Plat-Arch-201 Sample Questions & Answers
Scalable data model design ties with Salesforce data management for the largest share, plus handling large data volumes, moving data into and out of Salesforce, enterprise data governance, and consolidating golden records from multiple systems.
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- Question 1Intermediate
Data Modeling / Database Design · Big Objects vs. Standard/Custom Objects
A healthcare provider needs to store audit logs for patient data access. Regulatory requirements dictate that these logs must be retained for 10 years and must be immutable (cannot be modified or deleted by standard users). The volume is estimated at 500 million records per year. The data will rarely be accessed but must be queryable for compliance audits. Which solution best meets these requirements?
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Correct answer: A
Big Objects are designed for scenarios involving massive data volumes (billions of records) where data is rarely updated (immutable nature) and mostly used for archival or audit purposes. They provide a cost-effective on-platform storage solution that meets the retention and immutability requirements.
- Question 2Beginner
Data Modeling / Database Design · Lightning Platform Data Model Design
An architect is designing a data model for a logistics company. They have a 'Shipment__c' object and a 'Container__c' object. Each Shipment can contain multiple Containers, and a Container can be part of multiple Shipments over time (e.g., reusable containers). The business needs to track the specific date a container was assigned to a shipment. Which relationship type is most appropriate?
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Correct answer: B
The scenario describes a Many-to-Many relationship (One Shipment -> Many Containers; One Container -> Many Shipments). In Salesforce, this is modeled using a Junction Object. The requirement to track the 'assignment date' further supports this, as the date is an attribute of the relationship itself, which would be stored on the junction object.
- Question 3Intermediate
Salesforce Data Management · Multi-Org Data Consolidation
A retail company wants to use Salesforce to manage customer loyalty data. They have an external loyalty engine (Oracle DB) that processes points in real-time. The marketing team needs to view the current point balance on the Contact record in Salesforce without storing the data in Salesforce to avoid synchronization issues. They also want to run reports in Salesforce combining Contact data with Loyalty data. What is the recommended solution?
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Correct answer: C
Salesforce Connect allows you to view and search data stored outside Salesforce (Data Virtualization) via External Objects. This meets the requirement of not storing data in Salesforce while enabling real-time access and reporting capabilities (limitations apply but basic reporting is supported).
- Question 4Intermediate
Data Governance · GDPR Compliance
A multinational corporation operates in the EU and US. They must comply with GDPR 'Right to be Forgotten' requests. When a customer requests deletion, their personal data in the 'Contact' and 'Case' objects must be anonymized, but the statistical data (e.g., Case reason, timestamps) must be retained for reporting. Which Salesforce feature is specifically designed to handle this requirement efficiently?
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Correct answer: A
While Salesforce Data Masking is a product, it is primarily for Sandboxes. For production anonymization (Right to be Forgotten), the standard approach is to implement a process (often via Apex or an AppExchange tool designed for production) to overwrite PII fields with static or scrambled values while leaving non-PII data intact. There is no native 'Anonymize Record' button for production that selectively keeps fields without custom implementation or specific privacy tools.
- Question 5Advanced
Large Data Volume Considerations · Scalable Data Model for LDV
An architect is diagnosing a performance issue where a specific dashboard component is taking 20 seconds to load. The underlying report queries the 'Opportunity' object filtered by 'StageName' and a custom field 'Region__c'. The 'Region__c' field has 5 distinct values, and the 'StageName' has 10. The org has 2 million Opportunities. Why might the Query Optimizer NOT be using the standard index on 'Region__c'?
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Correct answer: D
For a standard index to be used by the Query Optimizer, the filter must be 'selective'. For a standard index, the filter must target fewer than 30% of the first 1 million records and fewer than 15% of records after that (general rule of thumb often cited is <10% or <333k records). Since 'Region__c' has only 5 values, a single value likely represents ~20% of the data (400k records), which exceeds the selectivity threshold, causing a full table scan.
- Question 6Intermediate
Salesforce Data Management · Data Quality and Persistence
A university is implementing Salesforce Education Cloud. They need to track 'Alumni' who are also 'Donors' and potentially 'Faculty'. The data model must support a single individual having multiple roles without creating duplicate Contact records. Which Salesforce data management feature is best suited to allow a single Contact to be related to multiple Accounts (e.g., 'Class of 2020' Account and 'Science Department' Account) with different roles?
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Correct answer: B
Contacts to Multiple Accounts allows a single Contact record to have a direct relationship with one Account and indirect relationships with other Accounts, with different roles defined for each relationship. This avoids data duplication.
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