Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer Interview Questions

As you know that preparing for the interview is one of the crucial steps towards getting a specific job. Talking about the Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer exam it’s important to understand the significance of practical knowledge besides theoretical skills. Hence, we have combined the best possible Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer interview questions to give you a fair idea about the type of questions asked in the interview. So, this tutorial will help you prepare well for the interview and ace it with flying colors. Before starting with the Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer exam interview questions, let’s take a brief of the exam.

The Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer exam assesses the architecture environment and requirements. The candidate who wishes to take the exam must be well acquainted with information architecture frameworks covering major building blocks, including data sourcing, movement/integration, persistence, metadata management, master data management, and semantic reconciliation, security, data governance, and delivery. 

Also, it is suggested for the candidate to have experience assessing the requirements of customers with reference to data quality needs and creating solutions to ensure high-quality data. Moreover, the candidate should be able to recommend organizational changes to ensure proper data stewardship and have experience communicating solutions and design trade-offs to business stakeholders.

The following job roles are available after the completion of Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer exam.

• Advanced Administrator
• Technical/Solution Architect
• Data Architect
• Advanced Platform Developer

Let’s move towards the Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer interview questions now.

Advanced Interview Questions

What is a data model and how does it relate to Salesforce?

A data model is a conceptual representation of the data structures and relationships within a system or organization. It defines the structure and organization of data, including the entities, attributes, and relationships between them. Essentially, a data model is a blueprint for how data is stored and used within a system.

In the context of Salesforce, a data model refers to the structure and organization of data within the Salesforce platform. This includes the standard and custom objects, fields, and relationships that make up the data stored in Salesforce. For example, the standard “Account” object in Salesforce represents a company or organization, and it has fields such as “Name,” “Industry,” and “Annual Revenue.” The “Contact” object represents an individual contact and has fields such as “First Name,” “Last Name,” and “Email.” The relationship between the “Account” and “Contact” objects is that a contact is associated with an account.

A data model in Salesforce is essential for ensuring data integrity and consistency, as well as for creating accurate and useful reports and analyses. It also enables users to quickly and easily access the data they need, making it an important aspect of the overall user experience. Salesforce’s data model is highly customizable, allowing users to create custom objects, fields, and relationships to meet the specific needs of their organization.

Overall, a data model in Salesforce is the foundation for the storage and organization of data within the platform, and it plays a critical role in enabling users to effectively leverage the data stored in Salesforce for business intelligence and decision-making purposes.

What is the difference between the master-detail and lookup relationships in Salesforce?

In Salesforce, a Master-Detail relationship is a parent-child relationship where the parent object (master) controls the behavior of the child object (detail). This relationship is enforced through referential integrity, meaning that when a master record is deleted, all related detail records are also deleted. The detail record inherits the sharing and security settings from the master record, and the master record is used to track the ownership of the detail record.

A Lookup relationship, on the other hand, creates a non-hierarchical relationship between two objects, allowing a record in one object to reference a record in another object. Unlike Master-Detail, the deletion of a record in the parent object (lookup) will not affect the related records in the child object. The child object can have its own security and sharing rules and is not affected by the parent object’s ownership or security settings.

In summary, Master-Detail relationships enforce referential integrity and provide a way to track the ownership of records, while Lookup relationships provide a flexible way to associate records without affecting their independent behavior.

Can you explain how you would determine the data archiving strategy for an organization?

Determining the data archiving strategy for an organization is a crucial step in ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of important data. The process involves several key considerations and steps, including assessing the organization’s data needs, identifying the appropriate archiving technologies, and developing a plan for implementing and managing the archiving system.

Step 1: Assessing Data Needs

The first step in determining a data archiving strategy is to assess the organization’s data needs. This includes identifying the types of data that need to be archived, the retention periods for each type of data, and the level of accessibility required for each type of data. For example, some data may need to be stored for legal or regulatory compliance reasons, while other data may only need to be stored for a short period of time.

Step 2: Identifying Archiving Technologies

Once the organization’s data needs have been assessed, the next step is to identify the appropriate archiving technologies. This includes evaluating different archiving solutions, such as tape, disk, or cloud-based storage, and determining which one best meets the organization’s needs. Factors to consider include the cost, scalability, security, and ease of use of the different technologies.

Step 3: Developing a Plan

With the data needs and archiving technologies identified, the next step is to develop a plan for implementing and managing the archiving system. This includes creating a schedule for data backup and archiving, defining roles and responsibilities for data management, and establishing procedures for data recovery in the event of a disaster.

Step 4: Implementing the Archiving System

Once the plan has been developed, the next step is to implement the archiving system. This includes installing and configuring the archiving software, setting up the archiving infrastructure, and training staff on how to use the system.

Step 5: Monitoring and Managing the Archiving System

Finally, it is important to monitor and manage the archiving system to ensure that it is operating as expected. This includes regularly reviewing the system’s performance, monitoring for potential issues, and making adjustments as needed. Additionally, it is important to ensure that data is being backed up and archived according to the schedule, and that data recovery procedures are in place.

In summary, determining the data archiving strategy for an organization involves assessing the organization’s data needs, identifying the appropriate archiving technologies, developing a plan for implementing and managing the archiving system, implementing the archiving system, and monitoring and managing the archiving system. By following these steps, organizations can ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of important data.

How would you ensure data quality and data governance in Salesforce?

As a Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer, ensuring data quality and governance is a critical part of my role. Here is how I would approach this task:

1. Define data quality standards: I would work with stakeholders to establish clear definitions and criteria for data quality, such as completeness, accuracy, and consistency.
2. Implement data validation rules: To prevent incorrect data from being entered into Salesforce, I would implement data validation rules at the field and object level, such as mandatory fields and unique constraints.
3. Utilize data cleansing tools: I would explore and utilize various data cleansing tools and techniques, such as duplicates management, de-duplication and data enrichment tools.
4. Establish data stewardship: I would designate a group of users, or “data stewards”, who are responsible for maintaining the quality of specific data sets within Salesforce.
5. Regularly monitor data quality: I would set up regular data quality checks, such as monitoring for missing or incorrect data, and address any issues that arise promptly.
6. Enforce data policies: I would establish clear data policies and procedures, such as who has access to certain data and how it can be used, to ensure that sensitive data is protected and used appropriately.
7. Incorporate data governance into change management: I would ensure that data governance is integrated into the change management process, so that all changes to the data architecture are reviewed and approved by appropriate stakeholders.

By implementing these strategies, I would ensure that data quality and governance are maintained in Salesforce, and that the data within the platform is accurate, secure, and reliable.

Can you discuss your experience with Salesforce data migration and data integration?

I have had quite a bit of experience with Salesforce data migration and data integration. In my previous role, I was tasked with migrating data from a legacy system into Salesforce for a large enterprise client.

The first step in the process was to understand the data structure of the legacy system and map it to the Salesforce fields. This required a lot of collaboration with the client’s IT team as well as thorough analysis of the data. Once we had a clear understanding of the data, we began the process of extracting the data from the legacy system and loading it into Salesforce.

One of the biggest challenges we faced during this process was dealing with data inconsistencies and errors. We had to create a robust data validation process to ensure that the data being migrated was accurate and complete. This involved a lot of manual cleaning and correction of data, which was time-consuming but necessary to ensure a smooth migration.

Once the data was successfully migrated, we then had to integrate it with other systems and applications. This included integrating Salesforce with the client’s CRM system, as well as their marketing automation and analytics platforms. This required a lot of technical expertise and a deep understanding of the different systems and their APIs.

Overall, my experience with Salesforce data migration and data integration has been challenging but extremely rewarding. It has taught me the importance of thorough planning and collaboration, as well as the value of a robust data validation process. It has also given me a deep understanding of how to effectively integrate different systems and applications, which is a valuable skill in today’s digital landscape.

How do you handle large data volumes and prevent data storage limits in Salesforce?

I have experience in handling large data volumes and ensuring that storage limits are not exceeded in Salesforce. Here are the steps I typically follow to handle this challenge:

1. Data archiving: I identify data that is no longer actively used but needs to be retained for compliance or regulatory reasons. I then archive this data to free up storage space.
2. Data compression: I look for ways to compress data to save storage space, such as converting large text fields to compressed text fields, or using record ID lookups instead of storing large amounts of duplicate data.
3. Data partitioning: I partition large data sets into smaller data sets to improve performance and reduce storage space. This can be done using Salesforce’s custom objects or record types.
4. External data storage: If necessary, I store large amounts of data outside of Salesforce, such as in a data warehouse or cloud storage. This data can then be easily accessed via integration with Salesforce.
5. Data monitoring: I set up regular data storage usage reports to monitor how much data is being stored and to proactively identify any potential storage limit issues before they arise.

By following these steps, I can ensure that large data volumes are efficiently managed and storage limits are not exceeded in Salesforce.

What are some of the key considerations when designing a custom object or field in Salesforce?

When designing a custom object or field in Salesforce, there are several key considerations to keep in mind. These include:

1. Object and field naming conventions: It is important to use consistent and meaningful naming conventions for custom objects and fields to ensure that they are easily identifiable and readable. This can include using clear and descriptive names, as well as adhering to any established naming conventions within the organization.
2. Data types and validation rules: The data types and validation rules used for custom fields should be carefully considered to ensure that the data entered is accurate and consistent. For example, if a field is intended to store a date, it should be set up as a date field with appropriate validation rules to ensure that only valid dates are entered.
3. Field-level security: Field-level security should be set up to ensure that only authorized users can access or edit certain fields. This can include setting up custom profiles or permission sets to control access to specific fields based on user roles and responsibilities.
4. Relationships between objects: Consideration should be given to the relationships between custom objects and any existing objects in Salesforce. This can include creating master-detail relationships, lookup relationships, or many-to-many relationships to ensure that data is properly linked and can be easily accessed and reported on.
5. Reporting and analytics: Custom objects and fields should be designed with reporting and analytics in mind, ensuring that the data can be easily queried and analyzed. This can include creating custom reports and dashboards to provide insights into the data, as well as setting up field-level security to control access to sensitive data.
6. Integration with other systems: If the custom object or field will be integrated with other systems, such as a CRM or ERP, consideration should be given to how the data will be exchanged and mapped between the systems. This can include setting up custom fields or integration points to ensure that data can be seamlessly exchanged between systems.

Overall, designing a custom object or field in Salesforce requires careful consideration of the data being collected, the user roles and responsibilities, and the reporting and analytics needs of the organization. By keeping these key considerations in mind, custom objects and fields can be designed to effectively support the business needs of the organization.

How do you secure sensitive data in Salesforce and ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA?

I take data security and compliance very seriously. To secure sensitive data in Salesforce and ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA, I follow a few key steps:

1. Access control: I implement strict access control policies by using roles, profiles, and sharing rules to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data.
2. Encryption: I ensure that sensitive data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. This helps to prevent unauthorized access to data, even if it is somehow intercepted or stolen.
3. Data masking: I use data masking techniques to conceal sensitive data in reports, dashboards, and other public-facing elements of the Salesforce platform. This helps to protect the privacy of individual data subjects.
4. Data backup: I implement a robust backup and recovery plan to ensure that sensitive data can be recovered in the event of a disaster or data loss.
5. Compliance monitoring: I regularly monitor Salesforce for compliance with regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA, and take proactive steps to address any issues that are identified.
6. Regular Auditing: I perform regular auditing of data access and usage, to ensure that all access to sensitive data is legitimate and compliant.

By following these steps, I am able to effectively secure sensitive data in Salesforce and ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA.

How do you monitor and optimize Salesforce performance in terms of data management?

Monitoring and optimizing Salesforce performance in terms of data management is essential to ensure that the system is running smoothly and efficiently. Here are a few key steps to take to ensure that your Salesforce data management is optimized:

1. Monitor data usage: Keeping an eye on data usage is crucial to ensure that your system is not overloaded. You can use the Salesforce Data Usage Dashboard to monitor data usage, including how much storage is being used and how many records are being created and updated.
2. Optimize data storage: Ensure that your data is stored in the most efficient way possible by using Salesforce’s data archiving and compression features. These features can help you reduce the amount of storage space that your data takes up, freeing up resources for other important tasks.
3. Monitor data quality: Data quality is critical to ensuring that your system is running smoothly. Use Salesforce’s data quality tools to monitor data quality and identify any issues that may be affecting performance.
4. Optimize data relationships: Ensure that your data relationships are optimized by using Salesforce’s data modeling tools. This can help you ensure that your data is organized in the most efficient way possible, reducing the risk of data duplication and increasing performance.
5. Monitor system performance: Keep an eye on system performance by using Salesforce’s performance monitoring tools. This can help you identify any issues that may be affecting performance, such as slow load times or high error rates.
6. Regularly maintain and clean the data: Regularly maintain and clean your data to ensure that it is accurate and up-to-date. This can help you reduce the risk of data duplication, ensure that your data is accurate, and improve system performance.
7. Monitor and track the performance of custom objects and fields: Ensure that custom objects and fields are being used efficiently and are not causing any performance issues by monitoring and tracking their performance.
8. Use Salesforce’s performance troubleshooting tools: When performance issues do arise, use Salesforce’s performance troubleshooting tools to identify the root cause and take the appropriate action to resolve the issue.

Overall, monitoring and optimizing Salesforce performance in terms of data management is a continuous process that requires regular monitoring and maintenance to ensure that your system is running smoothly and efficiently. By following the steps above, you can help ensure that your data is organized, accurate, and optimized for performance, helping you to get the most out of your Salesforce investment.

Can you give an example of a complex business problem you solved using Salesforce data architecture and management techniques?

One example of a complex business problem I solved using Salesforce data architecture and management techniques was for a large financial services company. They had a challenge with tracking and managing their client’s portfolio information, which was spread across multiple systems and siloed departments.

To address this, I worked with the stakeholders to understand their requirements and pain points, and then created a centralized Salesforce solution to consolidate all the portfolio data. I designed a custom object to store client portfolio information and established relationships with related objects such as client, account, and security.

I also implemented a series of data quality and governance processes to ensure that the data was accurate, up-to-date, and compliant with regulations. This included regular data clean-up activities, data validation rules, and approval processes for data changes.

Additionally, I integrated the portfolio data with their existing systems using Salesforce’s APIs and data integration tools, ensuring a seamless flow of information. This resulted in a unified view of the client portfolio information and improved the accuracy and efficiency of their reporting and decision-making processes.

By using a combination of Salesforce data architecture and management techniques, I was able to provide the financial services company with a centralized and robust solution to manage their client portfolio information, and improve their overall business processes.

Basic Interview Questions

Q1. What is the purpose of Schema Builder?

Schema Builder is enabled by default and gives a dynamic environment in an app for viewing and modifying all the objects and relationships. Hereby, it greatly eases the task of designing, implementing, and modifying a data model, or schema.

Q2. What does Schema Builder adds to schema?

Schema Builder lets you add the following to your schema:

• Custom objects
• Lookup relationships
• Master-detail relationships
• All custom fields except Geolocation

Q3. Explain the use of Metadata API?

Well, metadata API is useful in deploying changes. We can retrieve, deploy, create, update, and delete customization information for organizations like Experience Cloud sites, custom object definitions, and page layouts. Hence, using Metadata API is ideal when the changes are complicated or when there is a need for a more rigorous change management process and an audit process for managing multiple workstreams.

Q4. Define Salesforce limit.

Salesforce limits the number of total and active rules in an organization, the number of time triggers, and the actions per rule. Moreover, it processes a limited number of daily emails and hourly time triggers.

Q5. What is Apex?

Apex is a robustly typed, object-oriented programming language that lets developers execute flow and transaction control statements on the platform of Salesforce.

Q6. What do you mean by an Apex class?

An Apex class is basically a template or a blueprint using which Apex creates the objects. Classes consist of various other classes, user-defined methods, exception types, variables, and static initialization code.

Q7. What does AnalyticSnapshot represent?

AnalyticSnapshot basically represents a reporting snapshot. A reporting snapshot allows one to report on historical data. Authorized users can save tabular or summary report results to fields on a custom object and then map those fields to corresponding fields on a target object. Further, they can schedule when to run the report to load the custom object’s fields with the data of the report. Moreover, reporting snapshots enable working with report data similarly to how one works with other records in Salesforce.

Q8. What is a permission set?

A permission set is a good way of assigning users specific settings and permissions to use different tools and functions. Permission set licenses incrementally entitle the users to access features that are not a part of their user licenses. Moreover, one can assign any number of permission set licenses to users.

Q9. Define indirect lookup.

An indirect lookup relationship is meant to link a child’s external object to a parent standard or custom object. When we create an indirect lookup relationship field on an external object, we specify the parent object field and the child object field in order to match and associate records in the relationship. In particular, we select a custom unique, external ID field on the parent object to match with the child’s indirect lookup relationship field, the values of which come from an external data source.

Q10. Mention the key constructions used to store data.

Data is stored in three key constructions in Salesforce that are as follows:

• Objects
• Records
• Fields

Q11. What is Salesforce Customer 360 Identity?

Salesforce Customer 360 Identity is an Identity and Access Management service that enhances engagement with customers and partners. With the help of this, one can create sites for customers and partners that are customized to the needs and represent the brand in the best way possible, use different tools to customize how the users log in, register, verify their identity, and use single sign-on to access the apps and web pages.

Q12. Define Chatter.

Chatter is a platform in collaboration with Salesforce that allows teams to talk effortlessly in real-time. It is like the social media platforms that we use in our personal lives but built for work.

Q13. What is Salesforce REST API?

The Salesforce REST APIs give the apps on Heroku access to Salesforce data via simple JSON-formatted HTTP requests. One can use this integration for data proxies and custom user interfaces. Applications built with open-source technologies that are running on Heroku may use OAuth to authorize users in a custom user interface and hence interact with Salesforce data on their behalf.

Q14. Explain the method of Async SOQL.

Async SOQL is a method for running SOQL queries when we can not wait for sudden results. Async SOQL gives an easy and convenient way to query large amounts of data stored in Salesforce. These queries are run in the background over Salesforce big object data.

Q15. What do you mean by CRM?

CRM stands for Customer relationship management. Broadly, CRM is any practice, technology, or strategy designed to help businesses improve their customer relationships.

Q16. What is joined report format ?

The joined report format allows viewing several kinds of information in a single report. Additionally, a joined report can include data from multiple standards or custom report types. We can turn any existing report into a joined report by using the report builder.

Q17. Mention the types of reports.

The three types of reports are:

• Tabular reports
• Matrix reports
• Summary reports

Q18. What do you mean by Hierarchical relationships?

Hierarchical relationships are a special kind of lookup relationship that is available only for the user object. It allows the users to use a lookup field to associate one user with another that does not directly or indirectly refer to itself.

Q19. What is an attribute set?

Generally, an attribute set groups several global attributes together in the form of attribute items. Once we create our global attributes, we create an attribute set and further create one attribute item in the set for each such global attribute.

Q21. How are enterprise objects classified?

Objects can be broadly classified as follows:

• Core Data
• Managed Data
• Delegated Administration Data

Q22. What are the basic types of storage?

Storage is categorized in two types.

• File storage – files in attachments, Salesforce CRM Content, Files home, Chatter files, Documents tab, Site.com assets, and custom File field on Knowledge articles.
• Data storage – accounts, campaigns, article type translations, article types, campaign members, etc.

Q23. Mention the ways of managing record-level access.

• Organization-wide defaults 
• Sharing rules 
• Role hierarchies 
• Manual sharing 

Q24. What is the data export service?

Data Export Service is an in-browser service that is accessible through the Setup menu. It lets us export data manually once every 7 days or 29 days for weekly and monthly export respectively. One can also export data automatically at weekly or monthly intervals. The weekly exports are available in Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions. In the Professional and Developer Edition, one can create backup files only every 29 days, or automatically at only monthly intervals.

Q25. Define data loader.

Data Loader is a client application that one must install separately. It can be operated either through the command line or the user interface. If one wants to automate the export process or use APIs to integrate with another system then the former option is useful.

Q26. What is the use of Platform Cache?

With the use of Platform Cache, we can enable applications to run faster as they can store reusable data in memory. Applications can access this data quickly, eliminating the need to duplicate calculations and requests to the database on subsequent transactions.

Q27. Describe the Lightning component framework?

Well, the Lightning Component framework is a UI framework that finds its use in developing single-page applications for mobile and desktop devices. As of Spring ’19, we can build Lightning components using two programming models which are: the Lightning Web Components model and the original Aura Components model. Lightning web components are the custom HTML elements that are built using HTML and modern JavaScript. Moreover, Lightning web components and Aura components can coexist and interoperate on a page.

Q28. What is the use of Database.com Admin?

Database.com Admin is designed for users who require to administer Database.com, or make any changes to Database.com schemas or other metadata using the point-and-click tools in Database.com Console.

Q29. What do you mean by a user’s license?

A user license defines the baseline of features that the users can access. Each and every user must have exactly one user license.

Q30. What does the term My Domain refer to?

My Domain allows specifying a customer-specific name to include in a Salesforce organization URLs. Hence, this My Domain name finds its use as the organization-specific subdomain. With a My Domain, one can customize the login page and manage user login and authentication better. Since organizations with a My Domain are more secure therefore many Salesforce features require one.

Q31. Define Salesforce Edge Network.

Well, the Salesforce Edge Network is a network technology that enhances download times for users around the globe. Moreover, users get a better network experience while remaining on the Salesforce trusted infrastructure, which uses, protects, and processes data correctly and in accordance with the law.

Q32. What is TLS termination?

TLS stands for Transport Layer Security that establishes secure connections to Salesforce. Salesforce Edge Network lets end-to-end secure connections with persistent TLS connections and an optimized set up so as to reduce the connection setup time.