Platform Data Architect Study Guide
Every topic objective in the Data Architect exam explained thoroughly. Topic summaries and sample scenarios to work through. The most efficient way to study the key concepts in the exam.
Last Updated: May 2026
The overview
This is the starting point for your study, covering all of the exam guide objectives.
The Platform Data Architect Study Guide incorporates all 21 Objectives within all 6 Sections of the official Salesforce Certification Exam Guide.
What's included?
- Covers all 6 Sections of the official Salesforce Certification Exam Guide
- Explains in detail all objectives within each section (a total of 21 objectives)
- Topic summaries that you can use to learn the topics efficiently
- Explanations in plain English, with screenshots and diagrams (rather than endless, unremarkable text)
- Easy to read bullet points
- Review Flashcards (with questions and answers) for each section
- Includes links to lots of extra resources for further reading
- Scenarios and requirements with sample answers to test your ability to determine solutions
- Unlimited Access and Updates for 12 months
Everything you need to prepare for Platform Data Architect
In order to pass the Platform Data Architect certification, you’ll find that knowledge and experience of the Salesforce platform aren’t enough. You also need to get to grips with the exam itself.
That’s why we created the Platform Data Architect Study Guide.
Our study guide will help you understand confusing or difficult concepts from the official Salesforce Certification Exam Guide and brush up on your skills – all in a format that’s easy to digest and has been proven to work with thousands of happy customers.
The Platform Data Architect Study Guide will help you focus on the key points you need to know to pass the exam.
The Salesforce help pages and videos are great when you want to know all the details, but the Platform Data Architect Study Guide provides a summary of all topics in study guide format.
Why this guide is important?
You need a guide that summarises the key certification objectives in plain English, using examples, diagrams, charts and topic reviews to make sure you’ve cemented your understanding.
Every objective is explained in detail.
The Platform Data Architect Certification Study Guide includes screenshots, summary points and diagrams to illustrate key concepts, as well as visually explain and demonstrate Salesforce functionality.
Course content
6 sectionsData Modeling / Database Design 6 topics
- Compare and contrast various techniques and considerations for designing a data model for the Customer 360 platform (for example, objects, fields & relationships, object features).
- Given a scenario, recommend approaches and techniques to design a scalable data model that obeys the current security and sharing model.
- Compare and contrast various techniques, approaches and considerations for capturing and managing business and technical metadata (e.g. business dictionary, data lineage, taxonomy, data classification).
- Compare and contrast the different reasons for implementing Big Objects vs Standard/Custom objects within a production instance, alongside the unique pros and cons of utilizing Big Objects in a Salesforce data model.
- Given a customer scenario, recommend approaches and techniques to avoid data skew (record locking, sharing calculation issues, and excessive child to parent relationships).
- Knowledge Check
Master Data Management 5 topics
- Compare and contrast the various techniques, approaches and considerations for implementing Master Data Management Solutions (e.g., MDM implementation styles, harmonizing and consolidating data from multiple sources, establishing data survivorship rules, thresholds & weights, leveraging external reference data for enrichment, Canonical modeling techniques, hierarchy management)
- Given a customer scenario, recommend and use techniques for establishing a “golden record” or “system of truth” for the customer domain in a Single Org.
- Given a customer scenario, recommend approaches and techniques for consolidating data attributes from multiple sources. Discuss the criteria and methodology for picking the winning attributes.
- Given a customer scenario, recommend appropriate approaches and techniques to capture and maintain customer reference & metadata to preserve traceability and establish a common context for business rules.
- Knowledge Check
Salesforce Data Management 5 topics
- Given a customer scenario, recommend appropriate combination of Salesforce license types to effectively leverage standard and custom objects to meet business needs.
- Given a customer scenario, recommend techniques to ensure data is persisted in a consistent manner.
- Given a scenario with multiple systems of interaction, describe techniques to represent a single view of the customer on the Salesforce platform.
- Given a customer scenario, recommend a design to effectively consolidate and/or leverage data from multiple Salesforce instances.
- Knowledge Check
Data Governance 5 topics
- PART 1: Compare and contrast various approaches and considerations for designing and implementing an enterprise data governance program.
- PART 2: Compare and contrast various approaches and considerations for designing and implementing an enterprise data governance program.
- PART 3: Compare and contrast various approaches and considerations for designing and implementing an enterprise data governance program.
- Given a customer scenario, recommend an approach for designing a GDPR compliant data model. Discuss the various options to identify, classify and protect personal and sensitive information.
- Knowledge Check
Large Data Volume Considerations 5 topics
- Given a customer scenario, design a data model that scales considering large data volume and solution performance.
- PART 1: Given a customer scenario, recommend a data archiving and purging plan that is optimal for customer's data storage management needs.
- PART 2: Given a customer scenario, recommend a data archiving and purging plan that is optimal for customer's data storage management needs.
- Given a customer scenario, decide when to use virtualised data and describe virtualised data options.
- Knowledge Check
Data Migration 5 topics
- Given a customer scenario, recommend appropriate techniques and methods for ensuring high data quality at load time.
- PART 1: Compare and contrast various techniques for improving performance when migrating large data volumes into Salesforce.
- PART 2: Compare and contrast various techniques for improving performance when migrating large data volumes into Salesforce.
- Compare and contrast various techniques and considerations for exporting data from Salesforce.
- Knowledge Check
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Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know before buying our study guide
What release are the study guides based on?
The study guides are updated shortly after each release. You will get any release updates for free during the 1 year of access after purchase.
Is there a limit for access to the study guides?
You will have unlimited access to this study guide for 12 months from your date of purchase. Plus, any updates or release changes made to the material during your year of access are included.
What is included in a K2 University Study Guide?
Study guides cover all sections of the official Salesforce Certification Exam Guide, explaining all objectives in detail with topic summaries, explanations in plain English, screenshots, diagrams, easy-to-read bullet points, links to extra resources for further reading, and scenarios with sample answers.
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