Exam Format
The Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I exam has 60 multiple-choice and multi-select questions. Pass mark is 65%. Time allowed is 110 minutes. Unlike the Admin exam, this one tests actual coding knowledge — you will see Apex code snippets and be asked what they output or whether they will compile.
Topic Weighting
- Apex Basics & Database — 23%: data types, collections, SOQL, SOSL, DML statements
- Process Automation & Logic — 19%: Flow, Apex triggers, validation rules
- User Interface — 25%: Lightning Web Components, Visualforce basics, Lightning App Builder
- Testing, Debugging & Deployment — 16%: test classes, debug logs, change sets, Salesforce DX
- Integration — 17%: REST/SOAP callouts, Platform Events, @future callouts
What You Must Know Cold
SOQL in Apex — inline queries, bind variables, relationship queries (parent-to-child and child-to-parent). Understand when to use FOR UPDATE and LIMIT.
Apex triggers — all seven trigger contexts (before insert, after insert, before update, etc.), Trigger.new, Trigger.old, Trigger.newMap, Trigger.isInsert. Know why triggers must be bulkified.
Test classes — @isTest, Test.startTest() / Test.stopTest(), @TestSetup, and System.assert variants. Callout mocks using HttpCalloutMock.
LWC basics — component structure, @track, @api, @wire, event handling, and parent–child communication.
A 4-Week Study Plan
Week 1: Apex fundamentals — data types, collections (List, Set, Map), SOQL, SOSL, and DML. Write code in a Developer Org daily.
Week 2: Triggers (all contexts), trigger handler pattern, governor limits, and async Apex (@future, Queueable, Batch).
Week 3: LWC structure, wire service, event handling. Visualforce basics. REST callouts and HttpCalloutMock.
Week 4: Test classes, Salesforce DX basics, debug logs, and change set deployment. Take the A2Z Salesforce 50-question mock test and review every wrong answer.