The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I is designed for candidates who have experience in creating custom apps based on the Lightning Platform. This designation checks your skills to use the basic fundamental options of the Lightning Platform to develop custom business logic as well as interfaces to extend Salesforce. For that purpose, you should be capable of utilizing Visualforce, Lightning Components, and Apex. This certification can be gained by passing the Salesforce Platform Developer I exam.
Before taking this exam, candidates should have at least one year of experience as a developer and 6 months of involvement in working with the Lightning Platform. Such individuals should have skills to deal with user interfaces utilizing the options of the Lightning Platform and business logic. The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I accreditation proves that candidates possess skills to work with object-oriented languages (Java, C#, Ruby, and Apex), data-driven apps, Model View Controller architecture, the features and capabilities of the main objects in the Salesforce schema. These individuals know the difference between declarative and programmatic methods and cases to use them, as well as they are knowledgeable of the fundamentals of the Lightning framework. Besides, candidates are capable of developing custom interfaces through using the core programmatic capabilities of the Lightning Platform.
The exam you need to pass is known as the Salesforce Platform Developer I evaluation. It includes 60 scored questions of various types, such as multiple-choice and/or multiple-select, and 5 unscored questions. You will be given 105 minutes to complete them all and score 68%. The test is rated at $200, though if you are retaking it, be ready to pay $100. Since, it is a closed-book exam, no additional materials are allowed to be used during the test. In addition, it’s a proctored exam, that’s why it can be taken onsite at a testing center or an online proctored environment. To add more, this exam serves as a prerequisite to obtaining the Salesforce Platform Developer II designation.
The Salesforce Platform Developer I test can be cracked if you know the exam objectives tested and topics covered in the exam. The exam content contains five topics, in which you should be proficient. So, before enrolling in the certification process, make sure that you are knowledgeable of the Salesforce fundamentals, data modeling and management, process automation & logic, user interface, and testing, debugging, & deployment. So, be ready to demonstrate your skills in describing consideration and applying best practices working in a multi-tenant setting, understanding design frameworks, defining general use cases for programmatic and declarative customizations. Furthermore, candidates must possess skills to work with data models, use cases and options for roll-up summary & formula fields, know the capabilities of custom IDs and different relationship types. Then, you will be tested on your ability to explain the potential of the automation features that refer to the declarative procedure, implement Apex control flow statements, utilize Apex interfaces, create Apex triggers as well as classes, and explain the relationship between Apex transactions. After that, your skills in utilizing a Visualforce page to modify Salesforce data, integrating Visualforce pages into Lightning Platform apps, describing the Lightning Component framework will be tested. You also should be proficient in preventing user interface and data access security vulnerabilities, utilizing custom user interface components, describing interactions between different types of page components, and Apex. Lastly, your competence in writing and carrying out texts for classes, triggers, and controllers, explaining the usage of the Salesforce Developer tools, describing the setting, requirements, and procedure for deploying codes will be assessed. Apart from that, you should know how to monitor the process, flows, along with batch jobs.
According to the PayScale website, by gaining the Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I certification, candidates can earn an average salary of about $95,000 per annum.