Salesforce Developer Interview Questions: Answers and Explanations

Salesforce is among the most popular CRM platforms-as-a-service (PaaS) for a reason. Used correctly, Salesforce can help your commerce, marketing, information technology (IT), and service teams work as a unified team from anywhere. With everyone on one page, you'll be able to stabilize your business and focus on delivering memorable customer experiences.

However, not every Salesforce developer or admin is suitable for your team. Some are more knowledgeable and experienced than others. That's why you need to ask the right interview questions to find and hire a Salesforce developer that best fits  your team’s needs. Read on to learn about the best Salesforce developer interview questions and answers.

Salesforce Core Concepts

To understand what a Salesforce developer can bring to the table, you need to test their understanding of Salesforce core concepts. Before hiring a blockchain developer for your team, you should understand exactly what they do so you can tailor a compelling Salesforce developer job description to attract top talent.

Then, you can ask the following interview questions to help you get started.

Salesforce Developer Interview Questions

First, ask basic interview questions to learn more about your candidates. Here are some sample Salesforce interview questions and answers:

• Tell me about yourself. This will prompt the job seeker to tell you more about themselves. Feel free to ask about their education and work experience in web services. Consider honing in on experiences that are similar to what you can provide them.
• Walk me through your resume and portfolio. This question is a great way to learn more about your applicant's skills and experience. In particular, you'd want to focus on their programming and CRM tool knowledge. At a minimum, they should know Apex for custom coding and Visualforce for creating user interfaces. They should also have a strong background in Java.
• Tell me about your education. Most companies prefer hiring Salesforce developers with bachelor's or master's degrees. However, a degree shouldn't be the main determinant. Some of the best programmers didn't graduate from university — think Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, focus on the applicant's certifications, awards, accolades, and media appearances. Important Salesforce developer credentials to look for include:

• B2C Commerce Developer: This credential is for developers with experience as full-stack devs for Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital.
• JavaScript Developer I: Developers with this certification have experience creating back-end and front-end JavaScript applications for the web stack. They also work with JavaScript-related technologies such as Lightning Web Components.
• Industries CPQ Developer: This credential is for professionals who have experience developing configure, price, and quote applications for Salesforce Media, Communications, and Energy and Utilities Clouds.
• Platform App Builder: This credential is awarded to those who can demonstrate knowledge and skills in designing, building, and implementing custom applications using the Salesforce Platform's declarative customization capabilities.
• Marketing Cloud Developer: These developers have hands-on experience developing across the Salesforce platform. They build personalized, dynamic landing pages and messages and are fluent in Marketing Cloud scripting languages. They're also well-versed in reporting and analytics, advanced segmentation, and data configuration.

• What was the proudest moment in your career? What was the proudest moment in the applicant's career? What did they accomplish, and how did their managers and co-workers react to their accomplishments? What is the relationship between these accomplishments and the position the applicant is applying for? If there's a direct overlap, the applicant is probably a good pick for your position.
• What's your experience with artificial intelligence (AI)? Does the applicant know how to use and apply AI? If not, they may not be the right pick. Salesforce developers are responsible for adding Einstein AI capabilities to CRM.
• Do you have any back-end experience? If you're hiring a Salesforce developer for back-end development, ensure your applicant has thorough back-end work experience. You also need to ensure that they know Apex, a strong-typed object-oriented coding language with a Java-like syntax. If the position you're hiring for requires database management, the applicant should also know the data management language SQQL, which is similar to SQL.
• Do you have any front-end experience? If you're hiring a front-end Salesforce developer, look for a candidate with ample experience in Lightning or Visualforce user interface (UI) design and implementation. Visualforce is an older framework that consists of a set of controllers and tag-based markup language, while Lightning is a modern framework that allows devs to create interactive UIs.
• What drew you to Salesforce? This will show you a candidate's motivation for learning Salesforce and becoming a Salesforce developer. An ideal candidate should be someone who enjoys using Salesforce and wants to learn more about using it well.
• What do you like the most about using Salesforce? Why does the candidate enjoy using Salesforce? What features do they enjoy using the most? This will show you the depth of their knowledge and passion for Salesforce.
• Do you have experience working in a multi-disciplinary team? Like all developers, Salesforce devs must be comfortable leading, coaching, and collaborating with other developers. They also have to work with other departments, like marketing, procurement, and the C-suite.  As such, it's important to ensure that your candidate is comfortable collaborating with others and that they can help others flourish. If not, they may be a liability to your team.

Common Salesforce Developer Interview Questions

Now that you know more about your applicant, you can ask them the following Salesforce practical questions to learn more about their technical skills and experiences. We've also provided answers to these questions to help you pick the best hire for your team.

What Is a Roll-Up Summary Field?

Roll-up summary fields calculate values from related records, like those from a related list. Users can create roll-up summary fields to display a value in a master record based on the values of a detail record's field. The detail record must be linked to the master via a master-detail relationship.

What Causes Data Loss in Salesforce?

Data loss in Salesforce typically happens due to several reasons, including:

• Migrating to currency, percent, and number from other data types
• Changing date-time and data
• Changing to auto-number
• Changing from text-area to URL, email, phone, and text
• Migrating from the checkbox, multi-select picklist, and auto number to other types
• Changing to multi-select picklist from any type except picklist

What Are Sharing Rules?

Users can use sharing rules to extend sharing access to users in roles, public groups, or territories. They give certain users more access by making automatic exceptions to organization-wide sharing settings. Make sure your developer can give a thorough explanation of setup security controls and sharing settings.

What Are Workflow Rules?

Workflow rules are a Salesforce automation rule that offers time savings by optimizing different procedures.

What Is a Self-Relationship?

In Salesforce, a Self-Relationship is a lookup relationship to the same object. It empowers users to use the "Merchandise" object to create relationships with other objects.

How Does Salesforce Track Sales?

Salesforce users can use the performance chart on the Lighting Experience Home Page to track various basic sales details, including:

• Sales figures by quarter or month
• Number of customers served daily
• Daily sales volume
• Repeat customer activity

Does Salesforce Have a Limit for Data.com Records?

Yes. The limit is based on the organization's license, and the default number of records per licensed user is 300. Users can see their limit by going to Setup in the Quick Find Box and selecting Prospector Users. In the Data.com users section, they will see their name, their monthly limit, and how many records have been exported per month.

What Are the Main Types of Relationships in Salesforce?

There are six main types of relationships in Salesforce:

1. Lookup Relationships: These are loosely coupled relationships that allow you to link one object to another. You can link an Asset to many Cases at the same time.
2. Master-Detail Relationship: This is a strongly coupled relationship that lets users control child record attributes such as visibility and sharing. Users must be careful when dealing with such relationships because if a parent is deleted, the child records will go with them.
3. Many-to-Many Relationships: This is when one record is related to many others. The best way to deal with these is to use Junction Objects, which are created using custom objects to relate two other objects through two master-detail relationships.
4. External Relationships: A new field typed introduced by Salesforce Connect, External Relationships links an object to an external object.
5. Self-Relationship: A lookup relationship to the same object, a Self-Relationship creates a tree diagram of objects involved.
6. Hierarchical Relationships: Developers can use these relationships on user objects. They are designed to create a hierarchy of users. For instance, devs can use Hierarchical Relationships to create a lookup field for the user object, which can then be used to list users' managers.

What Report Types Are Available in Salesforce?

There are four types of Salesforce reports:

1. Tabular: The simplest report type, tabular reports only show lines of data, totals, and calculations. In other words, they're like Excel spreadsheets. This is the best report type for calculations and grouping data. It's also great for exporting data.
2. Joined: These reports empower you to create two separate reports to compare data. You can use Joined Reports to demonstrate the total number of cases and opportunities per account, side by side.
3. Summary: Once you add a grouping to your report, you will transform the report into a summary report. Summary reports are best for showing groups of data, making them a great way to show the number of opportunities for accounts.
4. Matrix: These reports are similar to summary reports, but they let you group data by columns and rows to see various totals. Many users use these reports to see the value of opportunities per month per account. For instance, you can use these reports to see that Revelo Inc. has $200,000 of opportunities in March and $170,000 in April.

Junior Salesforce Developer Interview Questions

After asking core personal and practical questions, you need to ask applicants job-specific developer interview questions. In other words, you need to ask questions tailored to the position they're considering.

How Do You Test the Stability and Functionality of an Application?

This question reveals how a junior or entry-level Salesforce developer tests and stability and functionality of an application. The ideal answer should explain the developer's testing strategy. Although each professional's testing strategy varies, most consist of the following steps:

1. Pinpoint integration points: First, the developer will identify integration areas from the external services. They typically do this by testing the runtime performance of the application from the UI. They can then identify the modals, pages, search fields, or buttons in the UI.
2. Identify create, read, update and delete (CRUD) operations: Next, the developer will identify CRUD operations from the UI and ensure that they respond effectively.
3. Pick a performance testing tool: The developer will then choose a performance testing tool to test the app's performance. Since Salesforce is cloud-based, your developer should choose a web-based tool that can measure the runtime and network performance of the application. Examples include Chrome DevTools and Firefox.
4. Establish a performance baseline: The developer will repeat the same test at least five times to establish the initial baseline of the application's performance. They will do this by navigating to each web modal or page, clicking on different buttons, and recording the performance. They will then analyze the results and note the average response time of all performance test areas.
5. Discuss areas for improvement: After testing, the developer will reach out to the rest of the team with areas for improvement. At a minimum, they should provide performance results, analysis, and screenshots.

What Types of CRMs Have You Worked On?

This question reveals the depth of an applicant's CRM experience. Although you should have high standards for applicants, keep in mind that most junior or entry-level devs tend to have generic CRM development experiences. In other words, they probably haven't chosen a specialization yet, which means they don't have a lot of experience working on specific types of CRMs, such as:

• Collaborative CRMs: Also known as strategic CRMs, these CRMs centralize customer data so service, marketing, and sales professionals can see it. Service reps use collaborative CRMs to solve customers' problems and expedite service.
• Analytical CRMs: These CRMs aggregate customer information from a range of sources to highlight patterns that are otherwise impossible to see. This can help you identify, understand, and capitalize on consumer behavior and trends.
• Operational CRMs: These CRMs perform repetitive, boring, and clerical tasks so that marketing, sales, and customer service reps have more time and energy to focus on tasks that require their ingenuity.

Are You Comfortable With Salesforce Languages and Frameworks?

This question reveals whether an applicant is comfortable with Salesforce languages like Apex, Visualforce, and Lightning Component Framework. Make sure you hire a candidate who can:

• Describe how Salesforce languages and frameworks work and how they compare with non-Salesforce counterparts like Java
• Describe how Apex code and Apex triggers work
• Describe how Visualforce pages work
• Identify the benefits of Salesforce languages and frameworks
• Describe how Salesforce languages and frameworks are used
• Outline how Salesforce languages and frameworks can be used to create user-friendly apps

Related Developers to Hire: Hire Pardot Developers

Salesforce Developer Interview Questions and Answers for Experienced

Now that you know junior and entry-level interview questions for Salesforce developers, here are some questions for advanced and senior-level Salesforce coders:

What Was the Most Complex CRM Application You Developed?

This question highlights the applicant's development skills and demonstrates the depth of their work experience. Since you're interviewing a senior-level Salesforce programmer, you should have pretty high standards. In other words, the CRMs they've worked on should have a lot of features. Additionally, the candidate's portfolio matches what you're looking for.

For instance, if you're hiring Salesforce coders to create collaborative CRMs, you should hire a senior Salesforce developer with ample collaborative CRM development experience.

How Do You Keep Your Code Easy To Read and Organized?

This question will help you understand the candidate's coding style and how they approach their work. Compared to junior and entry-level hires, senior applicants should be able to:

• Organize their code by creating separate classes for different objects
• Give thorough examples of how they organize their code
• Discuss the benefits of keeping code organized and clean

Give an Example of When You Had to Out of Your Way To Meet a Client's Needs

This question assesses a job seeker's willingness and dedication to meet clients' needs. Look for the following in candidates' responses:

• Passion: Your candidate should be passionate about helping clients.
• Proactivity: Your candidate should be proactive in helping clients. For example, if the client wants a report type that isn't currently offered by the company, the candidate should immediately start looking for cost-effective ways to create such reports for the client.

As a Salesforce Developer, What Is Your Greatest Strength?

Lastly, you should ask the candidate what their greatest strength is. An experienced and confident senior Salesforce developer should be able to highlight their strengths. They should also be able to highlight how they can contribute to your company.

Here's an example:

My greatest strength as a Salesforce developer is my ability to collaborate with others. I've worked for three companies since graduating ten years ago, so I know how to work with a range of teams, work styles, and personalities. I enjoy coaching and mentoring junior and entry-level Salesforce developers. I should also add that I'm particularly good at working on Scrum teams. I really enjoy Scrum's emphasis on high-quality development and servant leadership. I also appreciate how Scrum catalyzes teams' larning through experimentation, collaboration, and discovery. I've also had experience working on Lean, Agile, and Scrumban teams.

Recruitment Salesforce Developer Coding Challenges

As you can see, interview questions can reveal a lot about an applicant's experiences, education, and expertise. However, they don't reveal much about applicants' work ethic and creative thinking.

Fortunately, there's a surefire way to test these qualities — by having job seekers complete recruitment Salesforce coding challenges. Coding challenges are in-person or online tests where you can see how candidates tackle particular coding problems. Unlike interview questions, they give you a solid idea of the candidate's work process, technical knowledge, work ethic, and approach to solving problems. They can also highlight whether a job seeker can finish tasks under pressure and understand what's required.

There are five main types of coding challenges:

Take-Home Coding Challenges

Here, you email the coding challenge to the job seeker, who solves it in their own time and submits it before the deadline. You can prevent cheating and plagiarism by using certain services and programs, such JPlag.

Open Coding Challenges

Open coding challenges are tech events that invite developers worldwide to solve coding problems and win rewards. For example, Google holds three coding challenges per year: Hash Code, Code Jam, and Kick Start.

While open coding challenges are a great way to attract global MAMAA-caliber talent, they cost a lot to maintain and market. As such, they're not a good choice unless you have a large marketing budget.

Whiteboarding

Whiteboard tests require applicants to solve Salesforce coding problems on a digital or real-life whiteboard in front of the recruiter. They evaluate applicants' technical and various soft skills, including communication and problem-solving abilities.

Admittedly, whiteboarding is a great way to get inside applicants' heads. However, your recruiters must have a strong background in Salesforce development to take part in whiteboarding. Otherwise, they won't be able to evaluate developers' technical knowledge. Alternatively, you can get your existing Salesforce developers to act as recruiters, but they may not have the HR expertise to evaluate the applicant's soft skills. They may also lack the time, motivation, and energy to act as recruiters.

Pair Programming

Finally, you can test Salesforce developers through pair programming. This involves job seekers solving problems by collaborating with the interviewer. Recruiters usually use pair programming to evaluate applicants':

• Teamwork skills
• Technical and coding skills
• Thought process
• Communication skills
• Ability to design solutions for projects

Like whiteboarding, pair programming isn't for everybody. It requires you to have Salesforce-savvy HR personnel or HR-savvy Salesforce developers. Pair programming exercises also take a lot of time, reducing time-to-hire and revenues.

How We Help with Salesforce Developers for Hire

Experienced Salesforce developers have much to offer. Thanks to their strong programming and UI design skills, they can create, test, and deploy websites, apps, and more through the Salesforce cloud platform.

The best way to hire MAMAA-caliber Salesforce devs is to ask them effective and relevant Salesforce developer interview questions — that way, you can accurately gauge their skills and experiences. However, before you can do that, you need to source Salesforce devs by joining a first-class tech talent marketplace like Revelo. As Latin America's premier tech talent marketplace, we boast a talent pool of over 300,000 tech professionals, including Salesforce developers, quality assurance testers, and more.

To get started, all you have to do is tell Revelo about business needs. We will automatically compile a list of suitable developers within three days. You can then interview and hire the talent you want.