So today we will check how I cleared Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer exam (now known as Salesforce Data Architect). I will share the Study guide and Notes with you. This exam is a prerequisite for the Application Architect. So if you are planning for the Architect path this guide will surely help you.
The first thing which we need to follow is Say No To Dumps. Dumps may reduce the effort but it will also reduce the learning which you will get after clearing Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer Certification exam and also you will get more satisfaction when you clear the exam using hard work. And trust me if you do proper study it’s very easy to clear.
Below is the exam guide and score breakdown for this exam:



You can check the latest guide here. The passing score is 58% here. So you need to start your preparation with the official exam trailmix. Even if you have already completed some of the badges or you are confident enough on a certain point I suggest you go through them again. As with time, things update so it will help you and will refresh your knowledge and you will learn new things. In the end, you will get Hands-on Activities, complete them as well. Now we will check a few topics from the exam
Data Skew; When one parent records own large number of child records then it is known as Data Skew. Salesforce recommends one parent should have a <10K child record. Data Skew affect the performance you will get the error if you don’t query these record properly also any time record owner change and sharing rule recalculation is needed it takes a very long time.
Developer Console Query Plan Tool: The Query Plan tool in the Developer Console can help speed up SOQL queries done over large volumes. We can use the Query Plan tool to optimize and speed up queries done over large volumes. Use this tool to check the Query Plan for any SOQL queries that execute slowly. It will provide us with insight into the different plans and have some of the filters indexed, provide the cost of using the index compared to a full table scan.
If the cost for the table scan is lower than the index, and the query is timing out, we will need to perform further analysis on using other filters to improve selectivity, or, if we have another selective filter in that query that is not indexed but is a candidate for one.
Large Data Volume (LDV): In Salesforce how you can load large data. What are the challenges? What are the available options here? This topic can help you get 20% marks. Once we have large data it impacts everything which is related to that object. it include Code(SOQL), Reports etc. So here we need to make sure we design the object schema carefully. We also need to make sure a single user doesn’t own a large set of data else it will create Ownership Skew.
Skinny Table: A skinny table is a custom table in the Force.com platform that contains a subset of fields from a standard or custom base Salesforce object. We can have multiple Skinny Tables in the org. Skinny tables improve the performance and you will get faster results when you use them in SOQL queries and reports. But we can only add 100 fields to them and if we need to add more fields or need to change something we need to recreate them. platform choose when Skinny table is a better option so we don’t need to change anything in our config/code once we create the skinny table.
Apart from these, we should also focus on PK chunking, Bulk API, Master-detail and Lookup relationship, Roll-up summary field, Data Import and Export tools Including App exchange product and third-party ETL tools, Report and Dashboard, External id, Indexing and how it helps to improve performance, Validation rule, and point and click Automation tool.
Final Tips:
- Make sure you do data migration to get hands-on experience, it will help in the exam.
- If you are confused between multiple options, choose which gives better performance.
- Always choose a native point and click tool second priority is App Exchange and ETL tools and finally the apex.
- You will get scenarios based questions, read them twice so that you understand properly, and then decide the approach.
So using this study guide you can prepare for the Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer ( Salesforce Data Architect ) exam. Do you want to add anything here, let me know in the comments section. Happy Programming 🙂