Salesforce Developer Interview Prep Guide

Demonstrate bulkification: collect all emails from Trigger.new, query existing contacts with those emails in the same accounts using a single SOQL query, build a map for comparison, and add errors to duplicate records. Never put SOQL or DML inside a loop. Handle the update scenario where the email or account changes. Discuss the trigger handler pattern for organizing trigger logic.

Governor limits enforce multi-tenant resource fairness: 100 SOQL queries per transaction, 150 DML statements, 6MB heap size, and CPU time limits. They exist because thousands of organizations share the same infrastructure. Explain how this drives patterns like bulkification, efficient SOQL with selective filters, lazy loading, and using platform features (flows, rollup summaries) over custom code when possible. Give a specific example of refactoring code to respect limits.

Discuss integration patterns: platform events or Change Data Capture for near-real-time outbound, middleware (MuleSoft, Dell Boomi) for complex transformations, REST callouts for on-demand data retrieval, and the external services feature for typed integrations. Address error handling, retry logic, idempotency, field mapping, and data conflict resolution. Cover authentication (named credentials, OAuth flows) and monitoring integration health.

Walk through a specific project: the business requirements, why you chose certain approaches (custom code vs declarative, trigger vs flow, custom objects vs standard objects), governor limit considerations, and how your decisions affected scalability and maintainability. Show that you evaluate tradeoffs systematically and consider the long-term impact on the org health, not just immediate functionality.

Flows are preferred for straightforward automation that administrators can maintain. Triggers are necessary for complex cross-object logic, external callouts, or operations requiring precise transaction control. Invocable actions let you call Apex from Flows, combining declarative orchestration with code power. Discuss the "clicks not code" philosophy, the reality of complex business requirements, and how you decide based on complexity, maintainability, and team skillsets.

Discuss the options: server-side Apex callout from the LWC wire service, client-side fetch to a CORS-enabled API, or a combination. Cover caching strategies to avoid redundant callouts, error handling in the UI, loading states, and governor limits on callouts. Address security: named credentials for server-side, CSP trusted sites for client-side. Show you understand the LWC reactive data flow and how to compose components for maintainability.

Cover the migration phases: data profiling and cleansing in the source, mapping to Salesforce data model, handling relationships and external IDs, choosing the right API (Bulk API 2.0 for volume), load sequencing based on object dependencies, validation rules and trigger management during load, and post-migration verification. Discuss tools (Data Loader, Informatica, Jitterbit) and testing the migration in a sandbox before production.

Describe the specific skills you taught, the approach you used (code reviews, pair programming, documentation), how you adapted to their learning style, and the measurable improvement in their work quality. Show that you invest in team growth and can communicate complex Salesforce concepts clearly. Mention best practices you emphasized: bulkification, test coverage, and declarative-first development.