Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Exam Guide

About the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Exam
Audience Description: Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator
Purpose of This Exam Guide
About the Exam
Exam Outline
Recommended Training and Resources
Salesforce Certification Candidate Code of Conduct
Maintaining Your Salesforce Certification

About the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Exam

The Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Exam is designed for individuals who have experience with setting up, governing, and optimizing the platform's data, processes and user access. The exam covers the breadth of applications, the features and functions available to an end user, and the configuration and management options available to an administrator across the Sales, Service, and Collaboration Clouds.

There are two certifications within the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator program. The first is the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator certification, which focuses on the features and functionality used to maintain a Salesforce implementation.

The second certification in the program is the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator II. This certification is for the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator who has mastered Salesforce configuration maintenance, can demonstrate an understanding of administration best practices, and is able to use the advanced features and functionality to solve a variety of business problems.

Audience Description: Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator

Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Exam candidates should have a general knowledge of the features available to end users and the configuration options available to a Salesforce Platform Administrator. Candidates should be able to maintain a Salesforce org, respond to common business requirements, and perform administrative functions using current Salesforce features.

Additionally, candidates should have 6 or more months of experience as a Salesforce Platform Administrator and should be able to successfully perform the tasks listed in the Exam Outline section of this guide.

Purpose of This Exam Guide

This exam guide is designed to help you prepare for the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Exam. This guide provides information about the target audience, the recommended training and documentation, and a complete list of exam objectives. Salesforce highly recommends a combination of on-the-job experience and self-study to maximize your chances of passing the exam.

About the Exam

Here are details about the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Exam.

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%
Version: Exam questions align to Summer ’25.
Registration fee: US$200, JPY¥30,000, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
Retake fee: US$100, JPY¥30,000, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
Delivery options: Proctored exam delivered onsite at a testing center or in an online environment; find more information on scheduling an exam here.
References: No hard-copy or online materials may be referenced during the exam.
Prerequisite: None

This exam may contain up to five additional unscored questions to gather performance data. Unscored questions are randomly integrated and have no impact on your final exam result.

Exam Outline

The Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Exam measures a candidate’s knowledge and skills related to the following objectives.

Configuration and Setup: 15%

Describe the information found in the company settings (for example: company settings fiscal year, business hours, currency management, default settings).
Distinguish and understand the administration of declarative configuration of the user interface (UI) (for example: UI/UX settings, app menu, list views, global actions, Lightning App Builder).
Given a scenario, demonstrate the proper setup and maintenance of users (user name is unique, locales, working hours, how to distribute licenses, types of licenses, not deleting a user, implications of making inactive, override, assigning feature licenses, management of users with various login methods).
Explain the various organization Security Controls (for example: Identity verification, Setup Audit Trail, Login Hours, Session Settings, agent access).
Given a user request scenario, apply the appropriate security controls based on the features and capabilities of the Salesforce sharing model (for example: Teams, Sharing hierarchy, public groups, org-wide defaults, sharing: roles, subordinates, role hierarchy, report and dashboard folders).
Given a scenario, determine the appropriate use of a custom profile or permission set (using the various profile settings, permission set group, and muting).

Object Manager and Lightning App Builder: 15%

Describe the standard object architecture and relationship model (for example: standard object, parent/child, master detail/lookup/junction relationships, record types, Schema Builder).
Explain how to create, delete, and customize fields and page layouts on standard and custom objects, and know the implications of deleting fields (roll-up summaries, cross object formulas, picklist dependencies, relationship fields).
Given a scenario, determine how to create and assign page layouts, visibility on Lightning page layouts, record types, and business processes for custom and standard objects (quick actions and global actions).

Sales and Marketing Applications: 10%

Given a scenario, identify the capabilities and implications of the sales process (for example: leads, opportunities, path).
Given a scenario, apply the appropriate sales productivity features using opportunity tools (for example: dashboards, lead scoring, Einstein for Sales, opportunity scoring, grading, and home page assistant, forecasting, territory management).
Describe the capabilities of lead automation tools and campaign management (for example: leads, lead convert, lead assignment rules, campaign, and campaign members).

Service and Support Applications: 10%

Describe the capabilities of case management (for example: case, case assignment rules, and queues).
Given a scenario, identify how to automate case management (for example: support process, case auto-response rules, case escalation, Einstein for Service).

Productivity and Collaboration: 10%

Describe the capabilities of activity management (tasks, events).
Describe the features of Chatter (groups, accessibility to groups, internal/external users).
Describe the capabilities of the Salesforce mobile app (Lightning page, modifying the app, browser, app menu, visibility, branding mobile app, build launchpad).
Identify use cases for AppExchange applications (awareness of managed or unmanaged packages, who is allowed to publish, prompts on AgentExchange, flows).

Data and Analytics Management: 17%

Describe the considerations when importing, updating, transferring, mass deleting, exporting, and backing up data (Archival, Apex data loader, Import Wizard).
Describe the capabilities and implications of data validation tools (duplicate and matching rules, validation rules).
Describe the options available when creating or customizing a report or report type (join objects together, with or without records, renaming the fields, formulas, bucket, join reports, chart settings, hide details, grouping totals, troubleshooting fields at a high level).
Describe the impact of the sharing model on reports (visibility, understand folder structure, sharing fields).
Describe the options available when creating and modifying dashboards (for example: dashboard widgets, data sources, chart types/settings, subscribing, dynamic dashboard, org licensing limits, view dashboard as, schedule refresh, filters).

Automation: 15%

Given a scenario, identify the appropriate automation solution based on the capabilities of the tool (escalation rules, case assignment rules, lead assignment rules, default automation user, AI).
Describe capabilities, use cases, and configuration for Flow (screen flows, record-triggered flows, autolaunched flows, order of execution).
Describe capabilities, use cases, and configuration for the approval process (criteria for approvers, rejections, approvals).

Agentforce: 8%

Describe the capabilities and use cases of Agentforce (scenarios about use cases, when it’s appropriate to use AI, security, troubleshooting agent permissions).
Explain how to maintain, update, or install prompts and instructions in Agent Builder (light testing, conversation preview).

Recommended Training and Resources

As preparation for this exam, we recommend a combination of hands-on experience, training course completion, Trailhead Trails, and self-study in the areas listed in the Exam Outline section of this exam guide.

The self-study materials recommended for this exam include:

Trailmix: Prepare for Your Salesforce Platform Administrator Certification
Superbadge: Object Relationships
Superbadge: Flow Administration

To continue developing your Salesforce skill set, visit Trailhead Academy to enroll in expert-led courses.

The courses recommended for this exam include:

To review online documentation, tip sheets, and user guides, search for the topics listed in the Exam Outline section of this guide on Salesforce Help and study the information related to those topics.

Salesforce Certification Candidate Code of Conduct

At Salesforce, Trust is our #1 value. Protecting the security of Salesforce Certifications is up to all of us. As a participant in the Salesforce Certification Program, you’re required to review and accept the terms of the Salesforce Certification Program Agreement and Code of Conduct at the beginning of each exam.

Maintaining Your Salesforce Certification

One of the benefits of holding a Salesforce Certification is always being up to date on new product releases. You'll be required to complete the Salesforce Platform Administrator certification maintenance badge on Trailhead once a year.

Don’t let your hard-earned certification expire! If you don't complete all maintenance requirements by the due date, your certification will expire.

Bookmark these useful resources for maintaining your certifications.