Platform Developer Study Guide
Every topic objective in the Platform Developer 1 exam explained thoroughly. 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 Developer Study Guide incorporates all 21 Objectives within all 4 Sections of the official Salesforce Certification Exam Guide.
What's included?
- Covers all 4 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
- Topic videos for selected topics by Guest Instructors explaining topics in detail
- 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
- Easy to read bullet points
- 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 the Platform Developer Certification
In order to pass the Platform Developer 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 Developer 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 Develeper 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 Salesforce Platform Developer 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 Developer Certification Study Guide includes screenshots, summary points and diagrams to illustrate key concepts, as well as visually explain and demonstrate Salesforce functionality.
Course content
7 sectionsDeveloper Fundamentals 5 topics
- Understand multi-tenant concepts and design frameworks, such as MVC architecture and Lightning Component Framework.
- Given a scenario, identify common use cases and best practices for declarative versus programmatic customizations, including governor limits, formula fields, and roll-up summaries.
- Given a scenario, determine, create, and access the appropriate data model including objects, fields, relationships, and external IDs.
- Understand use cases and limitations of using Agentforce for Developers.
- Knowledge Check
Process Automation and Logic: Declarative Features 3 topics
- Identify the capabilities of the declarative process automation features.
- Given a scenario, use declarative functionality and Apex together to automate business logic
- Knowledge Check
Process Automation and Logic: Basic Apex 5 topics
- Understand how to declare variables, constants, methods, modifiers, Apex interfaces, and the appropriate use cases for each.
- Given a scenario, assess how Apex control flow statements will execute and when to apply different control flow statements.
- Given a scenario, write SOSL, SOQL, and DML statements in Apex, and assess what they will return.
- Code Exercises
- Knowledge Check
Process Automation and Logic: Advanced Topics 5 topics
- Given a scenario, follow best practices to write Apex classes and triggers.
- Given a scenario, understand governor limits and their implications on Apex transactions.
- Describe the relationship between Apex transactions, the save order of execution, and the potential for recursion and/or cascading.
- Implement exception handling in Apex, including custom exceptions as needed.
- Knowledge Check
User Interface 5 topics
- Given a scenario, prevent user interface and data access security vulnerabilities
- Given a scenario, display and use custom user interface components, including Lightning components, Flow, and Visualforce.
- Describe the use cases and best practices for Lightning Web Components, including the framework, benefits, and events.
- Given a scenario, implement Apex to work with various types of page components, including Lightning components, Flow, and Agentforce.
- Knowledge Check
Testing, Debugging and Deployment: Testing 2 topics
- Write and execute tests for triggers, controllers, classes, and flows using various sources of test data.
- Knowledge Check
Testing, Debugging and Deployment: Debugging and Deployment 4 topics
- Describe how to approach debugging system issues and monitoring flows, performance, asynchronous, and batch jobs.
- Given a scenario, know how and when to use the Salesforce Developer tools such as Salesforce DX, Salesforce CLI, and Developer Console.
- Describe the environments, requirements, and process for deploying code and associated configurations.
- Knowledge Check
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Why choose us?
Gain essential and valuable skills from a recognized leader in Salesforce to future-proof your career and stand out to leading employers.
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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