Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant Exam Guide

Contents

About the Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant Exam and Program
Audience Description: Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant
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 Tableau Consultant Exam and Program

The Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant certification is intended for individuals who engage with customers to lead the design of an analytics solution within the Tableau Platform.

This certification validates core Tableau knowledge and development skills of employees, partners, customers, and freelancers who need to work with Tableau products including Tableau Prep, Desktop, Cloud, Server, and Bridge.

There are no prerequisites for the exam. Upon successful completion of this exam, candidates are awarded the title of Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant. 

Audience Description: Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant

Candidates for this exam engage with customers to lead the design of an analytics solution within the Tableau Platform. They can work through very complex data issues. Projects may be scoped to the executive level rather than just the business unit level. They provide longer-term, strategic recommendations for analytics and handle complex performance issues independently.

The consultant typically has a minimum of 2 years of experience using Tableau products such as Tableau Prep, Desktop, Cloud, Server, and Bridge. The consultant has hands-on experience building a variety of solutions and is capable of leading implementations on Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud.

The consultant has the skills to pass the Salesforce Certified Tableau Desktop Foundations and Salesforce Certified Tableau Data Analyst certification exams. This exam is the advancement of that skill set. Candidates will not be tested on the level of the Salesforce Certified Tableau Desktop Foundations and Salesforce Certified Tableau Data Analyst exams because they are assumed to possess the competencies covered in those exams.

Purpose of this Exam Guide

This exam guide is designed to help you prepare for the Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant 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

Read on for details about the Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant Exam.

• Content: 60 multiple-choice and multiple-select items and up to five non-scored items

• Product version: Currently testing on 2024.2

• Time Limit: 105 minutes

• Passing Score: 63%

• Registration fee: US$200, JPY¥30,000, plus applicable taxes as required by local law

• Retake fee: US$100, JPY¥30,000, plus applicable taxes as required by 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 used 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

As a reference, this exam guide includes test domains, coverage percentages, and objectives only. The table below lists the main content domains and their weightings.

Domain Objectives

Note: This is not a comprehensive listing of the content on this exam.

Evaluate Current State: 22%

1.1 Map current state of analytics to future state

• 1.1.1 Map business needs to Tableau capabilities.

• 1.1.2 Translate analytical requirements into Tableau context by using best practices.

• 1.1.3 Recommend whether to use Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud, including migration.

• 1.1.4 Recommend and plan a Tableau Server upgrade.

1.2 Evaluate current data structures

• 1.2.1 Evaluate whether existing data supports business needs.

• 1.2.2 Evaluate lineage of existing data structures.

• 1.2.3 Evaluate existing data structures for performance risks and enhancement opportunities.

Plan and Prepare Data Connections: 22%

2.1 Plan for data transformation

• 2.1.1 Recommend an appropriate data transformation strategy.

• 2.1.2 Specify the requirements for minimum level of granularity.
  
  

2.2 Design a row-level security (RLS) data structure

• 2.2.1 Implement RLS and an entitlement table.

• 2.2.2 Identify group functions versus user functions.

• 2.2.3 Compare RLS approaches.
  
  

2.3 Plan and implement advanced connections to data

• 2.3.1 Recommend an appropriate method to connect to data, such as Web Data Connectors, web extract APIs, custom SQL, or ODBC.

• 2.3.2 Create connections by using Tableau Bridge.

• 2.3.3 Specify aggregation level and strategy for data sources in Tableau products (Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep, Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server).

Design and Troubleshoot Calculations and Workbooks: 40%

3.1 Design analytics for advanced use cases

• 3.1.1 Recommend when to use an advanced chart type, such as Sankey, chord, radar, tile map, small multiples, and data densification.

• 3.1.2 Identify the effect of the Tableau order of operations on calculations.

• 3.1.3 Troubleshoot issues caused by the Tableau order of operations.

• 3.1.4 Plan and implement advanced techniques to build interactivity into dashboards, such as dynamic URL actions, parameter actions, and filter actions.
  
  

3.2 Design workbooks to optimize performance

• 3.2.1 Identify and resolve resource-intensive queries.

• 3.2.2 Maximize caching for Tableau Server.

• 3.2.3 Identify and resolve performance issues caused by calculations such as string comparisons, IF THEN statements, and Level of Detail (LOD) expressions.

• 3.2.4 Recommend calculations that should be moved upstream of Tableau.

• 3.2.5 Interpret and resolve issues by using performance recordings.

• 3.2.6 Identify and resolve performance issues caused by design elements such as number of sheets, number of filters, and image size.
  
  

3.3 Implement advanced calculations that include multiple steps

• 3.3.1 Implement aggregations that include dimensions.

• 3.3.2 Implement advanced table calculations, such as window, nested table, or multi-directional.

• 3.3.3 Implement advanced date functions, such as fiscal calendars.

• 3.3.4 Implement advanced LODs, such as nested LODs.

• 3.3.5 Implement combinations of advanced calculations.

• 3.3.6 Troubleshoot advanced calculations.
  
  

Establish Governance and Support Published Content: 16%

4.1 Recommend and apply a Tableau governance strategy

• 4.1.1 Map an organization's governance requirements to Tableau features and capabilities.

• 4.1.2 Recommend a strategy for securing access to content.

• 4.1.3 Recommend a strategy for ensuring data quality, including certifying data sources, minimizing data proliferation, and configuring data quality warnings.
  
  

4.2 Leverage administrative views

• 4.2.1 Specify insights that require an administrative view.

• 4.2.2 Recommend the appropriate administrative views and data sources for a given scenario.
  
  

4.3 Recommend a content distribution strategy

• 4.3.1 Map publishing requirements to features and capabilities of Tableau.

• 4.3.2 Recommend an approach for the workbook lifecycle, including building, testing, deployment, distribution, and maintenance.
  
  

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.

In addition to experience, candidates are also strongly encouraged to be familiar with the content of the following Tableau training and resources.

• Analyst Learning Path

• Designer Learning Path

The following is a list of compiled resources that can help candidates become familiar with topics in each domain of the Salesforce Certified Tableau Consultant Exam. This list includes links to Tableau Help articles and best practices whitepapers which can provide an overview of important concepts covered in the exam. When reviewing each link, be sure to review any additional articles listed within that section.

Evaluate Current State

• Compare License Types
• Tableau Products
• Upgrade Tableau Server Overview 
• Upgrading from 2018.2 and Later (Windows)
• Location Data that Tableau Supports for Building Map Views
• Geocode Locations Tableau Does Not Recognize and Plot Them on a Map
• Dashboards
• Structure Data for Analysis
• Optimize Relationship Queries Using Performance Options
• Best Practices for Published Data Sources
• Optimize Workbook Performance
• Tableau Cloud Release Notes
• Tableau Support Policy
• About Tableau Catalog
• Use Lineage for Impact Analysis
• Designing Efficient Production Dashboards Whitepaper
  
  

Plan and Prepare Data Connections

• Get Your Data Tableau-Ready
• Set Up Data Sources
• RLS Best Practices for Data Sources and Workbooks
• Overview of Row-Level Security Options in Tableau
• Row-Level Security in the Database
• Best Practices for Row Level Security in Tableau with Entitlements Tables Whitepaper
• How Relationships Differ from Joins
• Functions in Tableau
• User Functions
• Dashboard Extensions API
• Tableau Prep: Save and Share Your Work
• Designing Efficient Production Dashboards Whitepaper
• Manage Data
• Data Connect for Private Network Data
• Use Tableau Bridge
• Refresh Extracts

Design and Troubleshoot Calculations and Workbooks

• Optimize Workbook Performance
• Tableau Workbook Performance Checklist
• Create Custom Fields with Calculations
• Create Level of Detail Expressions in Tableau
• Level of Detail Expressions and Aggregation
• Functions in Tableau
• Best Practices for Creating Calculations in Tableau
• Actions
• Filter Data from Your Views
• Tableau's Order of Operations
• Use radar charts to compare dimensions over several metrics
• View Acceleration
• Interpret a Performance Recording
• Designing Efficient Workbooks Whitepaper
• Exploring Sankey and Radial Charts with the New Chart Types Pilot on Tableau Public
• Use Dynamic Zone Visibility
• Fiscal Dates
• ISO-8601 Week-Based Calendar
• Set a Data Freshness Policy for Query Caches and View Acceleration
  
  

Establish Governance and Support Published Content

• Governance in Tableau
• Publish Data Sources and Workbooks
• Data Security
• Data Labels
• Introduction to Tableau Metadata API
• Create a Virtual Connection
• Send Data-Driven Alerts from Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server
• Embed Views into Webpages
• Work with Content Revisions
• Administrative Views
• Use Admin Insights to Create Custom Views
• CMT Migration Limitations
• About Tableau Catalog
• Collect Data with the Tableau Server Repository
• Manage Content Access
• Tableau Public FAQ
• MFA and Tableau Cloud
  
  

This is not a comprehensive list of the content covered on this exam. Role experience and time with the product remain the best preparation. Exam candidates are strongly encouraged to have a minimum of 2 years of hands-on experience using Tableau products, as well as experience building a variety of solutions and involvement in at least two implementations.

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 Certified Tableau Consultant certification maintenance module 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.

• Overall Maintenance Requirements

• Maintenance Module Due Dates

• Verify Your Certification Status

• Certification Expiration Details