layouts.
Salesforce standard offers basic profiles, for example, System Administrator, Standard User, but it also offers possibilities to create more detailed profiles according to the position within the company.
These profiles are adequate in ensuring security, and at the same time enabling the users to only use what is relevant to them.
4. What are the differences between a role in salesforce, and a profile?
A role in Salesforce determines which records should be visible to the user and according to the organizational structure that the company has.
While profiles include permissions which states what a user is capable of doing, roles specify information that a user is capable of accessing. Roles are also part of Salesforce that utilizes the role-based sharing model that determines the level of data sharing across different units of the organization.
For instance, many teams create opportunities where a sales manager may be able to view all those created by the team, while on the other side a sales representative may only be allowed to see the opportunities created by himself/herself.
Both profiles and roles complement each other so that there is compliance with the respective data access and functionality in the Salesforce.
5. What are permission sets?
Permission sets are other sets of settings and permission that allows for more functionalities to be given to a user in addition to his/her profile of functionality without changing his/her profile.
For instance, for the users with the Sales profile, if required they need to have access to marketing dashboard, you can create permission set for the marketing dashboard and grant permission set for that without affecting the Sales profile.
This flexibility assists admins to have better control and control of security and access to various roles and groups.
6. Can you explain the difference between the profile and the permission set?
Profile determines what a user can view and do in Salesforce while permission set is used to add other permissions on top of the profile without changing the basic profile.
On the other hand, profiles are required for every user and give the general access privileges while permission sets are additional and can be added as per the requirement of the admin for limited access to some modules.
Permission sets are very beneficial when granting temporary permissions or when granting a small number of permissions that do not warrant the creation of a new profile.
7. Explain the concept of object relationships in Salesforce.
Object relationships in Salesforce define how records from one object relate to records in another. There are three main types of relationships:
- Lookup Relationship: Links two objects loosely, where one object’s record can relate to another without inheriting the parent object’s permissions or ownership. For example, an account can have multiple contacts linked via lookup.
- Master-Detail Relationship: This is a tighter connection where the child object’s record is dependent on the parent. The child inherits security and sharing settings from the parent, and if the parent is deleted, the child record is also deleted.
- Many-to-Many Relationship: Uses a junction object to create a many-to-many relationship between two objects. This is useful when a record in one object can relate to multiple records in another object, and vice versa.
8. What is a queue in Salesforce, and when is it used?
A queue in Salesforce is a collection of records that need action from a group of users. It is commonly used for cases, leads, tasks, and other objects.
Queues help assign records to a team or group, and any member of that group can claim ownership of a record from the queue.
This is particularly useful in support environments, where cases need to be addressed by available agents. Queues ensure that records are assigned and addressed efficiently.
9. What is the purpose of validation rules in Salesforce?
Validation rules in Salesforce are used to ensure data quality by preventing users from entering incorrect or incomplete data.
They evaluate the data entered into one or more fields and return a message if the data does not meet specific criteria.
For example, a validation rule can be set to ensure that a close date for an opportunity is not in the past. Admins use validation rules to enforce business rules and maintain data integrity across the organization.
10. How can you prevent duplicate records in Salesforce?
Salesforce offers various ways to manage duplicate records:
- Duplicate Management: Admins can create matching rules and duplicate rules to identify and prevent duplicate records during data entry. These rules can block duplicates or simply alert users, depending on the configuration.
- Third-Party Tools: Salesforce’s AppExchange provides several deduplication apps that offer advanced features for finding and merging duplicate records. Regular audits and data cleansing tools can also help manage duplicates after they’ve been created.
11. What are considered as workflow rules and how do they help?
They are basically the organisational standard internal processes that run automatically in Salesforce based on some set criteria.
As soon as a record fits all the requirements defined in the workflow rule, one or multiple actions occur: the email alert is generated, one or several fields are filled, a new task is created, or an outbound message is sent.
Work flow rules are one of the pre-requisites of business process automation to achieve time-bound follow-up activities.
12. What does the term Process Builder in Salesforce mean? What makes it different from the previous workflow rules?
Process Builder is another Salesforce automation tool and it is more flexible as compared to the workflow rules.
There are distinctions between the two for example, workflow rules cannot support more than basic operations (field changes, emails) while process builder can contain various ‘if this, then that’ scenarios, record creation and other custom processes, and the ability to call other processes or flows.
Process Builder has the user interface that helps to design and manage complex automation than the traditional interface.
13. What is the role of reports and dashboards in Salesforce?
Salesforce reports and dashboards give valuable information about an organization data.
Reports enable the documenting of information on any object that is available on using the application, and enable application of filters, grouping as well as summary fields.
This data is then presented on dashboards in form of common graphical tools such as charts and graphs for use by executive and managers at a glance.
Reporting is one of Salesforce primary features it allows users to make decisions and monitor key performance indicators and trends when they occur.
14. What is a sharing rule in Salesforce?
Sharing rules in Salesforce are used to extend access to records beyond what is defined by roles and profiles. They allow for more flexible data sharing by granting access to specific records to users, roles, or public groups based on criteria.
For example, a sharing rule can be set up to grant access to a particular set of opportunities to a public group, even if those users do not have access to those records through their role. Sharing rules ensure that users can collaborate while maintaining security
15. What is the role of an audit trail in Salesforce?
The audit trail in Salesforce records administrative changes made to the system over the past six months, providing details such as who made the changes and when.
This feature is critical for compliance and troubleshooting, as it helps administrators track configuration changes, user activity, and security modifications. The audit trail ensures transparency and accountability within the system
16. What are record types in Salesforce?
Record types in Salesforce allow administrators to present different business processes, page layouts, and picklist values to different users based on their profile.
For example, a sales team and a support team may work with the same object (e.g., cases), but record types ensure that each team sees fields and picklist values relevant to their work.
This enhances the user experience by reducing clutter and ensuring that users see only what is pertinent to their role.
17. What is a master detail relationship in Salesforce?
A master-detail relationship means that two objects have a favorable association whereby the existence of the child object is determined by that of the master object.
This means that when the parent record is deleted all the child records associated with the record are also deleted. The child shall inherit the parent’s sharing settings and users’ permissions.
This pattern is used when sub records should always be related to the parent record and it is usually achieved by use of the master-detail relationships.
18. What is mean by lookup relationship in Salesforce?
A lookup relationship in Salesforce is relatively loose relationship between two objects where the child record does not have to exist since it is not dependent on the parent object.
None of the child records are rolled back for deletion together with the parent record and each object has its own unique sharing and security.
Lookup relationship is adopted where two objects have no direct dependency though a connection is vital when generating a certain report or when an object needs to refer to another.
19. What is this custom object all about according to the salesforce platform?
A custom object in Salesforce is an object developed through the users’ initiative to manage data pertaining to client’s organization or other specific business requirements.
In contrast with standard objects such as Accounts, Contacts or Opportunities which are defined within the Salesforce CRM, custom objects help businesses shape the CRM to their operations. Custom objects that are created can be has fields, page layout, validation rules, related to other objects, and report.
For example, one might have a company name as ‘Real estate company’, and in this company, they have their own unique object called ‘Properties’ that is used to store only listings and certain details that are relevant to the business model of the company.
20. What are custom fields in Salesforce?
Custom fields are fields that users create on both standard and custom objects to store specific data that is not captured by Salesforce’s default fields.
For instance, if a business wants to track customer membership numbers, they can add a custom field to the Contact object. Custom fields can have various data types like text, number, currency, date, and picklists.
Administrators can also apply validation rules to ensure data accuracy, making custom fields essential for capturing specific business information.
21. What is the purpose of a page layout in Salesforce?
A page layout in Salesforce determines the organization and visibility of fields, related lists, and buttons on a record’s detail or edit page.
By customizing page layouts, admins can ensure that users see only the relevant data and interface elements they need to perform their tasks efficiently.
Page layouts can be assigned to different user profiles, allowing for tailored experiences based on role or department. For example, a sales team may need to see opportunity-related fields, while a support team focuses on case details.
22. How do you handle data imports in Salesforce?
Salesforce provides several tools for importing data into the platform:
- Data Import Wizard: A simple tool that supports importing up to 50,000 records and is best suited for standard objects like Accounts, Contacts, Leads, and custom objects.
- Data Loader: A more advanced tool for importing and exporting data in bulk (up to 5 million records). It allows admins to insert, update, upsert, delete, or export records using CSV files. When importing data, it’s essential to ensure that the data is clean, correctly mapped to Salesforce fields, and that duplicate records are avoided using duplicate rules or deduplication tools.
23. What is a sandbox in Salesforce?
A sandbox in Salesforce is a replica of the production environment used for testing, development, or training without affecting live data.
Sandboxes allow admins and developers to build and test new configurations, apps, and automation without risking data integrity or user experience in the production environment. Salesforce offers several types of sandboxes:
- Developer Sandbox: For small development tasks and testing.
- Developer Pro Sandbox: Provides more storage than Developer Sandbox for larger projects.
- Partial Copy Sandbox: Includes a subset of production data.
- Full Sandbox: A complete replica of production, including all data and configurations.
24. What does the term Governor Limits in Salesforce mean?
The Governor Limits in Salesforce are set to prevent one user or a segment of code from consuming too many of the Salesforce platform’s shared resources and thereby bogging it down.
These limits are pertaining to activities such as the number of queries that have to be processed, records that have to be returned or the DML statements that can be performed in a given transaction.
For example, for SOQL queries, the number of queries per transaction is limited and they can fetch no more than 50, 000 records in one go. Such limits must also be well understood and fully complied with by developers to facilitate the delivery of top-notch solutions in the most efficient and scalable way.
25. What is AppExchange in Salesforce?
AppExchange is a single marketplace where customers can get apps, components and consultancies from Salesforce.
It enables users to systematically and prolifically expand the capability of Salesforce through a series of pre-developed application apps either available for free or at a fee to cover various business requirements including, marketing automation, reporting needs, or industry verticals.
Static components that can be customized or developed are also available at AppExchange; Lightning components and Flow solutions assist admins and developers in avoiding the development of custom components.
26. What is a junction object in Saleforce and in what situations is it might be useful?
Junction object in Salesforce is basically Salesforce custom object used to create many to many relationship between two objects.
For instance, if you are working with a custom object named “Projects” and would like your Projects object to be related to both “Accounts” and “Contacts”, then you often find yourself creating a junction object such as “Project Participants” to associate multiple contacts with multiple projects.
Junction objects are important if you have relationships that let record from one object linked to many records of another object.
27. What are the uses of the external IDs in Salesforce?
An external ID is a CD field that is used to identify records from other systems that is different from the records system s internal ID.
This field is most valuable during data imports and assimilation since it provides Salesforce the capacity to align records by external keys rather than the record IDs within Salesforce.
External IDs aid in avoiding creation of new records every time records are being imported and facilitate compatibility with other systems since it simply updates existing records instead of creating new ones.
28. What is the meaning of recycle bin for Salesforce, and how does it operate?
Just in case a user deletes a record, the records get to the Salesforce recycle bin, and if acted on quickly, the records are restored. Documents are kept in the recycle bin for 15days after which they are deleted permanently.
The size of the recycle bin depends with the storage space in the organization where it cannot exceed 25 times the storage space. If the recycle bin itself becomes full, then the application deletes the records that have been in the bin the longest.
The records placed in the recycle bin are accessible to users that possess the correct level of permission and they can either restore or permanently delete the records contained in the recycle bin section.
29. What is roll-up summary field and where is it used?
A roll-up summary field in salesforce is a field in a parent object that has sub total field values in child object. This field is utilized to perform calculation like sum, minimum, maximum or count of the records of this child.
For instance, on Account object, you could create roll-up summary that will sum an amount field on all related Oppurtunities. In general, roll-up summary fields can be built only for such objects that have a master-subordinate relationship with their subordinate objects.
30. What is the Lightning App Builder?
The Lightning App Builder is a drag-and-drop tool that allows admins and developers to build custom apps, record pages, and dashboards in Salesforce Lightning Experience.
It provides a visual interface for assembling components such as lists, buttons, and charts, helping users create responsive pages tailored to their needs without writing code.
The Lightning App Builder also supports custom components built using the Lightning Component Framework, making it a powerful tool for building dynamic and intuitive user interfaces.
31. What is the difference between standard and custom objects in Salesforce?
- Standard Objects: These are pre-built objects provided by Salesforce, such as Accounts, Contacts, Leads, and Opportunities. They come with predefined fields and relationships and are fundamental to the platform’s core CRM functionality.
- Custom Objects: Created by users or developers to store data that is unique to their business processes. Custom objects can be fully customized, including creating fields, relationships, validation rules, and page layouts.
32. What are data validation rules, and how do they ensure data quality?
Data validation rules in Salesforce are logical formulas that ensure the data entered into fields meets specific criteria before it is saved.
For example, a validation rule might ensure that the Close Date on an opportunity is not in the past. When data violates the rule, an error message is displayed, and the record cannot be saved until the error is corrected.
These rules help enforce data accuracy and consistency, which are crucial for reporting, analysis, and business processes.
33. What is the difference between a public group and a role hierarchy?
- Public Group: A set of users, roles, or other public groups, defined by administrators to grant access to specific records, reports, or dashboards. Public groups are used to share records across users who do not share a common role hierarchy.
- Role Hierarchy: Defines the levels of access users have to records based on their position within the organization. Users higher in the role hierarchy inherit access to records owned by users lower in the hierarchy.
34. What is the Salesforce Shield, and what are its components?
Salesforce Shield is a set of security tools that allow businesses to meet compliance requirements and protect sensitive data within the Salesforce platform. It offers three key components:
- Event Monitoring: Tracks user activity and provides logs for analyzing data trends and detecting suspicious behavior.
- Field Audit Trail: Extends the retention period of field history data from 18 months to up to 10 years, allowing organizations to maintain a complete audit history.
- Platform Encryption: Adds an additional layer of security by encrypting sensitive data at rest, in transit, and within fields, ensuring data privacy.
These features are especially useful for organizations in regulated industries like finance and healthcare, where compliance with data protection standards is essential.
35. What is the use of a formula field in Salesforce?
A formula field in Salesforce is a read-only field that automatically calculates its value based on a defined formula. Formula fields can reference other fields, functions, and operators to derive values.
They are often used to perform calculations, generate dynamic data (like concatenating fields), or display data in a particular format. For example, a formula field can calculate the total discount on an opportunity by multiplying the discount percentage by the total amount.
36. What is the use of an approval process in Salesforce?
An approval process automates the submission, review, and approval of Salesforce records, following a predefined set of steps. It ensures that business-critical decisions (such as discount approvals, contract reviews, or leave requests) are properly routed through the organization for necessary sign-offs.
For example, an approval process can be created for opportunities where discounts above a certain threshold need manager approval before being submitted. The approval process can also trigger automated actions like field updates, email alerts, and tasks when records are submitted or approved.
