I am Salesforce Certified System Architect

By passing Identity & Access Management Designer, I earned System Architect. The journey of Application Architect & System Architect begun from September 2017.

http://certification.salesforce.com/architectoverview

My ~8 years of experience have played a big role in all these certifications. Compared to Application Architect, System Architect track was more challenging, but at the same time I enjoyed it more. I am glad that I took it up and cleared them all.

I have written about each 3 of them in my blog:

• I passed Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle & Deployment Designer exam
• I passed Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer exam
• I passed Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Designer exam

Instead of explaining each of the topics, I have pointed to the blogs which have done this job. No reinventing the wheel (again)! The blogs I referred have played key role in each of the exams. Grateful to each author for doing this fantastic job. Hats-off to them 🙏

Like I mentioned in my blog on Application Architect, going through the Resource Guide is strongly suggested. It is one of the best thing you can do to your career in terms of strengthening the knowledge. Hats-off to the Salesforce Certification team for putting this together 🙏🙏

Do let me know if you need help in any of the exams. Don't ask for dumps - I don't have it. I believe dumps are for dumb people!

I passed Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Designer exam

IAM is considered as toughest of all other designer exams. So I took enough time to prepare and revise multiple times with hands-on wherever possible before appearing for this one. It was tough indeed, but surprisingly I got lesser number of scenario based questions.

I guess not having experience in various modules is what makes any exam tough. For me, out of all other designer exams, this one had least number of topics which I had real-time experience. So I ensured I had enough knowledge by reading and definitely by doing hands-on on all possible topics. It indeed helped me.

In the process of learning I thoroughly enjoyed learning new features, new terms (& technology behind it) - that's what took a month of preparation. There is a to-do list in my Evernote for digging deeper into some of the topics I found extremely interesting. I will be sharing my learning when I finish digging :)

Like my other blogs on designer exams, I will point out to the blogs which I referred and recommend. They have done superb job in explaining the topics with great details.

• By now, you already know whose blog it will be - Yes, Maceij has done it again in his blog.
• Gemma is a champ. She failed once but she didn't give up. She prepared more, tightened the screws, and went ahead, and of course cleared it. Here is her experience with great set of diagrams with explanation.
• Binod has listed down majority of topics and reference links for more details in his blog.
• An amazing blog by Chris with video links is a great read.
• Charly attempted this exam last year and she couldn't pass. So she decided to take time off, dig deeper before taking another stab at it. Another great example of learning from the failure. Do read.
• I also skimmed through this quizlet for revision.
• Totally recommend this article for understanding SAML & OAuth.

Unlike my other blogs I do not have topics noted since the above blogs covers exactly that. The Resource Guide, again, is a great place to prepare your study.

Nothing is impossible my friend. Go for it. All the best :)

I passed Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer exam

I have quite good number of years of experience in integration. But, don't be under the impression that it's enough to crack this one. For me, this was toughest one so far. You need solid preparation around the topics - there are huge number of them. To make it easier, there are lot of folks (including me) who have jotted down the topics so that you don't have to.

I will take slightly different approach from my other blogs. I have reference to only 2 blogs this time, but more focus on the topics that I noted down post the exam.

• It's Maceij's blog again. Excellent topic explanation with diagrams. This guy is amazing!
• Gemma did awesome job with this blog, again. She has given crisp and clear explanation, with diagrams. A must read if you are preparing for Integration Designer exam.

Now, coming to the topics, I noted down post the exam. This list quite exhaustive, so take a deep breath... aaaand read on.

• Capabilities of Bulk API - what types of file/format it supports (XML, JSON, CSV), doesn't support base64
• Understand CA-signed & Salesforce client certified - also know what is used for Outbound message
• Know when to use Wave vs external ETL - this is excellent article given in Resource Guide
• Understand what is actionPoller and actionRegion tags
• Know what is allowed inside Test.startTest() & Test.Stop()
• Understand capabilities of Apex Continuation class - also know the difference betwee @future class
• Thoroughly understand Named credentials - where it can be used
• Understand the Integration Design Patterns - read & understand this excellent article/resource - there were good number of questions on this topics
• Salesforce Connect - know the capabilities, what's supported what's not
• Know various options for getting updated records - Data Replication API, getUpdated(), etc.
• Clearly understand the capabilities/features of Enterprise & Partner WSDLs
• Know the difference of ETL & Middleware - know when to use what, also know capabilities of middleware
• Understand usage of workbench
• Know Outbound Messages thoroughly - like others mentioned there were good number of questions around this topic - using Named Credentials, availability in Process Builder
• Understand how Duplicate Management works
• Know Force.com Canvas - again excellent tutorial given in Resource Guide
• MUST go through these 2 video tutorials given in Resource Guide (you should go through all of them, but special shout out to these 2)
• Integrating with Force.com : Security
• Integrating with Force.com Streaming API

Section-wise weightage and # of questions. Do refer to the latest study guide for any change in weightage.

	Weightage	# of questions
Salesforce Integration Testing	10%	6
Enterprise Integration Architecture Concepts	15%	9
Monitoring	5%	3
Salesforce Integration Patterns	17%	10
Integrating with Force.com: Security	15%	9
Salesforce Integration Capabilities	28%	17
Tools	10%	6

May the force be with you. The hands-on experience combined with the study, will definitely make the exam easier for you. All the best :)

I passed Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle & Deployment Designer exam

After clearing Application Architect track last month, I continued my flow and started preparing for System Architect track. Today I cleared Development Lifecycle & Deployment Designer exam 😄😎

The exam was easiest of all the designer exams for me. My experience helped me big time for this feeling. Though I studied as per the Resource Guide and blogs, I felt due to experience I was able to answer various questions.

Like other blogs I have written, I am not going write in detail for each topic, rather I will point out to the blogs I have referred and the topics I noted post the exam.

• Blog by Gemma. She has done wonderful job in covering the topics with neat explanation, sharing her experience on the exams in each of her blogs.
• Nicholas, in his blog, has given excellent explanation to various topics covered in the exam. Definitely 'worth' reading it 😋
• Development Lifecycle Guide is a MUST read in my opinion. I am guessing it covers majority of the topics. Its a nice refresher too.

Topics I noted post the exam (please refer to Study Guide and read the topics I might have missed):

• Types of sandboxes - there were good number of questions with different scenarios. Pretty straight forward if you know the usage of each type of sandbox
• External objects & Salesforce Connect - know its capabilities, deploying them, reporting on them, etc.
• Continuous Integration - best practices around branching, know how it works
• Change Sets - what happens during deployment (what gets locked)
• Difference in Waterfall & Agile methodologies
• Tools/matrices - RTM, RACI - if you are part of project management/planning its easy peasy, otherwise read and understand about it
• Various types of testing and when to use it - stress testing, load testing, performance testing
• Usage of Apex Hammer.

Section-wise weightage and # of questions. Do refer to the latest study guide for any change in weightage.

	Weightage	# of questions
Metadata API	10%	6
CI Techniques	8%	5
Methodology Tools	3%	2
Governance	17%	10
Risk Identification and Mitigation	12%	7
Understanding Packages	3%	2
Testing	10%	6
Application Lifecycle Management	17%	10
Environments	15%	9
Change Sets	5%	3

All the best :)

I am Salesforce Certified Application Architect

By clearing Sharing & Visibility Designer exam, I became certified Application Architect. Of course I am a Certified Platform Developer 1 & Platform App Builder (these are needed to be awarded as an Application Architect, see diagram below).

http://certification.salesforce.com/architectoverview

This is one of my great achievements. I definitely enjoyed preparing for these exams, learnt lots of new stuff. The thought of continuing this 'flow' came to me and I decided to study for the other track - System Architect. Watch out for my next posts on how I passed 😉

I have written 2 separate blogs on how I passed the 2 designer exams:

• I passed Salesforce Certified Data Architecture & Management Designer
• I passed Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer

Instead of rewriting the topics and explaining them again, I have given the blogs which have these information. No reinventing the wheel please!

If you are not ready for the exams, I (strongly) suggest you all to go through this wonderful thing called Resource Guide for each of these exams. Salesforce team has done a fantastic job of putting together all the helpful resources in one PDF. Apart from links to articles and videos, it also has a practice material to ensure you get hands-on experience. How cool is that?