PDII Exam Format | PDII Course Contents | PDII Course Outline | PDII Exam Syllabus | PDII Exam Objectives

The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II program is designed for individuals who would
like to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in advanced programmatic capabilities of the
Lightning Platform and data modeling to develop complex business logic and interfaces. The
candidate can design, develop, test, and deploy programmatic solutions that are
maintainable and re-usable and follow design patterns and object-oriented programming
best practices.

The Salesforce Platform Developer I credential is a prerequisite for the program.
The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II (PDII) certification will
consist of two parts: a proctored multiple-choice exam and four Trailhead Superbadges
which replace the Programming Assignment. Similar to the Programming Assignment,
superbadges show that you can apply what you've learned to advanced, real-world business
requirements covering features, concepts, and scenarios that are essential for a Platform
Developer II to know, including Apex programming, data integration and more.



This exam guide is designed to help you evaluate if you are ready to successfully complete
the Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II program. This guide provides information
about the target audience for the certification program, recommended training and
documentation, and a complete list of exam objectives—all with the intent of helping you
achieve a passing score. Salesforce highly recommends a combination of on-the-job
experience, course attendance, and self-study to maximize your chances of passing the
exam.


The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II Multiple Choice exam measures a candidates
knowledge and skills related to the following objectives. A candidate should have hands-on
experience developing custom applications on the Lightning Platform and have
demonstrated the application of each of the features/functions below.

SALESFORCE FUNDAMENTALS

 Describe the capabilities of base-system objects such as sharing objects,
history objects, metadata objects, multi-currency, and Chatter objects.

 Describe the different capabilities of and use cases for the various
Salesforce development platforms (Heroku, Fuel, Lightning Platform).

DATA MODELING AND MANAGEMENT

 Describe how to design code that accommodates multi-language, multicurrency, multi-locale considerations.

 Describe the implications of compound data types in Apex
programming.

 Describe the use cases for and benefits of external IDs.

 Identify use cases for different types of custom metadata and custom
settings, and describe how to implement solutions for those use cases.

LOGIC AND PROCESS AUTOMATION

 Given a scenario, describe the implications of the order of execution of a
record save.

 Describe the interactions between Visualforce/Apex with Flow/Process
Builder.

 Given a scenario, identify the optimal programmatic or declarative
solution.

 Given a scenario, debug unexpected behavior due to save execution
order.

 Describe the Apex features available for error handling and maintaining
transactional integrity.

 Identify potential issues with inefficient code and mitigation techniques
to avoid exceeding governor limits.

 Describe the data return types for SOQL and SOSL queries and their
impact on variable assignment.

 Describe the options, best practices, and use cases for asynchronous
execution.

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SALESFORCE CERTIFIED PLATFORM DEVELOPER I I

 Given a scenario, identify the appropriate dynamic Apex feature.

 Given a scenario, describe when and how to use Apex managed sharing.

 Describe the use cases for the various authentication techniques.

USER INTERFACE

 Given a scenario, describe how to use a standard set controller.

 Describe the considerations when creating custom controllers and
controller extensions.

 Describe the techniques for using Visualforce to perform actions and
partial page refresh.

 Describe the messaging techniques and best practices when displaying
errors in user interfaces.

 Describe techniques to maximize code re-use with Visualforce.

 Describe use cases for JavaScript in a Visualforce page.

 Given a set of requirements, describe the process for designing Lightning
components.

PERFORMANCE

 Describe the common performance issues for user interfaces and the
techniques to mitigate them.

 Describe the considerations for query performance.
INTEGRATION

 Describe how to expose Apex classes as SOAP and REST web services.

 Describe how to use system classes to integrate with SOAP- or RESTbased web services.

 Describe when and how to use metadata, streaming, and Analytics API
to enhance Apex and Visualforce solutions.

TESTING

 Describe the best practices for unit testing in Apex.

 Describe how to apply different techniques to create test data and
responses.

 Describe the implications of testing Visualforce controllers and controller
extensions.

 Describe various ways to execute tests and specify test execution
options.

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SALESFORCE CERTIFIED PLATFORM DEVELOPER II DEBUG AND DEPLOYMENT TOOLS

 Given a scenario, identify the appropriate tool to analyze application
performance profiles and troubleshoot data and performance issues.

 Given a scenario, identify the appropriate deployment tool.



SECTION 2. AUDIENCE DESCRIPTION: SALESFORCE CERTIFIED PLATFORM DEVELOPER II

The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II program is intended for an individual who has
experience developing custom applications on the Lightning Platform, including practical
application of the skills and concepts noted in the exam objectives below.

The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II generally has two to four years of experience
as a developer, including at least one year of design, implementation, and deployment
experience on the Lightning Platform.

The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II candidate has the experience, skills, and
knowledge outlined below:

 Understands the principles and best practices of Salesforce data modeling, interface
design, code development, and testing, and can apply these principles in real-world
development environments.

 Is capable of defining appropriate solutions to meet specific business
challenges/process requirements to extend/customize the platform by applying
knowledge of declarative and programmatic features of the Lightning Platform.

 Is competent developing Apex code that will scale to large data sets; has a good
understanding of platform behaviors, limits, and performance considerations.

 Can build custom user interfaces to display and interact with Salesforce data using
the Lightning Component Framework, advanced Visualforce, CSS, and JavaScript.

 Is competent tuning Visualforce pages and understands performance implications of
the controller design.

 Understands and applies best practices for general web and Salesforce-specific
security concerns.

 Can design and implement complex sharing models using declarative and
programmatic methods.

 Can design and implement a test plan that ensures adequate quality (e.g., code
coverage, application behaviors, scalability, environment independence, security)
across application components.

 Can deploy custom applications, has a broad understanding of the Salesforce
development lifecycle, and understands deployment tools and knows when to apply
each tool.

 Understands and uses Apex SOAP and REST web services and how to call out from
Apex using SOAP and REST.

 Understands and uses asynchronous programming – queueable, batchable,
schedulable, @future, etc.

 Understands and applies appropriate techniques for error and exception handling in
various programmatic contexts.

Implements best practices for trigger development and design patterns, other
business logic development, and reuse.

 Knows how to surface Lightning Components on a Lightning page and with Quick
Actions.

A candidate for this exam is not expected to:

 Administer any standard Salesforce application.

 Design a technical architecture solution that spans multiple platforms and includes
integration and authentication across systems.

 Develop and publish managed products on the App Exchange that require a security
review.

 Create a Quick Action.

 Surface Lightning Components in all possible locations.

 Use all Salesforce APIs (i.e. metadata).