Salesforce Interview Questions 2026

Published July 22, 2026 · Updated July 22, 2026

12 real interview questions asked at Salesforce. Covers System Design, Domain, Behavioral, Domain / Multi-tenancy, SQL / Reporting, Security / Access Control, Java / Design Patterns, Security / Multi-tenancy. Reported by engineers who went through the Salesforce process.

Questions Interview GuidesInterview Guides
12 questions
259 engineers asked
430 upvotes

System Design (3)

Salesforce Hard System Design round PostgreSQLDistributed SystemsAWS

Design a multi-tenant SaaS database architecture like Salesforce's. Thousands of enterprise customers share the same infrastructure but must never see each other's data. Compare silo (one DB per tenant), pool (shared DB, tenant_id column), and bridge models. Discuss query performance, schema customisation, and compliance isolation.

↑ 47 upvotes · 46 engineers asked this · SDE2
Salesforce Hard System Design round JavaDistributed Systems

Design Salesforce's governor limits enforcement system. Every Apex code execution is limited (SOQL queries, CPU time, heap). How do you track and enforce these limits in real time across millions of concurrent org executions?

↑ 50 upvotes · 31 engineers asked this · SDE2
Salesforce Hard System Design round JavaDistributed Systems

Design Salesforce Flow (visual process automation). Users define business workflows (if-then rules, send emails, create records) in a UI. How do you store, version, execute, and debug millions of active flows in a multi-tenant environment?

↑ 54 upvotes · 33 engineers asked this · SDE2

Domain (2)

Salesforce Hard Technical round PostgreSQLJava

Explain Salesforce's metadata-driven architecture. Why does storing field definitions as data (instead of schema changes) enable the multi-tenant model? What are the trade-offs in query performance?

↑ 45 upvotes · 28 engineers asked this · SDE2
Salesforce Medium Technical round Java

What is Salesforce's SOQL and how does it differ from SQL? Explain relationship queries (parent-to-child and child-to-parent), the 100-SOQL governor limit, and how you optimise queries to avoid hitting it.

↑ 48 upvotes · 29 engineers asked this · SDE1

Behavioral (2)

Salesforce Medium HR round

Salesforce emphasises trust as its #1 value. Describe a situation where you discovered a potential security vulnerability or data leak. What did you do and how did you balance urgency with transparency?

↑ 40 upvotes · 24 engineers asked this · SDE2
Salesforce Easy HR round 2-5 years

Salesforce emphasizes "trust" as a core value. Tell me about a time you found a bug in production that no one else had noticed yet. What did you do?

↑ 17 upvotes · 5 engineers asked this · Senior SDE

Domain / Multi-tenancy (1)

Salesforce Hard System Design round 4-8 yearsSQLSystem Design

Design a multi-tenant database architecture for a CRM SaaS product with 100,000 customers, where each customer's data must be strictly isolated but the schema is largely shared. Compare separate databases per tenant vs. shared schema with a tenant_id column.

↑ 35 upvotes · 14 engineers asked this · Senior SDE

SQL / Reporting (1)

Salesforce Medium Technical round 2-5 yearsSQL

Write a query to find customers who placed an order in each of the last 3 consecutive months, using an Orders table with customer_id and order_date.

↑ 30 upvotes · 19 engineers asked this · Senior SDE

Security / Access Control (1)

Salesforce Medium Technical round 3-6 yearsSecurity

Explain the difference between role-based access control (RBAC) and attribute-based access control (ABAC). Give an example permission requirement that RBAC alone can't express cleanly.

↑ 24 upvotes · 11 engineers asked this · Senior SDE

Java / Design Patterns (1)

Salesforce Medium Technical round 2-6 yearsJava

When would you use the Builder pattern in Java instead of a constructor with many parameters? Sketch a builder for a User class with 6 optional fields.

↑ 18 upvotes · 9 engineers asked this · Senior SDE

Security / Multi-tenancy (1)

Salesforce Hard Technical round 4-8 yearsSecurity

In a shared-schema multi-tenant database, what specific bug pattern most commonly causes cross-tenant data leaks, and how do you prevent it at the code level, not just by convention?

↑ 22 upvotes · 10 engineers asked this · Senior SDE

Practice these questions with AI feedback

Get instant grading on your answers, identify your weak areas, and generate a personalised 14-day study plan — all free.

Build my study plan →

Salesforce interview guides by role

Salesforce SDE2 Guide Salesforce Senior SDE Guide

Salesforce questions by technology

Salesforce Java

More companies

Amazon Google Microsoft Flipkart Swiggy Meta Apple Netflix Uber Airbnb Stripe Razorpay PhonePe Paytm Zomato Oracle Adobe LinkedIn Atlassian Accenture Deloitte Wipro Infosys TCS Capgemini PayU General Anthropic OpenAI TikTok JPMorgan Walmart Spotify DoorDash Goldman Sachs Revolut Canva Capital One Lyft SAP Siemens Shopify Grab Cognizant LTIMindtree Myntra Hotstar Twitter Snowflake

Frequently asked questions

Design a multi-tenant SaaS database architecture like Salesforce's.
Design a multi-tenant SaaS database architecture like Salesforce's. Thousands of enterprise customers share the same infrastructure but must never see each other's data. Compare silo (one DB per tenant), pool (shared DB, tenant_id column), and bridge models. Discuss query performance, schema customisation, and compliance isolation.
Design Salesforce's governor limits enforcement system. Every Apex code execution is limited (SOQL queries, CPU time, heap). How do you track and enforce these limits in real time across millions of concurrent org executions?
Design Salesforce's governor limits enforcement system. Every Apex code execution is limited (SOQL queries, CPU time, heap). How do you track and enforce these limits in real time across millions of concurrent org executions?
Explain Salesforce's metadata-driven architecture. Why does storing field definitions as data (instead of schema changes) enable the multi-tenant model? What are the trade-offs in query performance?
Explain Salesforce's metadata-driven architecture. Why does storing field definitions as data (instead of schema changes) enable the multi-tenant model? What are the trade-offs in query performance?
Salesforce emphasises trust as its #1 value. Describe a situation where you discovered a potential security vulnerability or data leak. What did you do and how did you balance urgency with transparency?
Salesforce emphasises trust as its #1 value. Describe a situation where you discovered a potential security vulnerability or data leak. What did you do and how did you balance urgency with transparency?
What is Salesforce's SOQL and how does it differ from SQL? Explain relationship queries (parent-to-child and child-to-parent), the 100-SOQL governor limit, and how you optimise queries to avoid hitting it.
What is Salesforce's SOQL and how does it differ from SQL? Explain relationship queries (parent-to-child and child-to-parent), the 100-SOQL governor limit, and how you optimise queries to avoid hitting it.