Taking time to preview Salesforce's interview questions and answers vastly improves your chances of working there.

Salesforce is a 21-year-old publicly traded cloud computing software company, located in San Francisco, California along with 63 offices in 28 countries. In 2020, Salesforce was ranked sixth on Fortune magazine's “List of Top 100 Companies to Work For,” earning similar awards from Glassdoor and LinkedIn.

Salesforce describes its culture as their “Ohana,” the Hawaiian word for intentional family, which is guided by four core values: Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, and Equality. They also focus on giving back and environmental sustainability.

Should you get an interview for one of their many job openings at the company, plan to spend a good amount of pre-interview time preparing your answers to their very specific questions. The hiring process at Salesforce is rigorous, detailed, and thorough to ensure they bring in top-notch employees who also want to be trailblazers in their field.

How to answer Salesforce interview questions

Based on the job description, candidates will be asked about their experience and skills using any — or all — of these four question groups: situational, behavioral, communication, and leadership.

These are known as competency-based interview questions and are best answered using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) in which you clearly explain a Situation you were in, the specific Task required of you, Actions you took to complete the task, and the Results you achieved.

Interview preparation with the STAR method will help you ace your answers to the questions below with clarity and confidence every time.

Top 5 Salesforce interview questions 

Here are the top five most commonly asked Salesforce interview questions:

What is Salesforce?

Show that you've done your research on the company by briefly describing the Salesforce product, its importance to the company, what it does, and/or how it works. 

Salesforce is an incredibly effective CRM (Customer Relationship Management) product. It's cost-effective for customers because it's delivered as software-as-a-service, or SaaS. It helps enterprises better connect with customers, as well as supporting businesses to manage their customers' data and efficiently track their activities.

What are the Salesforce subsidiaries?

Answer this by simply listing the subsidiaries as you know them. Again, it shows that you've done your homework. 

The major subsidiaries of Salesforce are:

  • Tableau 
  • Pardot
  • Heroku
  • Mulesoft
  • Demandware Inc
  • SalesforceIQ

Describe how object relations in Salesforce work

Answer this to show that you understand the two types of objects in Salesforce and what they do for the customer.

Using the object relationship overview, we can link both standard and custom object records in a related list. It's possible to create a variety of relationships that connect specific business cases with specific customers. It's also possible to create a custom relationship on an object and define various relationship types. 

Custom objects let customers create custom fields, track events and tasks, build page layouts, create a custom tab for the custom object, analyze custom object data, create dashboards and reports, and share custom tabs, custom apps, custom objects, and various other related components.

How does Salesforce benefit from using a SaaS platform?

Here you'll demonstrate that you understand the SaaS platform, and how it works when integrated with Salesforce.

Some of the main benefits of Salesforce SaaS are:

  • The pay-as-you-go model suits all customers
  • No hassle of infrastructure management
  • All applications are accessed via the Internet
  • Easy integration between various applications
  • Latest features are delivered quickly
  • Guaranteed uptime and security
  • Scalable performance for various operations
  • Ability to access via mobile devices from anywhere

Describe an app and how it's used in Salesforce

Along with defining the app, you should also show that you know the process for creating an app.

An app is a folder that holds a logo, name, and a set of required tabs among many other things. It's also a group of tabs that work together to prove the functionality that you are looking for. 

In Salesforce, you can customize apps to match requirements, or you can build new apps by merging custom and standard tabs. The process for creating any application is: Setup ---> build---> Create---> App---> Click on new.

These “top” questions may change depending on the interviewer or the specific job requirements. In general, expect initial questions to be about the general aspects of Salesforce and prepare accordingly. 

You should also be ready to answer one more important question: “Why do you want to work at Salesforce?”

16 more interview questions from Salesforce 

Below are more of the commonly asked Salesforce interview questions broken down into different types of categories.

Behavioral Questions

Your answers to these questions will show that you understand how to use Salesforce effectively in various organizational scenarios.

  1. Can a user be deleted in Salesforce?

  2. When creating a profile, can you change a license?

  3. Tell me about the sharing rule.

  4. What is a Fiscal Year in Salesforce?

Leadership Questions

These questions are to show that you know how to use Salesforce from a leadership role, perhaps for higher-level issues, like gathering Human Resources, Sales, or Payroll data to explaining how Salesforce is used in the company.

  1. What are the different types of reports available in Salesforce?

  2. What is an audit trail?

  3. What are the benefits of using Salesforce CRM?

  4. Can two users have the same profile? 

Technical/Skill Questions

There are a wide range of questions for this category. If you are going to work with Salesforce in a technical capacity, these are some of the things you need to know in detail:

  1. What is a Static Resource in Salesforce?

  2. Differentiate between Salesforce Object Query Language and Salesforce Object Search Language.

  3. What are the actions in a workflow?

  4. What are the main things to consider in the “Master-Detail Relationship?”

Company-Specific Questions

Similar to leadership questions, your answers will confirm that you understand how Salesforce can help specific companies.

  1. How does Salesforce track sales?

  2. What is Sandbox in Salesforce? What are the types of Sandboxes available?

  3. What are the reasons that can cause data loss in Salesforce?

  4. Can a user create/insert their custom logo as part of creating custom applications for the company?

Questions to ask the interviewers

Once the interviewer is done asking you questions, it's your turn. Asking recruiters and hiring managers questions will provide vital decision-making information should you get a job offer — and you'll make a great impression over others that don't ask questions.

Some sample questions to ask during a job interview include:

  • What would the first 90-days as a [Salesforce position title] look like?

  • In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge in [Salesforce position title]?

  • How does this position help with meeting the Salesforce company goals? 

  • What career development opportunities would I have with Salesforce?

  • How would you describe the culture at Salesforce?

  • What do you feel has made you successful working at Salesforce?

  • What prompted you to hire for [Salesforce position title]?

  • How would working at Salesforce be different/better than working for one of your competitors?

As you research the company and review the job description, you'll likely come up with additional pertinent questions to ask.

Conclusion

Since Salesforce has the reputation as a great place to work and is a leader in the field of SaaS, the competition for their jobs can be incredible. 

If you really want to work for Salesforce, take the time to research and prepare your answers for the company's very unique and specific questions. You'll give yourself a huge edge over other candidates who don't do their homework, and this could make you one of Salesforce's next great hires.

Want some professional help brushing up on your interviewing skills before the big day? Connect with an interview coach today.

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