Domain 1: Configuration and Setup
- Company Information holds the org-wide defaults for locale, currency, fiscal year and licence counts. Business hours and holidays feed escalation rules and entitlement milestones, so a case that will not escalate overnight is usually a business-hours problem rather than a rule problem.
- Users are activated rather than deleted - Salesforce never deletes a user, because records they own would lose their owner. Deactivating frees the licence and preserves history; freezing stops login immediately while the deactivation cleanup is arranged.
- Profiles set the baseline and every user has exactly one; permission sets and permission set groups layer extra access on top and a user can have many. Roles are unrelated to permissions - they drive record visibility through the hierarchy, not what a user may do.
- Build for least privilege with a lean profile plus permission sets rather than cloning a profile for every variation. Permission set groups bundle sets for a job function, and a muting permission set removes a specific permission from the group without editing its members.
- Login and identity security is configured in Setup: password policies for complexity and expiry, session settings for timeout and lock-down, login IP ranges and login hours on the profile, and multi-factor authentication, which Salesforce now requires. Profile IP ranges restrict login outright; org-wide trusted ranges only skip the identity challenge.
- Organization-wide defaults set the most restrictive access, and everything else opens it up: the role hierarchy grants managers access to subordinates' records, sharing rules open access to groups or roles, and manual sharing handles the one-off. Access can only be widened by these layers, never narrowed.
- Setup Audit Trail records the last six months of configuration changes with who made them and when, which is the first place to look when something in the org changed and nobody admits to it. Download it for a longer record.
- Prefer declarative configuration to code: if a validation rule, flow or formula can do it, that is the expected answer on this exam. AppExchange packages extend the org further, and installing one for admins only versus all users is a decision made at install time.
Domain 2: Object Manager and Lightning App Builder
- Standard objects ship with Salesforce and custom objects hold what your business needs beyond them. Choose the field type by what the data must do, not just how it looks - a picklist for a fixed set you will report on, a text field only when the values are genuinely free-form, and currency and number types so aggregation works.
- Master-detail relationships make the child depend on the parent: the child inherits the parent's sharing and ownership, deleting the parent deletes the children, and only master-detail supports roll-up summary fields. A lookup is a loose reference with independent sharing and optional deletion behaviour.
- A junction object is a custom object with two master-detail relationships, which is how many-to-many is modelled. The first master-detail is the primary and controls the record's appearance in list views and reports.
- Record types offer different picklist values, page layouts and business processes to different users on the same object. Access to a record type comes from the profile or permission set, and the page layout a user sees is the record type and profile combination.
- Field-level security is the platform-wide control over whether a user can see a field at all - it applies in reports, list views and the API. Removing a field from a page layout only hides it on that layout, which is why FLS is the right answer for anything described as confidential.
- Lightning App Builder builds app, home and record pages from components, with component visibility rules that show or hide a component by field value, record type, device or user permission. Assign a page as org default, or by app, record type and profile.
- Dynamic Forms move fields off the page layout and into the Lightning record page so individual fields and sections get their own visibility rules, and Dynamic Actions do the same for buttons. They are how you replace a proliferation of page layouts with one conditional page.
- Know which calculation to reach for: a formula field computes on the fly from the same record or a parent, a roll-up summary aggregates child records across a master-detail, and a validation rule blocks a save when its formula evaluates to true - which is the part candidates invert.
Domain 3: Sales and Marketing Applications
- Leads capture unqualified interest. Converting a lead creates an Account, a Contact and optionally an Opportunity, and custom lead fields must be explicitly mapped to fields on those objects or their values are lost at conversion.
- Opportunities move through stages defined by a sales process, which is tied to a record type. Path guides reps by surfacing key fields and guidance for the current stage, and the probability and forecast category come from the stage.
- Products live in price books with an entry per price book, and Standard Price Book holds the default price for every product. An opportunity uses exactly one price book, which is why products from another price book cannot be added without switching it.
- Campaigns track marketing efforts, campaign members link leads and contacts to them, and a campaign hierarchy of up to five levels rolls statistics up to the parent. Campaign influence attributes opportunity revenue back to the campaigns that touched it.
- Web-to-Lead captures leads from a web form into Salesforce, with reCAPTCHA to keep out bots and a default lead owner for anything an assignment rule does not match. The daily limit and the lack of duplicate checking are both commonly tested.
- Lead assignment rules route new leads by criteria to a user or queue, with only one rule active at a time and entries evaluated in order until one matches. Auto-response rules send the acknowledgement email, and the two are configured separately.
Domain 4: Service and Support Applications
- Cases track customer issues through their lifecycle. Assignment rules route them on creation, auto-response rules acknowledge them, and escalation rules act when they age past a threshold - measured against business hours, which is why escalation timing surprises people.
- Capture cases automatically with Web-to-Case for a web form or Email-to-Case for an inbox. On-Demand Email-to-Case needs no on-premises agent but caps attachment size and requires email forwarding; standard Email-to-Case uses an agent behind the firewall for larger volumes.
- Queues hold records - cases, leads, custom objects - that a team owns collectively until a member takes ownership. Case teams are different: they add people with defined roles and access to a case that someone already owns.
- Entitlements define what support a customer is due, and milestones are the time-based steps within an entitlement process, such as first response within two hours. Milestone actions fire before, on or after the target time.
- Omni-Channel pushes work to agents instead of letting them cherry-pick: service channels define what is routed, routing configurations set priority and how capacity is consumed, and presence statuses control what an agent is available for.
- Lightning Knowledge stores articles by record type with data categories controlling visibility, and articles move through draft, published and archived states. The Service Console is the tabbed workspace where agents work cases alongside knowledge and related records.
Domain 5: Productivity and Collaboration
- Tasks are to-dos with a due date and events are calendared with a time. Both are activities, both roll up to the record through Related To and Name, and Einstein Activity Capture syncs email and calendar from a connected account rather than storing those emails as records.
- Chatter provides feeds, groups and @mentions for collaboration in context. Feed tracking decides which field changes post to a record's feed, and it is limited to a set number of fields per object, so choose the ones people actually need to notice.
- Email templates come in several types including Lightning email templates, and organisation-wide email addresses let users send from a shared address such as support@ instead of their own, which is what you configure when replies must not go to an individual.
- Macros run a set of instructions on a record in the console - updating fields, sending an email, closing a case - and irreversible macros are the ones that commit those changes. Quick Text inserts standard wording so agents are not retyping the same paragraph.
- List views filter records for a user or group with their own columns, filters and charts, and can be shared with specific groups or roles. Inline editing and mass actions from a list view are what make them a productivity tool rather than a display.
- Files replace attachments: a file is uploaded once, versioned, and shared to many records or people, while a legacy attachment belongs to exactly one record with no versioning. Notes are likewise the rich-text successor to the old plain note.
Domain 6: Data and Analytics Management
- Choose the load tool by volume and operation: the Data Import Wizard handles up to 50,000 records for standard and custom objects with duplicate matching built in but cannot delete; Data Loader handles large volumes, every operation including delete and upsert, and can be scheduled from the command line.
- Upsert needs an external ID field to decide whether a row is an insert or an update, which is how a repeated load stays idempotent. Matching on the Salesforce ID does the same but requires the other system to store it.
- Export with the Data Export Service for a scheduled weekly or monthly backup delivered as zipped CSVs, or Data Loader for an ad hoc extract. Neither is a full org backup - metadata is not included.
- Duplicate rules decide what happens when a duplicate is detected - allow with an alert, or block - and they depend on a matching rule that defines what counts as a match. A duplicate rule with no active matching rule does nothing.
- Know the four report formats and what each is for: tabular for a simple list, summary for grouping by rows, matrix for grouping by both rows and columns, and joined for multiple report types side by side. Only summary and matrix can be the source of most dashboard charts.
- Report features worth knowing by name: bucket fields to categorise values without a formula, row-level formulas that calculate per row, summary formulas that calculate on grouped totals, and custom report types when the standard ones do not join the objects you need.
- Dashboards display up to a set number of components from source reports, and the running user decides whose data is shown. A dynamic dashboard runs as the viewer so each person sees their own data, at the cost of a per-org limit and no scheduling.
Domain 7: Automation
- Identify the right automation before configuring anything. Assignment, auto-response and escalation rules handle routing on leads and cases; validation rules enforce data quality at save; flows handle everything else. The default automation user is what a flow runs as when no user context applies.
- Validation rules fire on save and block the record when the formula returns true, with the error shown at the top of the page or on a specific field. They run before most automation, so they are the cheapest place to stop bad data.
- Flow is the primary automation tool and comes in the types the exam names: screen flows for guided user input, record-triggered flows that run on create, update or delete, scheduled flows that run on a timetable, and autolaunched flows called from elsewhere.
- Choose a before-save record-triggered flow to set fields on the record being saved - it is far faster because there is no second save - and an after-save flow when you need the record ID, related records, or to send an email or create another record.
- Know the order of execution well enough to answer why a value was overwritten: validation rules run before before-save flows commit, after-save flows and workflow field updates can retrigger automation, and roll-up summaries and sharing recalculate at the end.
- Approval processes route a record for sign-off: entry criteria decide what can be submitted, steps define the approvers and their order, and initial submission, approval, rejection and recall actions fire at each outcome. Records are locked while pending approval.
- Use a flow when logic should run automatically, and an approval process when a human decision and an audit trail of who approved what are the point. A flow can submit a record for approval, which is how the two are combined.
- Workflow Rules and Process Builder are retired and cannot be created any more. Expect scenarios where they appear as distractors and the correct answer is a flow, and expect migration questions about moving existing automation to Flow.
Domain 8: Agentforce
- Agentforce is Salesforce's platform for AI agents that act on your org's data - answering questions, updating records, and handing off to a person when they should. It is a full section of the exam at 8%, so admins are now expected to describe it, not just have heard of it.
- Assess whether a scenario suits an agent at all. Agents fit high-volume, repetitive requests with a clear answer available in the org's data, such as order status or password resets. Judgement calls, sensitive decisions and anything with a compliance consequence should escalate to a human rather than be automated.
- Agentforce grounds its responses in Salesforce data and connected knowledge rather than answering from a general model, which is what keeps answers specific to the org. The Einstein Trust Layer sits in the path, masking sensitive data, checking for toxicity and not retaining prompts for model training.
- An agent respects the running user's security. It cannot show a record the user could not open themselves, so an agent that returns nothing for one user and results for another is behaving correctly - the difference is that user's object, field and record access.
- Troubleshoot agent permission problems in the same order as any access problem: does the user have the permission set that grants Agentforce access, does their profile or permission set grant the object and field permissions the agent's actions need, and can they see the records through sharing.
- Topics organise what an agent can do. Each topic has a scope and instructions describing when it applies, and the agent picks a topic from the user's request - so an agent choosing the wrong behaviour is usually a topic whose scope is too broad or overlaps another.
- Actions are what an agent can actually perform within a topic, built from flows, prompt templates, Apex or standard actions. Giving an agent a flow as an action is the declarative route to letting it change data.
- Agent Builder is where admins configure all of this: the agent's role and company description, its topics, the instructions inside each topic, and the actions available. Changes are made and tested there before the agent is activated.
- Instructions are natural-language directions that shape behaviour within a topic - what to do, what not to do, when to escalate. They are specific and testable rather than aspirational: "always confirm the order number before cancelling" is an instruction; "be helpful" is not.
- Prompt templates turn a reusable prompt into a configurable asset with merge fields drawn from record data and grounding from related records. Maintain them in Prompt Builder, and version and test a change before it reaches users.
- Install and update agent components through packages and the Agentforce assets available in the org, then adjust the topics, instructions and actions for your own data and process. A packaged agent is a starting point rather than a finished configuration.
- Test in the conversation preview inside Agent Builder while you author: send a request, see which topic was selected, which actions ran, and what the agent replied. That trace is the main diagnostic for an agent that answers the wrong way.
- Light testing means checking the realistic paths before activation - the common request, an ambiguous one, and one that should escalate - rather than only the happy path. An agent that never escalates in testing will not escalate in production either.
- Agents are governed like everything else in the org: they run in an environment, respect field level security and sharing, and their actions are subject to the same validation rules and automation as any other change to a record.
Salesforce Platform Administrator (ADM-201) exam tips
- Master the sharing model order of increasing access: OWD, then role hierarchy, then sharing rules, then manual and team sharing, then Apex sharing. Many questions hinge on 'who can see this record and why'.
- Know master-detail vs lookup cold: master-detail supports roll-up summaries, inherits ownership and sharing, cascades deletes, and is required on the child; lookup is loose and optional.
- For data loads, pick the tool by volume and operation: Data Import Wizard for up to 50,000 records with de-duplication and no delete; Data Loader for larger volumes and all operations, including delete, upsert, and scheduled runs.
- Flow is the future of automation. Expect questions where the correct answer is a flow and the distractors are the retiring Workflow Rules or Process Builder.
- Grant baseline access with a lean profile and layer extra permissions with permission sets and permission set groups, rather than cloning many profiles.
- Practice in a free Developer Edition org or Trailhead Playground. The exam is scenario-based, so clicking through the real Setup menus beats rote memorization.
- Agentforce is now a full section worth 8%. Be able to judge whether a scenario suits an agent, explain that agents run with the user's own security so permission problems are ordinary access problems, and describe topics, instructions, actions, prompt templates and the conversation preview in Agent Builder.
- Section 7 is now called Automation, not Workflow and Process Automation, and the rename came with the retirement of Workflow Rules and Process Builder. Treat both as distractors and know the record-triggered flow types instead.
- Data and Analytics Management is the single heaviest section at 17% - more than Configuration and Setup. Report formats, custom report types, bucket and summary formulas, dashboard running users, and the import and export tool limits are all worth real preparation time.
Study guide FAQ
What is the format of the Salesforce Platform Administrator exam?
The exam is 60 multiple-choice questions plus up to five unscored questions, in 105 minutes. The passing score is 68% for the English version and 65% for the Japanese version. There is no coding, and the registration covers a scheduled attempt with paid retakes if needed.
Does the Administrator exam now cover AI and Agentforce?
Yes. Agentforce is a published section of the exam worth 8%, with two objectives: describing Agentforce capabilities and use cases - including judging whether a scenario is appropriate for AI, and troubleshooting security and permissions - and maintaining, updating or installing prompts and instructions in Agent Builder, including light testing and the conversation preview. You are not expected to build agents as a developer would, but you are expected to configure and troubleshoot them as an admin.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. The Administrator exam is entirely declarative (point-and-click). Apex, triggers, and Lightning Web Components belong to the Platform Developer track, not ADM-201.
What is the hardest part of the exam?
Most candidates find the security and sharing model (profiles, permission sets, OWD, role hierarchy, sharing rules) and process automation (choosing the right Flow) the most challenging, because the questions are scenario-based.
What is the best way to prepare?
Combine hands-on practice in a free Developer or Trailhead Playground org with Trailhead trailmixes and timed practice exams that mirror the domain weightings, focusing on your weakest domains.
Should I still learn Workflow Rules and Process Builder?
Understand what they did, but Salesforce is retiring both and steering all automation to Flow, so prioritize learning record-triggered, screen, scheduled, and autolaunched flows.
Official exam sources
The domain names and weightings on this page follow the published exam blueprint. Each source below records what it confirmed and when it was read, so the split can be checked rather than taken on trust.
- Salesforce - Certified Platform Administrator Exam GuideBlueprint revised Summer '25 · link and content verified 8 September 2026Everything this guide states, with nothing to correct. "Content: 60 multiple-choice questions and up to five unscored questions", "Time allotted to complete the exam: 105 minutes", "Passing score: English version 68%; Japanese version 65%" - both figures, which our exam facts give - US$200, and "Prerequisite: None". Eight sections totalling 100%: Configuration and Setup 15%, Object Manager and Lightning App Builder 15%, Sales and Marketing Applications 10%, Service and Support Applications 10%, Productivity and Collaboration 10%, Data and Analytics Management 17%, Automation 15%, Agentforce 8% - the domain weights used by CertGrid practice exams exactly, including the Agentforce section added in the December 2025 refresh. Read through a rendered browser: help.salesforce.com is a JavaScript application and a plain fetch returns only its loading shell. This REPLACES a recorded-only entry that said no re-fetchable URL existed.
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