Salesforce.com Certified Administrator Study Guide

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What is a CertifiedOnDemand.com Study Guide?

A CoD study guide is a structured set of objectives, resources (articles, videos, blog posts, etc.), and key facts (takeaways from each objective) designed to prepare you to pass a Salesforce Certification exam.

Watch the video overview:

[youtube id=m-CCSB1H9Nk]

One of the biggest challenges with learning Salesforce is one of information:  there’s simply too much of it.  The [sc:link id=https://na1.salesforce.com/help/doc/en/sf.pdf text=”Salesforce User Guide”] is 5500+ pages, there are thousands of videos on the  [sc:link id=http://www.youtube.com/user/salesforce text=”Salesforce YouTube channel”] alone, and hundreds of blogs.

Processing the abundance of information is time-consuming, and it is often difficult to understand what’s truly important to know when preparing for a certification exam.

Another common challenge is identifying knowledge gaps (you don’t know what you don’t know).  For example, when I took the Salesforce.com Certified Administrator exam, I didn’t know that account teams existed (much less what they did), and I spent a lot of time preparing for the exam.

CoD study guides greatly mitigate the above challenges, and are designed with several specific goals in mind:

  1. To dramatically reduce the time required to prepare for a certification exam.
  2. To dramatically increase the likelihood of passing a certification exam.
  3. To present real-world challenges in safe learning environment.
  4. To serve as a reference guide after you’ve passed your certification exam.

Why CertifiedOnDemand.com?

The study guide provided by Salesforce.com is very high level.  Contrast that with the amount of information available, it’s very difficult to quickly identify what you need to learn and study.  Let’s look at an example: the Salesforce.com study guide has 2 objectives for User Setup, while the [link id=242] section on CertifiedOnDemand.com has 18 objectives, exercises, and a practice quiz.

12-21-2013 1-56-23 PM12-21-2013 2-07-41 PM

Target Audience

If you are preparing for admin certification, this guide is for you.  I’ve gotten feedback from users that have taken Salesforce.com training, used Salesforce.com premiere training, study groups, books, and more.  Regardless of your prior training and experience, CertifiedOnDemand.com will help you prepare for certification.

Feedback on CertifiedOnDemand.com

Hi John – thanks for your reply above! Also wanted to report back that I also passed my certified admin exam last week at Dreamforce and absolutely credit your site for helping me get there! With the sheer volume of data out there the structure REALLY helped put my mind at ease and make sure I covered the requirements well. Hoping to add a few more badges in the next couple of years. Just wanted to say THANK YOU!!!! Advanced Admin and perhaps the developer certifications are my next quests 🙂 – See the comment

I wanted to send you a quick thank you for putting together this amazing site! I passed the Salesforce Certified Admin exam last week and this site was such a great resource as I prepared for the exam. More than the passing the exam, I learned a ton over the last couple weeks and I know I’ll be a better admin because of your site. Thank you! – See the comment

I passed my Admin 201 and Dev 401 in back to back months. Going for the Sales cloud in December. Thanks for putting this site together! It’s the best resource I have found!! – See the comment

Hello John…Thank you so much for putting this site together.  I took the exam this morning and passed… – See the comment

Hi John: I passed the admin exam today, thanks to your wonderful site!!  Thank you so much for creating it and making it available to us. Now on to studying for the advanced certificate! – See the comment

Thank you so much for this site!  I was struggling to find a comprehensive study plan until I found this guild.  The information you have put together is not only extremely helpful, it is organized in a logical way to help you better absorb the material.  I passed my 201 exam this morning, thanks so much! – See the comment

I passed the Certified Administrator exam today. I couldn’t have done it without this site – what a great resource! Thanks!! – See the comment

I wanted to thank you for putting this fantastic website together. Thanks to you, I passed my Admin 201 certification exam this morning! – See the comment

Getting Started

Get started for free.  Simply [link id=4446], then visit [link id=36].  Visit the [link id=8129] if you have any additional questions.

893 thoughts on “Salesforce.com Certified Administrator Study Guide”

  1. passed the exam. thanks john!

    tips:
    – cover all “must” and “should” topics on this site
    – have a good understanding of reports & dashboards
    – focus revision on topics with a larger % – but do not skip the “1%” topics
    – no lightning yet
    – trailhead was useful for revision after i had covered the topics with youtube videos/workbooks/other material.
    – do mock exams on other sites in addition to this one (even if they don’t have the correct answers .. working through these and finding out the right answers was very helpful for me) (sfdc study, bulkified, etc)

  2. Passed my admin certification yesterday in my first attempt. The materials were very much organized. Thanks a lot for putting it together.

  3. Hey John!
    Thanks for having a very thorough site and study guide. With the info learned here and the practice quizzes etc. elsewhere, I was prepared enough and passed the certification exam on the first try.

    Ken S

  4. Hello John,

    I’d like to thank you for putting together such a wonderful material to study for Admin 201. I am a newbie to Salesforce and so finding all the topics under a single roof was extremely hard and overwhelming for me. After going through 2-3 Udemy courses and an attempt at the examination, I found your course and man I was impressed with it.
    I loved your attention to detail in every aspect of the course. I took my time to study through everything and my understanding of the subject is a lot better than what it used to be. I now have the correct understanding of the topics and how they are linked with one another. I gave my exam today and I am delighted to share with you that I have cleared it and I want to thank you for your material.
    I promised myself to come back to your site again to practice all the exercises thoroughly before I get into a job. The material, the exercises, the quiz and the discussion in the comments section were of great help.
    I want to thank you once again for taking the effort to put together a lovely up to date material.

    Regards,
    Tiru

  5. I also passed my exam a couple of weeks ago and owe a lot of my success to this website! It is sometimes challenging to find accurate and up-to-date info about Salesforce and I found this to be one of the most reliable and consistent sources. I tried two udemy courses, one of which had brain dumps with INCORRECT answers. They say once you learn something it takes twice as long to undo and relearn the right way — that was very frustrating, but I am so grateful to have found this site to correct my wrong teachings! I also appreciate that questions were answered very quickly. I would definitely recommend this website (and already have). The $$ is well worth the certification.

    One note: I am not a great test-taker in general, so it was also useful to take the practice exam at the end of this course and to find some other practice exams online to get used to exam-taking. I also think it’s important to take an exam for practice, if you can afford it. I took my first one as “pass/practice” to take the pressure off when getting an understanding of what the exam is like.

    Good luck everyone!

  6. Hey John,

    Took my admin test today and passed!

    I owe much of my success to the website you’ve put together, I think i’m safe in saying that I couldn’t have done this with any other resource.

    Thanks for putting this website together, and I hope you release other Salesforce exam prep in the future!

    Best,
    Rahul

  7. John,

    I loved this course and passed my 201 admin exam last month!

    I work as an implementation consultant for a Sales Acceleration company and work with Inside Sales customers who use our tool on Salesforce. I think my next cert I want to gain is the Sales Cloud. Do you recommend to review this course again in preparation for that cert, or are there other things I should look into besides Trail head?

  8. Hi John, Thank you for this site! I passed my Salesforce admin test and because of my new certification was able to get a new job, after a layoff from a company acquisition. Some of the best test advice I read, was to carefully review everything on your site just before going to take the test. I have been an admin for a few years, but there were so many gaps, I didn’t know what I didn’t know and your site taught me so much. Thank you!

  9. Passed my Admin certification yesterday and this site really has a great share in this. As you mention, the true challenge is to handle all this surplus of information and figure out what is needed for this exam and what is not. The fact that you, John, did a very good job at dividing the SF topics into smaller topics helped me a lot. Very grateful for this website! When doing some practice exams I realized that some of the topics here lack a bit of detail/depth but then I guess this is also not meant to be a stand-alone guide. Thanks a lot for your effort!

  10. Hi John my name is Sarah Colville-Los, I am mother at home looking after my kids. I have never done a Salesforce installation, I used your certified on demand study guide and a developer license, to prepare for the ADM 201 exam. I took the exam on the 21st November 2016 and passed. Your study guide was very comprehensive, helpful and easy to understand. It prepared me for all the questions in the exam.
    Thank you from Sarah

  12. Hi,

    I’m working with salesforce since last 6 years – I know administrator portion as well as some coding – preparing myself for admin 201 exam. I have heard lot about this site. Can someone please explain me how this site would be handy to pass 201 exam. Also, what will be the actual duration to complete the on this site so can take the exam date. Any help on this would be highly appreciated.

    1. Hi there- with 6 years of experience you will have a leg up on most folks preparing for certification. This site will help you quickly identify the areas that you do not use often but are still crucial for the exam. The FAQ has some metrics on timing as well- good luck on the exam!

  13. Hi John
    I started since yesterday and first thing i did is i created working environment as mentioned by you. Tried creating an app and if i try to create another app i cannot go back to the same screen where i had this tab called Add App

  14. Hi John,

    Thank you for taking the time to put this resource together. I passed the Salesforce Certified Administrator Exam first time yesterday. This guide was by far the best value and most cohesive guide I found to study for the exam.

    A word of warning to those sitting the exam for the first time – you do need to have a very good background working knowledge of salesforce. A lot of the exam questions were tricky and covered themes beyond the scope of the Must and Should resources here. I had to draw heavily on my 2 years user experience of salesforce, as well as what I learned here so worth considering before booking an exam.

    Thanks

    Simon

      1. Can I first and foremost re-iterate that this is by far the best resource I found to revise from. I felt exceptionally well prepared for most of the topics. The advice in the “getting certified” section was great, in particular the article about how to approach answering an exam question with examples of the thought process – that helped me through the questions I felt fell outside the scope of what I had studied as I was almost always able to eliminate at least one or two options.

        Questions I found tricky fell mostly in the following areas: User Interface, Formulas, Content vs Knowledge and Chatter. I felt there were some questions that were a bit outside the scope of what I had studied. In fairness, there is additional information in the “could” sections that I did not have time to read as I had set myself a short timeframe to self-study. The other thing that caught me out is the level of detail in the questions, which are possibly more detailed than those in the practice exams here.

        I wanted to post to make sure that people have as much info as possible before deciding to register for the exam.

        Best

        Simon

  15. Hi John,
    Yesterday I passed ADM 201 yesterday, Thanks for putting all together and quick reply’s for questions asked by members. I am planing to write Platform Developer-1, could you please guide any material/links. Thanks once again.

    Regards
    Sudheer

  16. As like a lot of people on here, I’ve just passed my 201 exam and this site was invaluable in both structuring my study and the study itself. I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to get their Admin Cert!

    Thanks,
    Tony

  17. Hi John,

    Just wanted to thank you for all the work you have put in the site. I just passed Certified Admin exam on my first attempt and could not have done it without your help.

    Thanks

  19. Hi
    Would appreciate an immediate and.
    22. In a master-child relationship between a standard object and custom object
    which of the following statements is NOT true? Please select two (2) items.
    a. The standard object is always the master
    b. The custom object is always the master
    c. The custom object is always a child
    d. The standard or custom object can be a master
    e. The standard object is never a child

  20. Hi John.

    I passed the certified admin exam last Tue, 25/10 NZT. I definitely must give your site all the credits to help me get there! Thank You for creating this amazing training material! It was the best investment I’ve done! Best Salesforce training material ever!

    I’m from NZ and find a reference to your blog on youtube. Sorry, don’t recall which video, as I watched a few dozens!

    It’s absolutely true what you say in the introduction of your site: “Processing the abundance of information is time-consuming, and it is often difficult to understand what’s truly important to know when preparing for a certification exam”. In the beginning, I was lost. Then, darkness became light after I found your site! 😉 Once again Thank You!

  22. Hi, i have no previous exposure to Salesforce but i have to pass SU16 admin certification, the basic one to get a job. I have just 3 weeks time..can it be done.? I bought the paid version i am spending 8 hrs a day. I have IT masters degree, but that was 4 years ago.

  23. Hi John – I loved the study guide for the Admin exam and recently passed my certification test. Do you happen to have one available for the App Developer certification?
    Thanks Diana

  24. Called on number [number redacted] which was shown in email for any help and person on other side (which i believe is john because voice mail says so) picked call. After listening “is it certified on demand” he dropped the call. What kind of professionalism is this? If you can not cater to queries please stop charging money from users. Else be there to answer queries.

    1. Hi amardeep,

      My sincere apologies for any inconvenience – the number you called should not be associated with the website. That was my personal cell phone, which rang at 11pm on a Saturday night (I wasn’t in a position to quickly explain this over the phone).

      I have since replied to your email, and will schedule a follow up call with you as needed.

      Cheers,

      John

  25. Hi John.

    A quick note and feedback to advise I passed the ADM201 exam.

    I’ll be honest and admit I did A LOT of digging around the Web for material and found quite a few resource. However, I must truly confess that your material was BY FAR the most structured I found. THIS, I believe was the key thing that put it all in harmony and made it all make sense.

    So thank you and I’ll be soon going for the Adv. Admin.

    Cheers and thanks again.

  26. Hi John, just to let you know I passed my certification exam last 3 Oct 2016 in San Francisco (Dreamforce ’16). Thank you for all the useful information provided on this website.

  28. John,
    I took and passed the Admin 201 Exam today after using your website as my primary studying tool. Thanks for great content and for your diligence keeping it updating, could not have done it without your materials!

  29. Hi John,
    I was trying to do a career change and I was recommended by one of my friends to use this site. I can say that this site has been of immense help.
    I also went through Trailhead and would strongly recommend anyone who is planning for the certification.
    You have organized the site pretty well and it gave me the confidence to get through the certification.

    Thanks.

  30. Hi John, I passed my ADM 201 today and I am glad I subscribe your paid account cause not only it has helped me pass the exam but also help understand many aspect of administration I was not aware of. Thanks you for this great resource.

    Ajay

    1. Hi Ajay,

      Thank you for your reply, I was wondering to check how many days did you prepare for the admin 201 exam. Could you please also let me know if the paid version is enough for preparation.

      Thank you again!

  31. I thought I could pass the Salesforce Administrator Exam only using Trailhead. But I’m positive if I hadn’t used your site, John, I wouldn’t have passed the exam today. Thanks, John!

  32. Hi John,

    Could you please let me know if the free trial version is enough for ADMIN 201 certification and I was wondering to know how we can find the difference between the production environment and the developer environment?

    Thank you!

    2. SVI, I had thought the same thing when I first found this site. I failed my first attempt at the test using only free Certified On Demand & Trailhead. On the second time around, I spent the money for the membership and helped tremendously, passing the test. Granted, everyone learns differently, but the paid version of this site was my missing piece. Good luck!

  33. John,
    Thanks for compiling the content here. I used your site to prepare for my second pass at the exam and it was immensely useful. I took the exam 6 days after my first attempt and passed. I feel the differentiator was the content organization. Sure Salesforce.com has Trailheads and there is tons of content online. But your site distills it down to the bare necessities for ADM201 but at the same time helped me firm up the core concepts. So it is not a short cut to get the cert. Rather prepare to meet the exam requirements in a expeditious manner. Great job!

    I think you will see a lot of people line up for your advanced cert compilation.

    Regards,
    Rajeev

  34. Hi John, I am wondering to check if the free trial version is enough for ADMIN 201 exam ?
    One more question is how do we check which version of environment we have, I mean the production or developer(DE), or any other because I have a org Id but I am not sure which one it is , I created it through the link given to me by my trainer.

    Thank you in advance!!

  35. Hi John,

    As I plan to purchase this study guide, wanted to check with you :
    1. How latest is this : 2016 – which season?
    2. Once purchased, do I get any updated copy or deltas – as per Salesforce upgrades/releases ?
    3. Is it only for the guide or any additional benefits/accesses provided?

    Thanks,
    Raghav

  37. Hi John,

    I am planing to write exam by end of Sep2016, i am wondering if there will be questions on Lightning.

    is Lightning in scope for exam?

    Thanks,
    -Kayam

    2. Hi Kayam,

      You might not want to skip it but i dont think you should be worried on Lightning particularly for the exam. First of all there is hardly any mention of it on the study guide and second User Interface is just 1% and you might or might not get a question on that.

      I did not get any. I would suggest you to pay more attention to areas with higher weightage and where more understanding is required.

      Wish you the best!!

  38. hi John,

    I cleared the exam last week and wouldn’t have made it without COD. This is a great resource and i’m sure this will serve as a good reference for anyone looking for help on core topics.

    NOTE: For those who are looking for one guide that will help clear the exam and if you are reading my comment now, look no further, you have come to the right place.

    Read each and every topic mentioned here especially the Must & Should and take the quiz at the end of every topic very seriously the exam questions are similar. Build your fundas strong here and don’t forget to take the mock exams on other sites too..

    Cheers!!!

  39. I signed up, but whenever i click Login – it doesn’t take me to a login screen it brings me back to this page to sign up again. Where is the direct link to actually login?

  42. Can you tell me – if I purchase this program, will I see more questions than what I see in the free version? I know a purchase will “open” the quiz for each section that is closed to the free version, but how large is the bank of questions for each section? Since I’ve gone through all the free ones, will there be additional questions for those sections if I purchase the program? Thank you for any clarification.

  43. Hello John,
    Can you please give me a step by step look over what is SDLC process in Application developments and deployment .
    Thank you.
    Tejal .

  44. Thank you for setting this guide up. It has been my main study guide and it was really helpful. I did my Admin exam today and I passed it. Thank you!!

  46. I passed my Admin exam today, and wanted to say thank you for putting together this guide! Without it I don’t think I could have achieved success in the time I did.

    Would love to see one for Developer!

    1. Congrats on clearing your exam !! I am going to give it next week. I am a bit nervous. Can you share how easy or difficult are the questions (in comparison to the practice test on COD)?

  49. John, FYI, Just checked the total pages for “How to Be Successful with Salesforce User Guide, Summer ’16” and the last page is numbered at 5584! time to update your sentence from: “The Salesforce User Guide is 3500+ pages” to “The Salesforce User Guide is 5500+ pages” thanks, MG

  50. Hi John, Hope you are well! I bought your Certified Administrator Study Guide in Jan this year (2016). However I was trying to look at Service Cloud quiz and got this message, To view the remainder of this content, you must purchase the Salesforce.com Certified Administrator Study Guide. Could you let me know how to resolve the issue? Cheers, -Crystal

  54. John just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work to keep the site up. I just passed my Salesforce Admin Certification today. The secret to my success was using the following tests online with your training.

    http://bulkified.com/Certifications/PracticeTest/Setup/?certificationId=1&certificationCategoryId=16

    The most important item I needed to do for myself was take a variety of tests then come back to a place to center myself about what subjects I was not
    doing well in. It is important to know what the subject content is and focus on the individual items. I found writing down the subject of the question and
    determining how much I knew about it to be the key to my success.

    Thanks Fred

  55. What does this offer that trailhead doesn’t? One thing that is really missing there is flashcards. I’m sorry, but I’m not seeing anything here that I don’t know is already there … but if you had flashcards to prepare for each of your quizzes I’d part with my $40 in a second. In less than a second.

    1. Dave, I took my admin test the first time based strictly on Trailhead knowledge and failed. I signed up for this site, paid the $40 (and used bulkified.com as well) and passed. Trailhead is nice about telling you about the tools but this site is better at helping you apply the knowledge, which is what the test is all about.

  57. Thanks John for an amazing source for Admin exam, today I passed my Admin Certification without any prior knowledge on salesforce .
    I highly recommend your tutorial.

    Thanks,
    Indira

  58. Hi John,

    I am trying to understand , Is that “Salesforce Certified Administrator (SP16)” & Salesforce ADM 201 are same? , I have recently appeared for Salesforce Certified Administrator (SP16) but found that its bit more complicated than i thought?

  60. Thank you, John! CertifiedOnDemand laid a great foundation for me for the Admin Certification (which I got!). This is a great resource and I recommend it to anyone planning to take the Admin exam!

  62. Hello john,
    I do want to know what is Software development life cycle really mean in words in Salesforce..
    Is that need SDK kit knowledge or other supporting application developmental tools or what we normally do for application develop and deployment steps?
    Thanks .
    Tejal.

  63. Hello john,
    I have questions ,
    Now a days going with some interview possible queries and came across like some industrious the SFDC admin are supporting more then 300 users..
    Can you please make me understand how exactly they count all those users..is that only technical user in SFDC org or non technical also?
    Like Opp. owners count as users or stakeholders and Developers with SFDC org. Admin or delegated admin with SFDC org. managers and other role who use SFDC..so i just believe it include sales and service side users too,right..who ever have login access to the org?
    am i correct or if not please make me understand..
    Thank you.
    Tejal

  64. Just letting you know I passed the ADM201 exam today! Your site was extremely helpful. My method to prepare was doing the admin Trailheads (beginner through advanced), then going through your course, the running through the quizzes on http://www.sfdcstudy.org/ — I completed the exam in 44min including review.

  66. Let me add another humble note to an already stellar list of comments. This is by far the most cost-effective and comprehensive self-study program that I found. I was on a very limited budget and the small fee I paid , literally paid off. I took the exam yesterday and passed on the first try. My advice to all who are studying for the Certified Admin exam is to go through ALL of the material John has collected and presented, do ALL of the exercises diligently, take and retake the mock quiz as many times as it takes to get to 100%. In addition to that, take other quizzes that are out there, but VERIFY EVERYTHING. It will take a long time, but sometimes the answers are wrong. How will you know? Only if you really study the material and believe me, it pays off in the end. It took me more than a day to go through the entire 175 questions of this mock quiz: http://www.sfdcstudy.org/adm-201-certification/adm-201-quizzes, but it built up a ton of confidence. I referred to John’s study guide a lot and researched and tried out solutions on top of that. As a result, I completed the actual test in 45 minutes and then spent an additional 13 minutes on review. In 58 minutes I was completely done and I passed! It’s a great feeling. Now onto the next level! Thank you John!

    1. Thanks for sharing – and great tips! Especially love the advice to verify all of the practice exam questions you find on the net. You’ll learn the material really well and you won’t get tricked by thinking an answer is right when it really isn’t. Congrats!!

  67. John, I passed the cert exam on the first try today! Thank you for creating this incredible study resource.
    Your guide is like ‘The Elements of Style’ for Salesforce.
    You have a gift at brevity and clarity in presenting a massive amount of technical material.
    Best, Sid

  68. Hi John,

    I have a couple of questions about taking the exam as I have concerns.

    I am in a Salesforce Admin/Developer role at work and have about 18 months experience of using the platform, so I am familiar with much of the functionality.

    I have been using your study guide for the past 3 months and have just completed it, I have taken detailed notes along the way. I feel I have understood all the concepts and have done well in the practise questions.

    However, looking at my notes I have made loads and loads. I have started looking at them from the start again and I have realised there is so much material covered, there are parts that I have forgotten already as I covered them a couple of months back.

    To get to the actual questions I have:
    1. Will the exam just cover a basic knowledge of each concept? How much detail does the exam go into?
    2. Are your practise questions on your site of a similar difficulty to what is on the exam?
    3. Your study guide goes into much more detail than the simple Salesforce study guide. Will lots of the little things appear on the exam or will most questions just cover the main topics their study guide covers?

    I have spent 3 months and many hours studying yet I am still not sure if I am ready yet? Although part of me wonders if I am going over the top attempting to know every detail possible when I only need to understand the basic concepts?

    Thanks for the effort in doing the site it has been really useful in learning.

    Thanks

    Jon

    1. Hi Jon,

      1) The sample questions in the practice exam should give a good idea of detail
      2) Similar, yes
      3) Many little things will appear on the exam, but not all

      It is hard to say if you’re over-preparing or not, although I suspect you may have done adequate prep. If you did well on the practice exam then that’s a very good indication.

      Good luck!

      1. Hi John,

        I’m happy to report that I passed the Admin exam this morning. Many thanks for putting together the website, it was a massive help in preparing me for the exam. I have been studying since the start of February and must have put about 150 to 200 hours in so it has been a lot of hard work, but well worth it.

        A couple of questions:

        1. Do you not get a percentage score for the exam? I have only been told I passed but no score?
        2. Having looked at the Advanced Admin study guide it looks like it concentrates on particular subjects rather than a wide spread of knowledge like 201, would that be a fair assessment?
        3. Any advice on sites that would be of help with the Advanced Admin or Developer exams?

        Thanks again.

        Jon

        1. Hey Jon

          Thanks for the feedback and congrats!

          1 – nope, just pass or fail
          2 – yes advanced builds on 201 but goes into much greater depth
          3 – trailhead and SalesForce premier training

  70. I took the exam today and halfway thru, I realized that I was doomed. Too many questions that were slightly mentioned on the official SF study guide or not mentioned at all. I was getting high marks on “other sites” and had the feeling that I should expect similar questions.
    I checked with another person that took the test 10 days ago and she mentioned that her test was quite different than mine.
    Now that I took a good look on the content here, I am pretty sure that this site is the real deal.
    Back to stage one, this time more humble.

    1. I’m hearing more and more that exam difficulty has increased. I believe the questions come from a larger pool of questions- so you may have gotten a more challenging set of questions than someone else that took the exam. But yes the exam is designed to be challenging and you really do need to know how the system works in a practical sense in order to pass (spend time configuring…!). Good luck on your next attempt!

  71. Hi John, thanks a lot!! I passed my Salesforce administrator certification exam!!! The study material, links, quiz and scenarios helped in preparing for the exam. And since the layout is according to the format of the study guide, I found it easy to go through the content. Thanks again!!!

  72. Just to report back that I passed the Adm201 cert this morning. John thanks for putting everything together on this website. Without this place, my study would have been ineffective. One other resource that was very helpful was focusonforce.com. Best of luck to everyone else.

  74. Hi john,
    Just want to learn wave analytics, as it’s a new topic. can you please guide me where can i find the detail notes and some good use cases.
    Thank you.
    Tejal.

  75. Hi John,

    Hope you are doing good.Recently passed my first transition exam for Admin 201 as per your advice by going through the release notes.My sincere thanks to
    you.I am in the process of preparing for App builder certification and am little bit confused when it comes to USER INTERFACE topic mentioned in study guide.
    Apart from lightning app builder ,custom buttons and links whether i have to go through lightning experience,lightning components ,visualforce and apex too.
    So what topics should i go through under USER INTERFACE mentioned in study guide.

    WAITING FOR YOUR REPLY JOHN .
    Can anybody who is APP BUILDER CERTIFIED guide me for the above mentioned.

    Thanks

    Arty

    1. I did the app builder migration exam a while back. Definitely study lightning. There are additional questions on the data model as well as order of operations (e.g. which comes first validation rule or workflow rule).

  77. Used this site to help me pass admin 201!!

    now i want my sales cloud certification, does this site help prepare for that as well?

    if not what do you recommend? I’ve already begin preparing to self study for this exam but there are far fewer resources than admin 201.

    please advise….

      1. hey,

        I’m not really getting much feedback on this. the most anyone has said is take the study guide, look up, and understand each topic. Thats the most info i’ve gotten so far. Guess where on our own with this one 🙁

        let me know if you get any feedback and ill keep you updated as well.

        1. Hey folks- replied to a comment in another section. This guide is not aimed at Sales Cloud certification- it will certainly help but is not inclusive. I don’t know of any additional resources other than the staples (Trailhead, online or in-person training, etc.). Good luck!

  78. Hi John

    I got the certification yesterday.Thanks for this awesome site. I want to say ” the best way to get the ADM 201 certification if you don’t have access to the “officials” courses of SFDC is to subscribe to this site”

    I’ve one question please: do you recommand a good way/website to prepar the sales cloud certification ?

    Thanks

  79. Hi John,
    Hope you are doing good.Recently passed my first transition exam for Admin 201 as per your advice by going through the release notes.My sincere thanks to
    you.I am in the process of preparing for App builder certification and am little bit confused when it comes to USER INTERFACE topic mentioned in study guide.
    Apart from lightning app builder ,custom buttons and links whether i have to go through lightning experience,lightning components ,visualforce and apex too.
    So what topics should i go through under USER INTERFACE mentioned in study guide.

    Thanks

    Arty

  80. Thank you for putting this guide together! I passed the exam today and your site was the reason why. I would recommend this site to anyone looking to learn more or to prepare for the exam.

  81. Hey John,
    This might sound like a silly question. If I study just the “Must” part leaving out the “Should” part and the “Could” part, is it enough to pass the admin certification? Thank you.

    1. It all depends 🙂 Its really about your understanding and comfort with the material- if you really fully understand it then you can probably skip things… if not, then I would use all of the material

  82. John,
    I passed the admin exam today. This site was essential to my success. That being said… talk about minutia!
    Thanks for all the valuable info on this site!!!
    Deb

  83. Hello John,
    today I passed the SF Certified Admin Exam and your site was of a great help in preparing. Especially in helping me structure the learning process. Thank you for doing and updating this site.

    Cheers Rainer

  84. I just passed my Salesforce Administrator Exam, using only this study guide and my experience as an administrator. Thanks for putting this together. I learned a lot while studying and was able to apply the knowledge to my organization. I wish you had this for the Dev 401 exam.

  85. Quick feedback: I am about 35% through the material here and I have completed 21 Trailhead badges so far. I just checked a Quizlet flashcard with about 80 questions. I could confidently answer 90% of the questions related to the areas I studied on CoD, and I was able to identify weak areas. The most interesting thing was that I could confidently identify the wrong answers on the cards due to change in SFDC functionality. The cards are based on Winter14. I really don’t think Trailhead helped much other than introducing the basics.

    CoD has really helped with understanding the material, so if you are on the fence about paying for full access – jump over that fence and pony up the cash. Its worth every penny so far.
    I’ll leave another feedback once I take and pass the exam!

  86. Hi john,
    Can you suggest me any Frequently asked Questions for interview purpose (For Salesforce BA position).
    and also i want little knowledge on SOQL and SSOL to use Developer Console .
    Can you please provide me some source to learn these.
    Thank you.
    Tejal.

    1. Hey Tejal,

      I don’t have any specific advice on where to find interview questions (although I know there have been several articles written). Your admin certification should go a long way in the process though. Good luck! 🙂

  87. Hello John,
    I have a quick question. I took the 201 class back during the Spring 12 release. Never took the exam. I still have the 201 books from that class. Student guide and exercise book. Are they still relevant? In other words can i still use them including the exercises to study for the test?. Also if you know of a data set for a fictional company I can import/use for the practice exercises. (the one in my old book is AW Computing)? I have the dev enterprise edition setup for 30 days but it has no data in it. (or perhaps I missed it)

    And I just bought your offering so I’m a member…:))

    Thanks

    Bob

    1. Hey bob,

      hard to say for sure but I would fear the materials might be outdated or inaccurate. Not to say you can’t use them but I would fact check as you go (which is a good exercise regardless).

      There should be sample data in a new DEV org – click go after selecting the “all” view – e.g. All accounts. By default only shows recently selected records.

      Cheers

      John

  88. Hi John,

    I recently bought the access to your site. What I want to know is there any pdf version of the site’s content or do I just need to browse page by page?

    If yes, where can I find it?

    Thanks
    Saurabh

  90. John,
    Would like to thank you for your amazing effort to answer everyone’s questions. Also putting together this guide! I am so happy to announce that I just came back from passing the ADM201 certification! Your site helped me so much in the preparation. I have access to the partner portal training but didn’t use it as much because there is too much information. Your site was great in consolidating the study material. I would highly recommend all who might be taking the exam soon to do the excersizes. The test is designed to test if you really know how to administer. Run different types of reports, create dashboards, play with the profiles, tinker with the service cloud objects such as content…I overlooked these since it was a small part of the exam but the test has enough questions from these small sections to cause you to fail if you don’t know the content. Also, it will make you a better admin practically if you do have overall knowledge besides just passing an exam. I currently work for a company who uses Salesforce. I am so excited to contribute to my knowledge to my team and the company.

    John, I am not sure you realize your impact on people’s lives through this guide. A genuine heart felt thank you to you. If you were here right now, I would definitely give you a hug and invite you over for dinner at the house! Seriously, is there a way to donate to your site? If so I will definitely do so in hope that you keep up your effort and perhaps create more guides for other exams like DEV401, DEV501.

    Thank You John…you are the man!

    1. Congratulations on passing.

      I agree this site is the best guide out there for the admin cert.

      I am starting to study for my advanced now and after using this site I am using this format as a template to gather my reaearch.

    2. Wow… thanks so much for sharing. Comments like this keep me motivated to keep this site alive and thriving! I will definitely keep everyone posted if I decide to release another study guide. And congrats on your certification!

      1. Totally agree with @afarooqui . Your site is amazing and thorough! I cant even imagine how much work you put into this site to keep it continually updated.

  91. John

    Thanks for a great site. It was a great supplement in preparing for my Certification Exam… which I passed this morning.

    Will definitely recommend your site for others. There are tons of resources out there but when you view them there is no way to say if they are current. I felt confident that your information was current and accurate.

  92. Hi John,

    I need a small guidance over here. Recently I passed Admin 201 exam and today I got an email from Salesforce regarding Spring ’16 Release Exam .
    This is my first release exam to be taken before July. They have mentioned the below exam objectives. Number of questions will be asked is 5.
    So is it enough if I go through these exam objectives alone mentioned below or I have to go through the whole Admin 201 again.I am bit confused over here like how to prepare for this release exam .Can you walk me through this.

    EXAM OBJECTIVES

    Describe the capabilities of the Data Loader Tool.
    Understand Health Check Score.
    Describe the capabilities of the Custom Application settings.
    Understand Work Orders.
    Understand the capabilities of login forensics.

    Thanks

    1. Maintenance exams are not proctored- you need to review the release training and release notes, but you will have time to read the release notes while taking the questions to make sure you get the right answer.

  93. Hi John,

    Thank you for for this study guide. I have passed the Admin test yesterday in the first try.

    for the benefit of others – I started my SFDC journey 20 days ago, I have gone through Admin Beginner trailhead + this study guide.

    invested ~ 50 hrs of time.

    Regards
    Isidore

  94. Hey John,

    Thank you for this awesome study guide! I passed my Admin Exam today first try!!

    This resource was critical in my success and was such a fantastic guideline for organizing all the material. VERY helpful. The scenarios were key!!!

    It was well worth the cost and I look forward to using your resources as I look to achieve other certifications in the future.

    Thanks again!

    -Bethan

  95. Hey John,

    I passed the 201 certification last week and would like to share with others that your website was the only study resource I used.

    Thank you for putting together this site for the community!

    Matt

  96. Thank you so much for putting this guide together. I passed my exam today thanks to you! This is an incredible resource for filling in any gaps in knowledge required for the certification. More than worth the price. Thanks!

  97. Hi john,
    Finally made it .?
    I passed my ADM(201), in my 2 nd attempt, and all credit surely goes to COD. Thank u thank u thank u for bringing up this knowledge site. More then worth of what I paid to u . And also recommendEd to many of my friend because I m sure h r supposed is always the there , and this sight is perfect source to learn admin part of salesforce, just want to ask that do u have any plans for such kind of site for DEV(401)? Or in near future plan . Pls let us know, I would love to learn from perfect resource rather then tumbling along other sites.
    Thank u again John.
    I m not done yet with this all knowledge yet but surely will keep learning from here, and keep it as my life time guide . Thanks
    Tejal.

  98. Thank you John, I passed my exam today. Used your site as the primary source of preparation.
    Recommend it to everyone preparing for Admin certification. Few tips that helped me prepare well are outlined below, hope it helps a few others like me:-
    1. Whatever theory that you study on the website, ensure that you practice it extensively on your developer org and think of other scenarios that revolve around it and try them out too.
    2. If you have any queries regarding how the application will behave in certain scenarios, try them out on the developer org first. If that still does not answer your
    queries, the Salesforce Community is a great forum to ask queries and get your doubts clarified.
    3. On CertifiedOnDemand website, each section has various comments/questions/scenarios posted by other users, I learnt a lot from other users’ questions and helped me
    think about scenarios that I had not previously thought of.

    At times I used to search for test takers’ email ids who post on COD about their success, I used to drop them a mail (bug them) for tips about their prep methods
    and to gauge if I am doing it rightly or not and what else do I need to consider. In case someone out there is like me and is looking for some prep tips, you can always reach out to me at
    kasukhelagautam@gmail.com , will be more than happy to help but within the purview of rules and conditions laid out by Salesforce certification 🙂 .

    Thanks a lot again John. My certification journey wouldn’t have been a breeze without the efforts that you put in bringing up such a wonderful website.

  100. I passed the exam thanks to this material! (It took 3 weeks of study only, half week practice tests, 0 previous experience with SFDC before…).
    It is well organized – right level of breath and depth of topics. (In fact we didn’t cover all of it in the instructor-led class itself, so that material wouldn’t have been enough now that I think of it).
    Thanks John for putting this up together, and pls help if you know a similar site that prepares for Sales and Service Cloud certification.

  101. Hi John,
    I passed my Salesforce Admin(201) exam last week.For my training mostly I followed this site which immensely helped me .Thanks to you.Next I am planning to take
    Salesforce App Builder Certification.But I couldn’t find any valuable study guide as Admin and apart from Admin study guide I couldn’t find any study guide
    in this site too.Do you have study guide for App builder or can you suggest any .It will be a great help.

    Thanks

    2. That’s awesome, congrats!! I don’t have any direct resources for the app builder exam, but I can share what I posted after I took the migration exam:

      Just completed the App Builder migration exam. It was pretty straightforward – make sure to study order of execution (workflow, validation, process builder, etc.), Salesforce1 layouts, Lightning Pages & Standard Components, rollup summaries and master-detail relationships, publisher actions, and the relationship between actions and page layouts / Salesforce1. All of these are addressed in the study guide.

  102. Hi John,

    I passed my ADM 201 exam today. Your site is Awesome. The way the topics are sequenced is really helpful to have a better understanding.
    A big thank you for your time and effort in putting together this awesome site.

    I would like to take the Service Cloud exam in the next 6 months, any pointers where to look for a study guide?

    Thanks,
    Lakshmikanth.

  103. Hi john,
    Today I gave my first attempt .
    But didn’t make it, but sure after giving that I really feel this is the perfact guide to use for adm(201) , u really not need to go and search any whare ,,, even though few topics r really enforeced in exam from new release . And sure john included them here and I think it’s really worth of reading for 201 exam, my suggestion is to read this guide for sure but still think each concept much analytical way . Then only one can clear this exam. And that’s what i felt today.
    Sure I used COD , but lake of having analytical knoeledege on sales and service side , some of the question were so difficult to answer( for me .)
    Anyways I will be keep reading and thinking all possible ways of each single topic.
    Thank you for giving us good guide John .
    Tejal.

    1. Hey Tejal- sorry you didn’t get through it on your first attempt… can’t say that’s completely uncommon. If you aren’t spending a lot of time in the application, I would definitely recommend doing so. Also, spend so more time using Trailhead if you haven’t completed all of the admin modules. Lastly, using some of the flash card sites can help IF you double check every question they present. Good luck on your next attempt!

  104. Hi,
    I am planning to take up Salesforce Admin exam and been going through Salesforce trail heads as a first step and in course of time I have come across this site.
    I have few questions on the content available
    Q) Do the length of the videos provided will vary If I opt for the full version by purchasing it for 40$
    Example : For Standard Navigation section the video length is around 2 min and a quiz for 4 questions and it is marked as free.
    Will it remain same even for the purchased version.
    Q)How elaborate the video content compared to the free version

    Please suggest.

    1. Please do not double post on this site.

      The length of the videos do not vary- the section content will be the same in the free sections after you’ve signed up for a paid account. The free sections are designed for you to get a feel for what to expect from the site – the content in the paid sections will be very similar (but you won’t be able to access it without a paid account). Best of luck! Cheers,

      John

  105. I just bought the $40 plan today. I plan to retake this dang exam for the 3rd time in about a month. Do you think going through this content in a month will be sufficient? I’m just scorn. 🙁

    Today I failed the 201 Admin Exam for the 2nd time. The admin guide was so broad that I was literally studying up to the last minute and still failed 2 weeks after I failed the first time. Got caught up with questions regarding the questions surrounding the Service and Sales Cloud Application, which I felt were the bulk of my questions. I’ve been working in SF for for over 3 years now, and I’m getting caught up on questions on features and out of the box options that our company doesn’t even use. I’m so fed up with their training content and guide. I had a question about Salesforce Classic Lite (I specifically wrote this down during the exam three times so I would remember it) and what accounts are transfer over to it. I hope I can pass with the use of your application.

  107. Hi john,
    I m actually looking for topic detail for Global User interface,
    i m not finding much detail about it in any material here,
    Can you please add that topic, i know it’s 1% only for certification ,
    still want some short video or some detail about it.
    Thank you.
    Tejal.

  108. I passed the on the exam on some days ago after only 42 mins. This site contents definitely helped me a lots though doing the questions (cheap packages I found online) helped me more ( just the type of person I am).
    Thank you John Coppedge for helping me understand the foundations of all the topics (I have to go back and forth many times between your topics to understand the questions I did).
    Suggestion: A quick update of Winter 16 questions’ topic would help a lot, I believe SFDC added some topics that were not covered here due to the new features- cant blame you though.

  110. Hi John I just passed my ADM 201 certification exam this morning on the first try, thanks to this site. This was well worth the fee! DEV certification next! Any similar solution for the DEV exam.

  111. Hello John,

    Passed my ADM certification yesterday. 🙂
    I must say it was this site and its content that gave me confidence to attempt the exam. Very well maintained and helps understand most of the concepts.

    Thank you so much!!

    BR-
    Vinit

      1. To cover the basics, this site is best. Apart from this, take all ADM related online quizzes from below site:
        http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/search.php?search=salesforce&type=recent

        Though most of the questions given on this site are correctly answered, still I would suggest to reverify those from official Salesforce documentation. That would help you to understand the logic behind the answers.

        Trailhead is also good option to go along with these.

        As already confirmed by John in one of the comments, for questions that have multiple answers they always specify how many answers to select which is very useful.

        Vinit

  113. Hi guys

    For all of you studying for Winter 16 salesforce admin just a few points.

    I think for winter 16 they have made the exam much tougher than any sample questions you may encounter. I studied all the topics in this guide I even did a number of the could sections.

    What I saw in my exam today was that the questions sf gave were insanely difficult. Every question was a scenario of some sort, I even wondered if it was the advanced admin.
    There were no straight forward questions. I was expecting questions like “If you want to use customized fiscal periods what do you need to turn on?” But instead without giving away the actual question you have stuff …. So and so company uses salesforce outlook and have encountered sync issues between certain entities please chose the answers below which may resolve these issues.
    All my questions involved a complicated scenario of a company with multiple teams or objects or fields…

    I obviously failed despite the 6 weeks of study but now I look at the advanced admin question I see 99% look similar to what I had to deal with today…Maybe my test centre has mixed the titles for the exams.. All I know is that even if I had an open book I would have failed.

    Im not sure I will try again because the questions were so so hard and had nothing in common the level of the certified admin questions you encounter on salesforce study guide or all the various sample questions.

    Kind regards

    1. Hi Immad,

      Thanks for the feedback- I’ve been some feedback like this on the Winter 16 version of the exam specifically. Historically, I believe the practice questions on this site have been good representation (and the vast majority of feedback received matches this assessment).

      A few thoughts:

      -I believe the questions are derived from a bank of a larger set of questions (e.g. a bank of 600 questions, you get 60 for the exam). You may have simply had bad luck and gotten 60 hard questions.
      -The Winter 16 exam may in fact be significantly more difficult- this may get adjusted downward in future exams if that’s the case. Having little to no separation between the admin/advanced admin exams would not make much sense.
      -Do you recall what the answers were in any of these examples? E.g. A similar fiscal years question is covered here: http://beta.certifiedondemand.com/company-profile-quiz/
      -How much time have you spent in the org configuring things? Studying is helpful but configuring is even better.

      I would definitely encourage you to try again. If anyone else has taken the exam recently, I’d love to hear your feedback.

      Thanks,

      John

      1. HI John Yes I think you maybe right. Maybe I got the hardest questions from the bank. I’ve checked these last hrs on teh net all sample question I can find and mine were always 3/4 lines just for one question. It was never a simple sentence.

        In terms of the practical side of things I have a developer account since late November. I did a lot of the trailhead stuff on it and also a large amount of the exercises from this site.
        I think witht eh knowledge I have right now I could probably do a decent junior admin job Ive been doing Siebel architecture since 2001. Most of the same principles as Salesforce in terms of data model, data import, admin.
        I raised a case with salesforce to ask my score at least to know what i got, not sure they will tell me. What I know is that for the 60 questions I took today even If I were to do them open book tomorrow I would fail due to the complex scenarios they proposed…

  114. Hi john,
    Recently saw one update regarding ADM(201) now kown as app buider,
    and the content is little different then ADM(201)

    as i m one of your follower,
    just want a advice from you .
    what we r doing is still valid?
    i mean ADM(201) certification is still available to give or we need to take our topic selection different way?

    i m confuse at this point!!
    just putting down the link that speak out the topics in Study guide for Platform App Builder.

    http://certification.salesforce.com/SG_CertifiedPlatformAppBuilder.pdf?v=5
    Thank you .
    Tejal.

    1. ADM201 (certified administrator) is here to stay, and will remain an excellent starting point.

      The App Builder certification is replacing the Developer certification (DEV401) and is appropriate for those that are heading into an architect or programmatic developer role.

      1. Thank you john,
        Your reply really means a lot to me.
        i m back on my ADM(201), as its for Admin , and as my interest for now, BUT not DEV(201) for now.
        Thank you.
        Tejal.

  115. Sure John,Will check the Release notes.I have one more question regarding certification Exam if i prepare this blog will that be good enough for clearing the Exam ?pls help

  116. Hi John,

    I will be taking my Admin 201 test for the Winter 16 release, what do you recommend I use along with your site to study for the Winter 16 release? Thanks in advance and if i prepare this blog will that be good enough for clearing the Exam ?pls help
    Thanks

    1. Hello Hariharan or anyone! Has anyone attempted the exam recently? I have been going through John’s website and it’s excellent. Need to know if we have to prep anything additional?

  118. Hi John ; I am new to SF… have started off on Trailhead and now purchased your study material. Is there any advice ? Also looking to be in touch with another newbie like me?

    1. I saw you posted that you were having a problem on a quiz as well- there are currently no site issues to my knowledge. Have you tried another browser? Also if you have previously purchased, then the site will not let you do so twice (as you already have access to the content).

  120. Thank you so much for putting together this site. I failed the 201 exam the first time and found your site when I was searching for additional study resources. $40 well spent. Passed the exam today!

      1. Hi John, was just going to ask about Winter ’16:) when do you expect to have anything on the website? I am currently going through the release notes anyway. Thanks

  122. Great resource John. I passed. I just want to add that i signed up for the exam on Christmas day as “potential” gift to myself, purchased your study guide on the same day, and passed today. Thank you!

      1. Thank you. I went over the quizzes and the practice exam over and over and over and over again to the point where i not only knew the answer based on keywords but i was eventually able to fully understand the question, the answer, and explain it to myself. John did a great job explaining both right and wrong answers so make sure you understand the answers(John’s explanations) and not just focus on choosing the right checkbox(es). Good luck!!

  125. Hi John, I have following questions on Serivce Cloud section , Can you please help me in finding the correct answer for followings.

    1) Do you know what is the primary function of a private branch exchange.
    2) Knowledge article life cycle consists of five stages. In which order does an article proceed through these stages.
    3) What are the metrics to be analyzed by contact center manager to measure the efficiency of its contact center.
    4) What are the basic concepts of Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS).
    5) For migration of an existing knowledge base into Salesforce Knowledge, what factors should be considered in selecting which articles to migrate

    Thanks,
    Partha

  126. Hi John, Hope you are doing well! Look like the exam in Jan. 2016 will be WI16 version.
    When are you planning to finish the update?
    Many thanks, -Crystal

      1. I have found a workaround and it works. BTW, I may need your advice about the report builder issue in my environment . Currently it (report builder) can not be enabled and everything was fine two weeks ago. I did not change any system settings. When I click New Report, Report Builder is replaced by Report Wizard . The settings for both “User Profile” and ” Report and Dashboard User Interface” look good. Many thanks for your comments!

  128. Hey John, Passed the ADM-201 exam last week!!! This is a great website that covers everything you need to pass.

    Now I’m ready to study for the Advanced Admin. cert…

    Do you provide an Advanced Admin. exam study guide? If not, could you point me in the right direction?

    Thanks, Ken

  129. I plan to take the exam in first week of Jan 2016. Does the exam scope includes Lightning modules? Would this training guide also covers lightning modules?

    thanks for your time John.

  130. Hi John,

    I passed the exam last week on my first attempt, and your site is greatly responsible for this accomplishment. Thank you so much for all your time, energy, and attention to it. If you’re ever in Chicago, I’d love to buy you a drink!

    Margo

  131. hi john ,Just want to know if you are upgrading with this lightning experience guide and effects nad other new topics as per winter ’16 .
    I m in between of topics of sales cloud…but worrying a lot about new topics too , as it will have mostly 6-10% questions for exam i think
    here is the link.and if you are doing it soon will help us alot..
    thanks Tejal…..

    (Evaluate and Roll Out Lightning Experience for Your Org)
    https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewHelpDoc?id=lex_intro.htm&language=en_US

  132. As far as Adm 201 is concerned, is there a big difference between last release and winter 16 release? Does it contain advance topics like Lightening Components?

    1. The changes between releases should generally not be a huge impact to the exam. It appears that the Lightning UI will be covered- here’s an update item from the study guide for the Sales Cloud section: Given a scenario, identify when to apply the appropriate sales productivity features in both
      Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience

  133. Hi John,

    I will be taking my Admin 201 test on Dec 21st and it’s for the Winter 16 release, what do you recommend I use along with your site to study for the Winter 16 release? Thanks in advance.

  135. hi john,
    few days back I saw updates on developer edition ,…there is winter 16’for developer ,,, already updated I think…can you please if some additional change we need to know .
    thank u.

      1. Nothing that I know of offhand although I have taken the exam. Many of the concepts will apply. I posted this recently on LinkedIn:

        Just completed the App Builder migration exam. It was pretty straightforward – make sure to study order of execution (workflow, validation, process builder, etc.), Salesforce1 layouts, Lightning Pages & Standard Components, rollup summaries and master-detail relationships, publisher actions, and the relationship between actions and page layouts / Salesforce1. All of these are addressed in the study guide.

  139. Hi all, not sure if I am posting this in the correct spot or not? Apologies if not.
    I need to know is there a way I can access SF without a license?
    Basically I am leaving my current employer to go travel, and I want to complete the certification while I am travelling – but given I wont be employed by a company using SF, how can I access SF to complete the study guide on here & prepare for the exam?
    I want to have the certification completed by the time I finish traveling so its complete when I commence my job hunt.
    Jess

    1. Hey Jess,

      You can sign up for the Developer edition org for free – this is in the getting started section. This will provide you with 2 licenses to Salesforce for free indefinitely.

      Yes – you need a license to access Salesforce. However, with a Developer edition org you can still learn without being attached to a licensed employer.

      Cheers,

      John

  140. Hi John;

    I just passed the exam!!!! Your site is fantastic! This is my process for those who are curious. I went through the Guide. It took at least 2 (or more) months of making sure I understood everything. Then I went through the quizes again and review some of the harder concepts. Then I took the 20 min test quiz at http://www.salesforceben.com. After that I took the quiz here and passed with a 75%. Then at Salesforceben I took the full test and passed. After that I took 2 more practice exams. I can’t find the site. But if I do I’ll post it. The key for me is understanding everything on this site then allowing the practice exams to gain practice and also identify week areas. I went through the test and marked all the ones I wasn’t sure about. Then went through those again. After that I flashed through the entire test for the last 20 min to make sure I put my best answers down. I don’t know how well I passed. But, if I judged by how hard the questions were I would say I barely made it past 65% Once again… Thanks If you make a guide for the Advanced Admin let me know. I will quickly put my money down!!

  141. John I must have asked this question somewhere else but can you please let me know :1) when you plan to incorporate Winter ’16 release functionality as it relates to this exam and 2) are the release notes (http://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter16/release-notes/salesforce_release_notes.htm?edition=&impact= )for this new release sufficient to be prepared for the new ADM 201 exam after November 16th. i am planning to take the exam mid December. It looks like the new release is quite comprehensive with Lightning, Wave analytics, customization, etc. , I don’t want to fall short the day of my exam. Would be grateful for any advice.

    1. Probably towards the end of the year – I’ll post when completed. You’ll see when you register for the exam what version it is for – at the moment the SU15 (Summer 15) exam is still active (meaning that the Salesforce certification exam doesn’t reflect Winter 16 yet).

  142. Hi John ,

    Thank you so very much for putting up this site together . I passed my Adm 201 today ! Woo hoo ! 🙂 I had taken up the exam in a short notice and I was able to clear it ‘cuz of this site ! The cohesive flow and the concise presentation of the topics really helped me a lot . This site would also serve as my reference in future.
    Few catch points from the exam , I prepared according the percentage of occurrence of questions , and understanding user management and security , Salesforce platform , Sales/Service cloud , Data Import helped a lot and gave me the confidence needed for exam.
    I realized that even though Chatter ,Content , Documentation, Knowledge Articles , Communities etc are given less importance in the StudyGuide of salesforce – understanding them and trying them out would be a good help as there are quite a few questions from these topics too.
    I also realized ,having a list of Exceptions to the standard funcitonality like , what would NOT allow a action to occur , for eg : the list of features which have Active checkbox , Why a picklist may not be displayed , things like that would help from exam perspective.
    Another note , Validation/Workflow precedence and knowing when to use which kind of component for Dashboard would really help.
    Thanks a ton John !!

  143. I started with this guide last Saturday and had my exam yesterday and I’m pleased to say I passed, and yes, this guide helped a lot. Now my notes for future exam takers:
    – Personally, I did the administrator trailheads and studied this guide extensively. Studying this guide alone took me about 35 hours. I checked out the must-sections, most of the should-sections and some of the could-sections. Just studying the Key Facts and the musts is – in my experience – inssufficient. The questions are sometimes quite tricky and often very detailed, asking about specific settings and such. The trailheads are useful if you actually watch every video and read the text attentively. I mostly went for the assignments, so for me trailhead didn’t make a difference.
    – With respect to subjects, I think this guide has insufficient focus on Dashboards. Make sure you check out the various Dashboard components and what they do. That type of questions really drew me up short.
    – Make sure you read EVERY part of the question (and read it well). Sometimes it’s possible to apply common sense, even if you don’t know the facts. Every word matters and nuances are VERY important. I changed at least five or six questions after re-reading the question.

    1. Hi Morna thank you for your feedback and perspectives about the site. can you elaborate on how you actually studied for “Dashboards” and other sections not covered in depth here but were asked in your exam? Can you list particular areas that we must not overlook and spend more time on? Is the Service Cloud well addressed? thanks again!

  144. Hi John,

    well put together thank you. I have just signed up. Ultimately I want to get a Sales Cloud certification, would you offer this in the near future or may you recommend similar resources to study online? Thanks again!

  145. Hey John,

    2 days ago I passed the test and want to give your site/service a big endorsement as I found it to be a great resource. I learned about CoD through the Admin 201 group on LinkedIn and can vouch that you definitely deliver as promised.

    I recently completed all the Admin trails on Trailhead as well, but found your material (and the way it’s presented) gave me more insight into the concepts and logic of Salesforce and confidence going into the exam.

    Thank you much for your effort and keep up the good work!
    Larry

  147. This site was very useful in my preparation for the ADM-201 certification and I have successfully passed the exam for summer’2015 in September. Thank you for this site and will always refer back to this site in future as well for quick references and future releases.

  148. After 3 months of effort , i successfully cleared the admin certification on my first attempt on OCT 9th with out having any knowledge of sales force.
    I have no clue how to start preparing for the exam and i am so lucky that i found this site. Its worth all the money.
    Would like to thank John for this great site , which made me understand the topics very easily and also want to appreciate the way he managed with the recent release as well.
    I read all the topic including all the ‘could’ as well around 2 times and reviewed all the flash cards etc.
    My main source of preparation is this site.
    And finally , If your good at the concepts , then its easy to clear the exam – though there will be some tricky questions but sure we can crack those if we have a good understanding of these topics
    A big thanks John !!!! 🙂

  150. John,
    When do you think you’ll have updated your site with material about the Winter ’16 release? I’m not trying to hurry you. I just know that what you include on your site will be a great resource for this rather significant release.
    Thanks!
    Rena

  151. Hi John,

    Passed my 201 on Sunday so a massive thank you for what you have done here. In my job current role I have performed ad hoc admin duties for 4 user professional org that only uses a tiny amount of the platform for a couple of years. Your site has helped give me the confidence and drive to learn salesforce to a level where I want to make a career out of it.

    In terms of crossover do you think I should now target the advanced admin or the new app builder certification that replaces dev 401

    Massive Thanks,

    Ralph

    1. Thanks Ralph and congrats! App Builder is probably going to be easier to get- although advanced admin will probably force you learn more content. Either is certainly valuable although I would probably lean towards advanced admin.

    2. Hi Ralph,
      Can you share the level of difficulty, is it all scenario based or straight forward questions etc? As i am planning to give a go on this month.

      Many thanks
      Dharani

      1. I found there was a fairly even mixture Dharani from what I remember , many were much like John’s scenario questions but there were also quite a few that were more like the flashcards you find on other sites .Good luck!

  152. Hello John,

    I had successfully cleared my admin 201 exam and to repeat others quote here, this is the best investment to make if you are looking to gain SFDC knowledge. I am guilty of skipping some of the “Could” sections in the tutorial and I am going to start with them again. John it would be a great service if you can come up with a similar tutorial for SFDC advanced admin 301 certification as well. I will be one of the first takers!

    Keep this on!

    Rajesh K

  153. Hi John,

    I successfully passed my ADM201 certification this afternoon (first try) and answered all the questions in 45 minutes only. Your website was very helpful to me and I do not regret my investment. I must say that I was a bit frustrated when reading tutorials. I really enjoyed your own videos, which are easy to understand and straight to the point, so text content is a bit boring… 🙂

    Nice job! And thank you…

    David

  155. Hi John,

    Can you please suggest what is the right answer for below question.

    Which data can be highlighted in a report using conditional highlighting?
    Choose 3 answers

    a. Date fields
    b. Summarized totals
    c. Group by field names
    d. Summary formulas
    e. Grand totals

    Many Thank’s
    Mukesh

  156. It’s cheerful to read about the success stories and positive feedback on the site and certification..I personally appreciate the way the materials well organized..
    Moreover, I would prefer to know about , how exactly the certification is ..simple or tricky/complex? how well we can crack it with this material ?how to tackle ?what’s the challenges/dry areas in the certification? any areas need to memorize ?

    Hope these inputs and experience about to face certification can help me and others as well…
    Appreciate your help here..

      2. Hi John,
        I take my Admin 201 test Dec 21st and it’s for the Winter 16 release, I noticed the Winter 16 release notes are over 400 pages. What do you recommend I use to supplement along with your site to study for the test? Thanks in advance for you recommendation.

  159. Hi John, I have registered with COD and have paid the support fee,being in Canada and the currency rate now and with bank fee added etc goes up almost 30%, Is their any way I can get discount coupon for Admin 201 exam fee,I would like to book a date. So I can plan my studies towards the date. Any advice will be helpful.Thanks

  160. Thank you, john, for creating and running this site. The material is robust and the practice exam is the best. I took other practice exams (even paid for ones) that had incorrect answers and weren’t as helpful. I passed my exam today. Thank you!

  162. Is there a way to track what modules I’ve done? If not, can you provide a link where I can get the entire expanded table of contents so I can copy it and paste it into Excel so I can create my own tracking sheet.

  163. Hey John. Loving this resource. I’m a recent grad who has no salesforce experience. I currently don’t have a job right now and my mentors have suggested I take this certification exam as it will open a lot of doors for me. A few questions for you is, how feasible is it for me to pass this exam without having the aid of a study group (since I have no one who is also taking the exam with me) or without having any Salesforce experience?

    My second question is, if I can afford 20 hours a week to do this, how many weeks will it take before I’m ready for the exam? I want to sign up for an exam now because the deadline will motivate me, but I have no idea what a realistic deadline is supposed to look like. Thanks!

    1. Yes it is certainly doable and would open a lot of doors – with no prior experience, I’d guess 4-8 weeks to prep for the exam. It varies a lot person to person though – you’re probably better off scheduling it and then rescheduling if needed. Having a firm date is motivating. Good luck!

  165. Hey John,
    I passed my Salesforce Certification exam yesterday. A big thank you and a virtual hug to you for your website & support. Having scoured the Wed I found this to be a single central comprehensive source for (SU15). Having a 2-yr background in Dynamics CRM I thought: “how hard can this be”. After seeing the breadth of Salesforce – I went “Yikes”. I passed your practice test but failed some other online tests so postponed my certification exam by a month. It helped me to rest fully a day before the exam, taking the exam at an onsite proctored location and categorizing my answers for review during the exam as was suggested in the “Getting Starting with your Certified Administrator Credential” workshop/video.

      1. Your practice exam was a good representation in terms of difficulty level. However, to my surprise, I found the “style” of the salesforce exam was different, in that it had fewer scenario based questions and proportionally more direct feature based questions.

  166. Hi John,

    I just wanted to send you a quick update and let you know that I also just passed the Salesforce.com Certified Administrator exam (SU15). Your website has been a great resource in helping me prepare for the exam. Thank you so much! Of course, there are no tricks or shortcuts and you really need to know what you’re doing and practice a lot. I have been an Admin for almost two years now and feel like I really needed the time and experience to understand how Salesforce works and what makes it tick. Thanks again for putting this page together for the Admin community. You rock! Any plans to roll out a study guide for the Advanced Certified Admin exam?

  168. Hi John,

    Its with great pleasure that i am writing this to apprecaite the effort that you have put in to conosolidate information in this guide . I cleared my exam just a few days ago and referring to the content updated in your site was indeed resourceful.

    thanks & regards,
    Satish

  169. Hello John,
    Do we have a link for to study for Summer15 updates exam on CoD ? I understand the summer 15 is for Service and Chatter. Do I just study the content on the study guide on the right. Are the contents for service and chatter updated and include Summer15?

  170. John,

    I have few questions. First of all site looks great and informative. In this site after I pay, I will get guide to help me understand and learn about Admin certification. Apart from that, do you happen to have any material on your website that will help me to understand and practise salesforce developer concent?

    Thanks

  172. Hi John

    I have just signed up for Certified Administration guide based on great review i see, very much looking forward to going through in detail. Thanks for putting everything together.

    Before i shoot, I had a quick question related to the version of what is available to me here on CoD to prepare for ADM201 in comparison to the latest release from Salesforce. I have booked my exam to make sure the version i will be learning is no different to what i will be giving my test on.

    Please can you confirm.

    Thanks

    1. The material has been updated to the Summer 15 release- given that Winter 15 is not out yet, if you take your exam in the near future you are very likely to be on the same version (it will tell you when you register). I always recommend reading/reviewing the last few releases before the exam for awareness as well. Good luck!

      2. John, sorry just another quick question

        Does this mean the guidance here is going to be updated soon with new “Lightening” being released by Salesforce?

        Or that the Certification (which I have booked 3 days back) is going to vary depending on what the version is currently?

        Thanks again!

        1. When you register for certification, you are registering for a version of Salesforce that corresponds to the certification (e.g. Summer 15) – it will say in your registration email. Lightning will be updated on this site when released- however, it is not yet and would not be included in the Summer 15 exam.

          1. Hi John. I want to send a big thanks message to you for putting all the content together here. I have passed my Admin exam couple of days ago. There is so much information (sometimes not your release specific) out there and it can get really confusing for someone who is self-studying salesforce like me! Thanks again for your efforts, and i must say your timely responses.

            My current role is Consultant (not in Salesforce), but i want to move into Salesforce. I have brief experience in implementing Salesforce in house building out Support processes. I have now booked myself for Service Cloud certification(SU15).

            Would do you have any certification just like for Administration anywhere on your site you provide? And also, would you have any thoughts on absolute real time experience needed for the Service Cloud certification?

            Looking forward to your response

            Thanks
            Deepthi

  174. Thank you for your wonderful website. The format is well-put together, the content is exceptional; I have not found any other resource as comprehensive and as useful as your Study Guide. Went into the exam with confidence and passed on the first try. I am now certified! Thank you!

  175. Hi,

    I cleared my ADM 201 today and thanks a lot to you and your website which helped me a lot. Nice material and mock questions.

    Keep it up.

    Nishant

  176. Hey, John. Great site so far. I’m studying for the ADM 201.

    I have one of those “it’d be great if you….” requests, lol.

    It’d be great if there was some way you could build into the site a way for us to indicate that we’ve actually completed and reviewed a particular area or item on your site, ideally by checkbox or some other way. Hopefully it wouldn’t be done by the placement of cookies, as I’m on multiple machines/devices throughout the day. I’m not sure your current site architecture supports this, but I thought I’d pass along my idea. I just want to keep myself on the straight and narrow path!

  179. AVOID THIS. Don’t waste your money. The study guide is a decent overview of Salesforce but does not have the level of specificity needed to get anywhere near passing the test. Try the free samples then take online quizzes (not just the one here) and see if you learned any of the answers from this study guide. Chances are you won’t.

    1. Hi Dan,

      This site offers a study guide for Salesforce certification; it is not marketed nor advertised as a full training curriculum (I understand the admin training course on its own does not provide enough depth for certification either). It is designed to provide a framework for you to explore Salesforce and offer challenges and questions to get you thinking about things in the context of a certification exam. Practice questions can be used to gauge your preparedness for certification, they are not an effective learning tool. Did you pass the questions in each section on this site on first attempt? If not, then you probably didn’t spend enough time with the materials and in the application (which would also explain the results on other practice test).

      I have gotten feedback from hundreds of users that have gotten successfully certified using CoD as part of their preparation methodology, while feedback like yours has been close to zero. Additionally, much of the content on this site can be accessed as part of a free trial. You always have the option of trying the content out first. Good luck with your certification, and all the best!

      Cheers,

      John

  181. Hi Shriya,

    Thank’s for reply

    This would be very helpful to me.

    Can you please suggest Admin 201 material for exam ?

    Many Thank’s
    Mukesh

  183. Hi Mukesh

    There were lots of questions from Security, Record Type, couple of questions on Analytics, Content, Knowlede and Chatter.

    I would suggest understand and study Sucurity very well.

    I hope my answer is helpful.
    Good luck.

    Shriya

  184. Hi John

    I passed my salesforce administrator exam today.

    Thank you very much for all the well structured knowledge base. It really helped me.

    Thank you again.

    Kindest regards
    Shriya

    1. Hi Shriya,

      Congratulations,

      Which type of pattern in exam that you face currently,

      I am also preparing same as you, could you please share some thought regarding exam, that would be very helpful to me.

      Waiting for positive response!

      Many Thank’s
      Mukesh

  186. Hi John,

    If i use payment mode on this site, then is this provide me to other salesforce certification exam material in future?

    Thank’s
    Mukesh

  188. Hi, I did the test today and passed the exam. I used all the quiz and the certification exam, but what helped me was how to choose the best answer based on the question. There were questions which seemed to have more than one option to choose from, but the secret is to check all the points in question and which is applied to meet the need.

    Thanks for the help, but need to have the option of other tests such as Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.

  189. Hi, I am planning for ADmin certification, and was wondering if the material is uptodate considering the fact that I am planing to take the test some time in october/Nov time frame?

  190. Hi John,
    I am planning to register for certification for Adm 201 , currently i am not in salesforce , as i am total new newbie to this product , and have no exposure to salesforce and no prior experience in field of CRM & Sales,as my total exp in field of supply chain , consulting in manufacturing.
    But currently working as a procurement manger and have no exposure to salesforce ,even though i have not seen a single screen yet for salesforce
    Below are the Question to you john :-
    1) Will this course material and videos will help to clear ADM 201 Exam , as per new releases what sales force is planning in future ?
    2) Is Classroom training required from certified salesforce training institute as i am not having exposure to salesforce , after that this will video will help me ?
    3) How to plan for study for ADM201 Based on your videos and notes …If classroom training is not required

    Awaiting for your”s valuable feedback and suggestions !

    Regards,
    Nitesh

    1. I would suggest reading the getting started and faq.

      1 material is currently updated to winter 15 – you will need to review a few updates to SFDC.
      2 classroom will help but is not required.
      3 start working through the materials 🙂

      Cheers

      John

  191. John,

    I just wanted to say an immense “Thank You” for your this incredible resource you are kind enough to share. Your explanations, examples, questions, advice and practice tests are spot on and were just what I needed. I took both the Adm 201 and Dev 401 today and passed both and of the 6 of so places I used to help me prepare, yours is one of those at the top.

    Sophie

  192. John,
    Since I passed the exam a week or so ago; my phone has been ringing with people interested in hiring me. The money they are talking about is very nice. You should be very proud to have such a positive an impact on peoples lives. You are making the world a better place.

    Thanks so very much.

    1. That is such awesome feedback I had a similar experience years ago and certification really helped transform my career as well. That’s a good part of why I started this site and I so excited to hear about these results. Congrats!

  193. John,

    I passed Admin 201 today! This study guide was instrumental. I will definitely be recommending it to others 🙂 Now on to 301 and 401

  194. Hi John,

    I passed my 201 few weeks ago. Thanks to your wonderful guide !! I am taking 401 in 10 days and I am hoping some of the sections in this guide are going to
    prepare me. Any thoughts ?

  195. Hi John,

    I just wanted to thank you for such a comprehensive site. I purchased the COD admin training package about a month ago and have been using it faithfully ever since. I’m pleased to say that this morning, I took the admin exam and PASSED!!! YAY! Don’t think I could have done it without your site. Thank you, Thank you! Now on to the Developer certification!

  196. Hi John,

    I see SP15 as the currently available exam for ADM201. Is it ok to take this SP15 exam or wait until Summer 15 exam? Pls advise.

    1. John – on to the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud certs for me. Any recommendations for passing those certs – similar to using your site 🙂 ?

  198. Hi John,
    I wanted to thank you for such a fabulous and resourceful site. I just sat and passed the 201 exam first time and I absolutely credit this site. You helped sift through the mountains of information out there and kept me on the right track. Thank you and keep up the great work!
    Stephanie

  199. Hi John,
    Just a quick message to say thank you for your very helpful site, I had no experience at all of Salesforce and passed the exam a couple of days ago on the second attempt, so can now perhaps look for a job to get some hands on experience. I would say to anyone starting out to follow your site and also have a good read of the course outline on the Salesforce website so you know where to concentrate your efforts. Thanks again Paul

  200. Hai john,

    your site is VERY clear and easy to understand the concepts.Thanks alot.I just planning to do Admin 201 certification next month. My doubt is : In multiple choice question.DO they give option to choose answer ex: select 2 answer . pls give some advice ..

      1. And, it won’t let you continue if you haven’t selected the right number of answers. I tried to select the 2 answers I knew were right and come back later to review the question again and select the 3rd answer, but it told me I needed to select 3 before continuing.
        Good luck, Nithya!

  203. Hi John

    I logged in…I’m going thorough the study guide..Its very good..

    What my question is – I see only only 4 question in the quiz…that 4 questions available even from free subscribers also..

    I heard after subscribing..we will be getting more questions for practice…is this true?

  204. Hi Jon

    I logged with my login credentials..I see same study guide which is available for free…

    After paying the fees..I should be able to see more questions right in the quiz? I dont see that..Please help me..

    I’m going to write th ADM 201 day after tomorrow.

  206. Hello John ,

    I just passed my Admin 201 exam today!!
    Thank you so much the guides where very well organized and helped me a lot in my study ,
    I would recommend adding more questions though it’s different when you know the information in a certain context and when it come in a short question .
    Generally the Exam question where a bit confusing you feel the you know the answer but you never sure LooL , Anyway thanks and hope you do for the rest of the certifications as well.

  208. John, Big “Thank You” for this resource. Just passed my Admin exam using this guide, trailhead, and a dev org. Well worth the cost. Keep up the good work!!

  209. Thanks for this awesome resource John!! I am studying for the Beginner Admin course. Can this resource be used to study for any other SFDC certification? Sorry is this was already asked.

  210. hello John,
    I am planning for my exam and need to know the relevance of winter or summer 15. I was on webassessor and while I was going to book the exam, I could only see retake options. Was I in the right place? Any help will do as I look to Friday for my exam. please help

    Thaks

    1. I don’t have an update date set yet, although I am planning on completing it shortly after Summer 15 is release. If you read the release notes thoroughly and review Spring and Summer 15 release training you should be in good shape for the exam.

  211. Just a quick thanks to COD and John for this wonderful site – I recently took and passed my ADM 201 and this site was one of my primary study / reference areas. Now all I have to do is a) put that certification to use, and b) find a similar site that can help with the DEV 401 exam!

  212. Just passed my exam on the first try thanks in large part to this exceptionally well organized and information-packed site! Thank you, John, for putting this together and maintaining it so diligently. I highly recommend CertifiedonDemand.com for folks studying for ADM 201, as well as anyone just wanting to learn about the many features of Salesforce.

  213. Hi John.

    I passed my ADM 201 a few days ago and would like to say your website was a big part of the reason I passed. A couple of suggestions I’d like to make however, such as maybe making the 30 question mock exam a little harder and maybe include more questions with 2 or even 3 answers as I noticed many multiple select answer questions on the exam. I particularly liked the “key facts” columns for each section which gave a good brief overview but the main thing I liked was the format of the guide and how it enables people to work through each section in an efficient manner. Anyone wishing to take the exam, purchasing this guide is the first thing you should do!! Great job John!

  214. Hi John,
    I have been working on salesforce for more than a year now. I work as assistant admin. I decided to get certified, I feel like I am ok performing my job but when I try to prepare fro exam I found out that there are so many little things I do not know. On search of training material , that is when I stumbeled on this site. I am almost done with the free session on this site but before I pay I would like to ask, if I take of a week off from my work to concentrate and prepare for certification Admin 201 using your site , do you think I will get thru all the things in it be ready for exam ?
    Between work and kids family I barely have 60 minitues a day to study and my dream of getting certified getting extended.
    My manager promissed to get me training for ADM 201 probably cost >4000 , I just do not want any string attached.
    my other question is does the 4 – 5 day training sessions they provide thru salesforce university , does that really prepare me ?
    Thanks and any response from any one is appreciated. I feel like things are dragging for far too long
    -YM

    1. The admin course from Salesforce on its own (from what I hear) is typically not enough to get certified. It is hard to say if one week will be enough – the instructor led course is one week and that I would argue is not. It really depends on your past experience and how quickly you learn. Good luck!

  215. I can’t promise my memories are right; it’s kind of a blur now. I’ll do my best, though. There was a question about something having to do with the process builder, but the answers didn’t look familiar with respect to what I remember reading about it; I haven’t used it yet – but I will now, that’s for sure! The answers seemed to be asking about how to apply it to an approval process but I didn’t get the connection at all. And it might not have been the process builder but another kind of process or builder thing. (I know, not a lot of help there :-). Sorry about that.) There were quite a few about validation rules, which I thought I understood (when/if they were applied or not), but I had to guess at many of those.
    I think the real issue is that the questions are very tricky. There’s one in particular I remember. How specific can I be up here? I don’t want to break any rules by providing too many details.
    One thing I know that helped me was being able to reflect on my personal experience with Salesforce and picture the database I’ve been customizing and working with for quite a few years. That’s not to say that someone without experience can’t pass the test, but it sure does help to have some real-life examples to go back to. I wrote quite a few notes that applied the question to our database.

    1. I wouldn’t post the question itself but if you want to post the gist of what was being asked that would be fine. Helpful to know – I would expect questions around each of those topics, and definitely hands-on experience is a huge help!

      1. An example: You really need to understand the impact of login IP ranges and login hours. Know what can and can’t be done be done and what will or won’t happen depending on where you are and when you’re working. The information is covered here on the CoD site, but people need to infer more, do more connecting of the Salesforce dots. You know A and B, and you know D, but you need to be able to infer C.

        And, you need to know what isn’t right so that you can eliminate the wrong answers. This saved me on more than one occasion (like in the areas mentioned above). I knew what answer to look for (what would be the “right” answer), but the answer choices didn’t provide the combination of information to create the right answer that I was familiar with. In other situations, I had absolutely no idea what the right answer was but I knew that the other answers were wrong. Sometimes I was only able to eliminate 2 answers in a 1-answer-out-of-4 scenario, but then I had to guess or infer between only 2 instead of 4 answers.

        Again, I know this is vague and may be frightening, but honestly, the more deeply you understand a topic, the better off you’ll be. I really thought I knew this stuff inside and out, but the test made me really question my knowledge. I wish I’d read/looked at all the Should and Could resources in CoD, and read and understood all the “Help for this Page” on each section in Setup. I also wish I’d spent more time practicing with a Salesforce org while learning so that I could see things “in action” and test what would happen if I changed a setting or two.

        I learn well when I write stuff down, so I would’ve taken a lot more notes, which would’ve helped me with some of the more esoteric concepts. (I also had access to other resources – the materials from a live Admin training class, a study group, and an “Admin Handbook” book – and I wish I’d used all of them more than I did.)

        1. Another example I just remembered: Price books and products. I thought I knew how they’re used and not used and the relationships between them, but I didn’t.

          1. That’s great information thanks Rena. I have heard that the exam has gotten progressively more difficult and this definitely keeps with that impression. The advice about really understanding the concepts is what I try to emphasize as well. If you understand the concepts then you will be able to infer the answers to the difficult questions. If you have any other specific advice for others on how to prepare – I’m sure everyone would love to hear it. Thanks for the feedback!

          2. John, I replied offline in a message on your community profile due to its length and content. I wanted to make sure it met with your standards.

          3. With John’s blessing :-), here are some more thoughts:
            I don’t know if people will love to hear this 🙂 but here are some more suggestions:
            Use the most full-featured sandbox you can get your hands on. The dev org is nice, but the more users (with roles and profiles, etc.) that you can test with, the better you’ll be able to see the impact of what you’re doing. (I realize that some of what’s talked about in CoD may not be possible to test in your sandbox or org, depending on your license types and feature activations.) Once that’s done, go through all the processes that are discussed in CoD. For example:
            If possible, change the login hours, language, etc. for the sandbox org and for individual users.
            Create all the different rule types (Validation, Assignment, Auto-response, Workflow, and Escalation).
            Create different profiles and roles. Include subordinate roles.
            Create as many users as you can, assigning them to the different profiles and roles.
            Change the OWD so that you have some that are Private and Read-only (that is, don’t accept the default values).
            Create custom fields (as many different types as you can) and objects, with the relationships that are discussed in CoD.
            Create records in various objects to see how the above affect the exercises you’re following in CoD.
            Use the Process Builder.
            Create Approval processes.
            Etc., etc., etc.

            I realize that this sounds like a lot of work – and it is! – but real-life experience with all (or as many as possible) of Salesforce’s features will make it easier for you to picture and hopefully understand what the questions are asking. I know that, for me, being able to picture our org helped my tremendously when I took the test. That said, I feel certain that the test would not have been as challenging as it was if I had done what I suggested above. Of course, time is limited, so as is suggested elsewhere, spend time on the areas on which the Study Guide indicates are the top 65% of the test.

            Good luck, everyone!

          5. With all I’ve suggested, I want to let everyone know how incredibly valuable Certified on Demand was! I don’t think I would have passed without John’s approach – CoD’s guidelines, resources, and especially the review questions. So, thanks again, John!

  216. I just passed my test! Yay! Thanks, John, for everything you’ve done in this site and for the community at large. Your insights and guidelines, and of course the information you provided, proved to be invaluable. For those who haven’t taken the test, when John says that the questions can be tricky, believe him! When others (who pass or don’t pass) say that the test is hard, believe them. The questions can be vague and very misleading (at least I think they can be; tough to say for sure since I don’t know what I got wrong). I didn’t know the answers the first time through on at least half the questions, and then still had to guess at about half of the “I still don’t know what’s being asked about” questions on subsequent passes. I used 89 of my 90 minutes. Egads!

  218. Hi John ,

    Your website is very useful . I love all the small scenarios which you have given after the sessions.

    Best site for a theoretical and practical approach study ..

    It would be helpful if you can give a scenario to build up full app, Just like the Recruitment App or Ware House App.

    Do you have any similar site for Dev also .

    Thank You

  219. Would there be a way for you to indicate in the practice exam results the category to which a question applies? That is, “this question is reflected in the score “Fields and Objects”, which I’m associating with “Standard and Custom Objects” in the Study Guide objectives list. Although I can see how I’ve done in each category and it’s frequently apparent to which category a question applies, it’s not always obvious.

      1. I tried that but I wasn’t always sure which category a question applied to. I’ll go through it again if I have a chance. It’s not a big deal.

        I think I’ve seen elsewhere that if I go through the test again, the questions will be the same but in a different order. Is that right?

  220. Hi John, just wanted to thank you for this site!
    I passed my 201 exam on Friday and it really helped having all the resources in one place organised so well. One thing I would say though is that the questions on the actual exam were very detailed, so my advice to anyone about to sit the exam would be to look at EVERYTHING! Don’t skip the ‘could’ sections because some of the questions really came out of left-field and I got thrown by how many were on very individual facts about certain features. Overall though I don’t think I would’ve passed without your site, so thank you.
    Amy

    1. Hi Amy,

      My understanding was that the exam was much more situation-oriented rather than being able to reiterate facts – has that changed? Do you recall any particular subjects that were more important than others? Thanks for the feedback and congrats!

      John

      1. Hi John,

        Some of the questions were situation based, but a lot were very much “what does this do?”, or “which features are found here?”, the answer options to which were more specific than I was expecting. I had quite a number of questions on reports and dashboards, what seemed like more than a couple on Chatter and I think a few on record types…. It’s difficult to say on most of them because you could easily categorise most of the questions as ‘various’, ie security/org setup or sales cloud/reports & dashboards as they often reference more than one feature per question.

        I completely agree with the comments from Rena below – a lot of the questions were fairly vague and it was really hard to work out what you’re being asked. And a lot of the answer options, particularly when you’re asked to select more than one, are very very similar. If you could make your test questions a bit trickier it would prepare people a bit more I think.

        Amy

  222. Good Morning,
    I am hoping you can tell me approx. how many hours are required to get through all the content on this site?
    Many Thanks,
    Jess

  223. John –

    This website was a tremendous help! Thank you so much, I passed this morning. I have been using SFDC for many years and have implemented the solution for various customers. However, it was hard to FOCUS on studying when I knew a lot of the material already. Your site helped a great deal in that area. Question for you – do you have any sites, study materials that you can recommend for the Sales Cloud Consultant Certification. Also, could you compare the difficulty to that of the admin?

  227. Just wanted to say a few good words :

    Besides the fact I passed the ADM 201 test on the first attempt and I mainly based my studies on this guide
    I want to say that I also use it as a great reference when I am trying to do something on my org .
    Will you publish another course soon for the Sales cloud consultant test ? I will be the first to purchase even for more 🙂 !

    Thanks !!

  230. Hi John,
    Just wondering when the update for spring’15 will be available. I am planning to appear for the exam in next 2 weeks.

    Regards
    Anup

  232. Hey John,

    I just passed my ADM 201 on my first attempt and wanted to thank you for the awesome, comprehensive and up-to-date resource you have created. Saved me from getting lost in the all the weeds of information out there, if you know what I mean! 🙂

    Thanks for all the hard work – one of the best $40 purchases I made!

    Best,
    Manisha

    2. Hello Manisha,
      I am planning to seat for the Adm 201 exam, could you tell what is the time frame to study and take the exam. for example 3-6months?

  233. Hi John,
    I passed the exam this week (first time I took it). Thank you very much for this site. I would have failed without it. It was worth the 40$ !

    Best regards,

    Claudia

  234. Hi John,

    I passed the ADM 201 yesterday on my first attempt. Your website was very helpful for my preparation. This is the best resource for Admin certification I have found on the internet. Sample questions at the end of each section as well as the overall 30 question test is quite beneficial (I got 26 out of 30 questions correct on the test after I completed my preparation). This website helps in understanding the platform in detail which is necessary, since the exam is full of scenario based questions.

    I would recommend this site to anyone looking to get themselves ADM 201 certified.

    Keep up the good work!

    Regards,
    Anis

  235. Dear John.
    I am currently working on Kerridge Systems Autoline CRM and have no knowledge of Salesforce. Basically have never taken any classes or training course to understand it. I have worked on SAP SD though long time back(Admin). I just want to know, is it sufficient for me to learn from your guide or should i take classes and then come back to your guide after i practice the basics?

    1. Hi Syed,

      You can learn and pass the admin exam with nothing more than Salesforce documentation. I did in 2008 (although admittedly it was less complex back then). Ultimately CoD will help dramatically speed up this process. If you have access ($) to in person training or premier training (also through Salesforce), I highly recommend using them. If you can get on the job experience, even better. I would use CoD in conjunction with any/all other resources you have available – this will help you learn the fastest. To answer your question though, yes, CoD alone will present all of the information that you need to pass the exam – it is simply up to you absorb it all.

      Cheers,

      John

  237. I passed my admin certification exam on the first try..thank you John for this great material and support.
    Now my next target is Dev- 401 and Adm-211. Are you planning to come up with these certification material also?

      1. Hi, I studied the material available on this site. What i have experience is all the questions are totally based on the practical knowledge you have. There was no direct question and you have to think logically. But if you study the material, concepts will be cleared and it will help you to understand better.

  238. Just passed my admin certification exam this morning on the first try and I know that this site was a huge part of that success. Big thanks to John for putting all these materials together in one place. Without this site I never could have it done. This info was way more in-depth in than my Admin-201 class. Thanks!

  239. John

    I found the 30 Q exam at the end of the study trail on this site more worthwhile than the actual exam, once again great job putting those good questions together.

    thanks once again.

  240. From the bottom of my heart i want to thank John for the great work you have done on this site that has helped me clear the salesforce admin exam on my first attempt.

    This is THE source for admin exam prep period. For all practical reasons, one can treat this as the official study guide for the ADM 201 exam.

    If you want to do the certification the right way ( i.e. learn and understand the platform in detail), this is the one stop shop. It is worth way more than the paltry fee John charges.

    The biggest challenge to prep for this exam is the fact that the study material is scattered all over the place(internet) and the data is not up-to-date. Given this, what John has done here is no less than a commendable social service initiative for people trying to get certified 🙂

    When i look back at this site, i realize that putting together something like this and maintaining it requires hard work, dedication, persistence, continued enthusiasm . What a great job John has done here!!

    The content created by John is amazing and also the collection of suggested links, videos is apt. On top of that i would recommend the folks to go through comments section on each topic page. Some great discussions and insights from the user community.

    Thanks a ton John and all the users who posted comments on this site. I loved the preparation experience.

    In the end, I was prepared well enough and the actual exam was a breeze and turned out to be a bit of a damp squib for me( i was expecting a tougher test) !! 🙂

    Thanks once again John, keep up the great work.

    1. Hey Karthik,

      Just wanted to say thanks for the feedback, really appreciated. This kind of feedback keeps this site going, and it does take quite a lot of work even to maintain it. Congrats on passing as well, much better to walk in over prepared 🙂

      Cheers,

      John

  242. Hey.. I have to take the exam within this Month.
    Do I need to go through Spring’15 too separately apart from this site?
    And Is there any chance that you would update the Spring’15 on the site too?

    1. Yes, I will be updating this site. I don’t have a time frame yet. You should review the Spring 15 release notes – you won’t need to re-learn anything just make not of any important developments in the release. The core platform (what most of the admin exam focuses on) typically changes little between releases.

      1. Would we need to go through the entire contents of the release notes or just the notes that they say need to be reviewed for the ongoing re-certification process? If the latter, how do we get to them? And, is there a way to find out when Spring ’15 will be included in the exam? (I’m taking mine in May.) Thanks!

        1. You can tell when you register for the exam, it will tell you which version you are registering for. You should really only need to skim the release notes to understand what updates were included with the release. New exam registrations should be for Spring 15.

  244. I passed my exam today on the first try. This site was a huge help. I took your 30 question practice exam today before ADM201 and scored 77% so I felt confident going into the testing center. I found that your organization and presentation of the information complemented that provided by SF, and in some cases was actually superior to it. Good job and thanks!

  246. Passed my ADM201 last week. An excellent resource, well structured, good content and the practice exam is brilliant. My advice would be definitely dont do the practice exam until youve covered all the sections on the site. There arent many other good examples of practice exams like the one on this site.

    1. Thanks James appreciate the positive feedback. And congrats on passing! And yes- I definitely advocate the same, don’t take the practice test until you are ready to see if you are ready for the real exam.

  247. Hi John,

    Great resource. Planing to seat for exam with in 2 weeks. One quick question. Is this updated materiel which will cover Spring 15? Thanks in advance.

    Cheers
    Ron

  250. Hi !!
    Just passed today the SP15 certification 🙂
    I registered only 3 days ago and decided to give it a chance and I made
    it ,also thanks to this great website !
    If you have questions regarding the exam, I will be happy to help .

  251. Thanks John.
    I passed SalesForce Certified Developer exam on August 23, 2014. When is the First and when is the last chance to take the exam which is called”Maintaining a Credential”?

  253. Hey John,

    Just wanted to let you know I passed my ADM-201 and in all honesty it was hard, but not as difficult as I expected. That I attribute primarily to the thoroughness of the content on this site.

    If there was one key point I learnt whilst working my way through the content on this site, it was THOROUGHLY read and UNDERSTAND the question being asked. The questions in the exams are worded very cleverly and a single word in a paragraph may either be a clue or it may be a ruse to throw you (can cite a pearler I got today that I can pass on to add in the quizzes or practice exam). Once you ‘get’ the way they structure their questions and answers, it is actually pretty easy.

    BTW, I’ve already recommended this site on to 2 colleagues that already have 401 and 501 but are too scared to do 201. 🙂

    If there was one recommendation I could make to really improve the site, it would be more scenarios and loads more questions based on the scenarios….otherwise, it’s the best ADM-201 resource out there.

    Looking forward to seeing the 501 and 301 sites soon. 😉

  254. Hi John,
    I am new to SFDC and am interested in its Administration. Is it ok to start off with preparing for the Admin certification OR do I need to take a different approach ? Appreciate your input.
    regards,
    — Raj

  256. Hi John,

    I had asked a question regarding Salesforce – study starting from where? As I am dynamics CRM consultant.

    I am not able to find that question and answer. How do I do that?

  257. Hi John, I took the Admin Certification and passed with flying colors! Thank you for such a great study guide. I was wondering if you have any recommendations or other sites that support the other Certifications? I specifically want to get the Certified Sales Cloud Consultant or Advanced Admin, let me know if you have any suggestions – I appreciate it! Thanks!

    1. Congrats Taylor! I haven’t searched specifically in a while for those exams, so unfortunately I don’t have any specific advice. Good luck! Feel free to post back if you find some good resources, I’d be happy to set up a page to share the info.

  261. I passed my exam back in December. I failed it the first time but passed on the next round. This guide was definitely a big help. The weighting and topic focus were key factors. Actual exam questions were more nuanced but I’m not sure how that could be improved, they are mock exams after all. My suggestion for would-be exam takers would be to really pay attention to the reports and dashboards, go through and create several of them in your developer instance. I think that’s mostly what I tanked on my first try!

    Another thing – if you have time, write down the questions you feel you are completely guessing on (they give you paper and pencil). I may have gotten lucky but when I went back in for my second exam I swear I got several of the exact same questions from the first round that I was unsure on. In my case it obviously helped a great deal that I studied up on those.

    Any suggestions for Dev 401 study resources? Big thanks. $40 well spent!

    1. Interesting that you mention the importance of “Reports and Dashboards”. I wondered if this topic was necessary to know for the exam. Is there any guidance in the Study Guide Table of Contents around this topic?

  262. Hey John:

    Just took and passed the exam yesterday.

    A very great deal of that success is due to this site.

    Best part of COD is you weighted the study material here very closely to the amount of questions for each topic on the test- that is to say, the more study material here, the more questions regarding that topic on the exam.

    Well done, and thanks!

  264. All I can say, £26 well spend. Pass my exam yesterday. Could I have done this without this website? Perhaps, but certainly it would have taken me longer and the prep would have been less complete. My only wish would be more mock exams. Either way, thanks.

  267. Hi John – I came across your site recently and it’s great. I’m going topic by topic here – just noticed that the topics on your site don’t directly correspond to the SFDC Study Guide topics… is that going to be a problem if I follow your site instead of the study guide? Thanks.

  270. Hi
    I too have the same question as Leo , how exactly s the certification..simple or tricky/complex? how will be expected?how to tackle ?what’s the challenges/dry areas in the certification? any areas need to memorize ?
    Please advice

  272. First cheerful Congrats for the all guys who pass the certification.. i need to plan my time to appear for certification by Jan end..I would understand about , how exactly s the certification..simple or tricky/complex? how will be expected?how to tackle ?what’s the challenges/dry areas in the certification? any areas need to memorize ?

    Hope your inputs reg training can help me and others as well…
    Appreciate your help here..

  273. Everyone. … I passed today! John, thanks for your site and the quick responses to any questions I had. Now I want to take the 401. Any suggestions ? Would recommend this site to anyone- exceptional!!!

    1. <