Salesforce Certified App Builder Exam – Who is the certification for?

The Salesforce Platform App Builder certification is ideal for Salesforce professionals who want to enhance their knowledge for designing, building, and deploying custom applications using the Salesforce Lightning Platform. 

The Salesforce Certified App Builder Exam is intended for professionals who have at least 6 months to 1 year of experience building applications on the Lightning Platform. The knowledge and skills of the candidate must be centric toward the declarative features of salesforce like Custom Objects & Fields, Process Builder, Flows etc. 

The individual is not expected to have a programmatic development experience with  Apex, Visualforce, and Lightning Components.

Salesforce Certified App Builder Exam Details

The Salesforce Certified App Builder Exam consists of the following details and structure:

• Content: 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions and 5 unscored questions*
• Time allotted to complete the exam: 105 minutes
• Passing score: 63%
• Registration fee: USD 200, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
• Retake fee: USD 100, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
• Delivery options: Proctored exam delivered onsite at a testing center or in an online proctored environment. 
• References: No hard-copy or online materials may be referenced during the exam.
• Prerequisite: None; course attendance highly recommended

Salesforce Certified App Builder Exam Outline

• Salesforce Fundamentals: 8%
• Data Modeling and Management: 20%
• Security: 10%
• Business logic and automation: 27%
• Social : 3%
• User Interface: 14%
• Reporting: 5%
• Mobile: 5%
• App Development: 8%

5 Tips to Pass the Salesforce Certified App Builder Exam

1. Select an Area of Focus
What I personally preferred is to focus on the highly weighted topics because these key topics covered most of the questions on the exam and if you have solid knowledge and a basic understanding of these key topics then you will definitely pass this exam. But It doesn’t mean that we don’t need to study the low-weighted key topics because you can’t be so sure that you’ll answer all of the questions in the higher-weighted category. But yes, I didn’t personally spend much time on the low-weighted key topics. So be sure to review the concepts in the exam outline above. It might not be a bad idea to do an assessment and see where your weak areas are to find additional areas of focus, and maybe even areas to focus a little less. Try to prioritize your time.

2. Use Trailhead
I would recommend that before scheduling your exam first complete the Study for the Platform App Builder Exam trail. This particular trail takes approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete, there is a more in-depth trail Prepare for your Salesforce Platform App Builder Credential that is also helpful. If you have the time to dedicate to the full trail I’d highly recommend it. Also, study all the key topics and their subtopics from the Trailhead. If you read an article from the Trailblazer Community, read the tips and notes carefully.

3. Leverage a Development Org
If you get confused about any topic, navigate over to your development org and get some hands-on experience trying to implement it. Sometimes it’s really helpful to actually do it, rather than just reading about it. So keep that development org open while you are going through the trailmixes mentioned above and try out the examples. Get a feel for how to set things up. It may take you longer to go through the trail, but it will further enforce the topic and give you a deeper understanding. Once you get confident with some of the larger sections on the exam, go ahead and book your exam. Having a date to target will ensure that you allocate the time to study. If you don’t have a free personal developer org, you can get one through salesforce for free.

4. Practice Exams
Try out the mock exams and questions to both test your knowledge and get a feel for the types of questions that you might see on the exam. I’d recommend making it a goal to answer a certain amount of questions per day, or take a practice exam each day prior to the exam. Find some sort of a daily routine where you are taking quizzes, or answering questions on a daily basis. There are a lot of free practice exams available on the internet, but be careful as some of them may or may not have the correct answers so if something doesn’t seem right, be sure to research it. Here are a few links to some Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder Exams:

• Platform App Builder Practice Exam – Jenna Molby
• Platform App Builder Practice Exam – SalesforceBen
• Platform App Builder Practice Exam – VM Exam

5. Strategy for Taking the Exam
Here are a few tips I’d recommend for taking the exam. When taking the exam read the questions carefully and then answer it. Pay the attention to completely understand the questions as some of the questions can be tricky. If you’re spending too much time on one question or you’re just not sure then mark it for review later and come back to it when you can feel more confident about an answer.When you are confident with your answer then click on the “Next” button, if you are not confident then do not spend too much time on that just mark that later for review by clicking on “Mark for review”. At the end of the exam you will have a chance to review these questions.

After answering all the questions if you have remaining time then review all your answers once again before submitting it.

These are just some of the tips that I used to pass my Salesforce Certified App Builder Exam. I hope these tips will help you to pass your exam. Best of luck!

About Roycon
We’re an Austin-based Salesforce Consulting Partner, with a passion and belief that the Salesforce platform’s capabilities can help businesses run more efficiently and effectively. Whether you are just getting started with Salesforce or looking to realize its full potential, Roycon specializes in Salesforce Implementations, Salesforce Ongoing Support, and Salesforce Integrations, and Development. We’re the certified partner to guide the way to increase Salesforce Adoption, make strategic decisions, and build your Salesforce Roadmap for success.