The Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification is the certification that demonstrates that you are able to declaratively customize the standard applications or declaratively build a totally custom application.

"Declaratively" is a term that Salesforce uses to distinguish between building application using 'point and click' and 'programmatic' meaning using Visualforce and Apex coding.

The Platform App Builder certification does not require detailed knowledge and skills of programming, but it does require knowing when it is appropriate or necessary to use coding to achieve an objective. Once you have achieved this certification, you will be a Certified Platform App Builder.

In Platform Platform App Builder, there are 5 topics covered. The topic with the highest weighting is Logic and Process Automation. As it is weighted at 28%, this is an area that you must focus on to do well in the exam.

The following are the core topic areas of the Salesforce Platform App Builder certification and what you're expected to know:

In this section, you need to be familiar with the capabilities of the base system objects and know the capabilities and use cases for declarative customization solutions versus programmatic . You should also know the use cases for using an AppExchange app.

As part of declaratively building or customizing an application, you must always keep in mind the appropriate level of object, record and field access for different types of users. This section will present scenarios and you will need to determine the appropriate access and sharing solution, using features such as profile object access, permission sets, role hierarchy, sharing rules, manual sharing and field level security.

The Data Modeling and Management topic has the second largest weighting in the exam, so you should spend time to be familiar with topic objectives. In order to pass the data modeling and management section of the Platform App Builder certification exam, you must be familiar with a variety of topics related to data management. These topics include being able to determine the appropriate data model given a scenario, the different relationship types and implications of selecting one on the user interface, reporting and record access.

You should be familiar with the use cases and capabilities of external objects and when it is appropriate to use them as part of your data model design. In order to work visually with the data model, you should know the capabilities of the schema builder. Finally you should be familiar with the options for importing and exporting data into and out of Salesforce.

The Business Logic and Process Automation topic is the highest weighted section at 27% so you should make sure that you are very familiar with all of the topic objectives. This topic requires you to know how to apply business logic to your application, using record types, formula fields, validation rules and roll-up summary fields. You also need to understand the capabilities and use cases for the various automation tools, including Approval Processes, Workflow, Flow Builder and Process Builder. Finally you should understand the potential for field updates to cause recursion.

Recursion is a valid programming technique, used when a method calls itself to solve a complex problem, however it can cause a problem in Salesforce, if an update on one field triggers an update on another field which causes an update back on the first field, resulting in a recursive loop.

In the User Interface section, you need to understand how to declaratively customize the user interface and when and how to use custom buttons, links and actions. You should also be familiar with how Lightning Components can be incorporated into an application.

In this section, you need to be familiar with the options and best practices for deploying an application from a sandbox through to production. This includes understanding the different types of sandboxes and when it is appropriate to use each type. It is important to understand the capabilities and role of unmanaged packages in app development and deployment. Change sets are one way of deploying metadata from a sandbox, you will need to understand the capabilities and use cases.