The Short Answer
The Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder exam (Plat-Admn-202) has 60 scored multiple-choice/multiple-select questions plus up to 5 unscored, a 105-minute time limit, a 73% passing score, a US$200 registration fee (US$100 to retake) and no prerequisite. Its questions align to the Summer '26 release (checked in October 2026 against the official Platform App Builder exam guide and Trailhead Academy).
This is the exam for people who design, build and deploy custom apps with Salesforce's declarative (point-and-click) tools. The heaviest section by far is Business Logic and Process Automation (32%): formulas, roll-up summaries, validation rules, Flow and Flow approvals. Next come Data Modeling and Management (20%) and Salesforce Fundamentals (18%). Most questions describe a business requirement and ask which declarative feature meets it, or whether it needs code at all.
Exam Details at a Glance
| Detail | Platform App Builder (Plat-Admn-202) |
|---|---|
| Questions | 60 scored multiple-choice/multiple-select, plus up to 5 unscored |
| Time limit | 105 minutes |
| Passing score | 73% |
| Registration fee | US$200 (JPY 30,000), plus applicable taxes |
| Retake fee | US$100 (JPY 15,000), plus applicable taxes |
| Prerequisite | None |
| Release alignment | Summer '26 |
| Delivery | Proctored, online or at a testing center |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Languages | English, Japanese, French, Spanish |
| Maintenance | A Trailhead maintenance badge three times a year |
Sources: the exam guide for format, score, fees, prerequisite, release and maintenance, and Trailhead Academy for the exam code, level and languages, both checked in October 2026.
73% of 60 is about 44 correct answers, so you can miss roughly 16. That's a higher bar than many Salesforce exams, and it leaves less room for guessing on a weak section. 105 minutes for up to 65 questions is about 1.6 minutes each, enough to read every scenario twice. On maintenance, the guide says you'll complete the Platform App Builder maintenance badge on Trailhead three times a year; check your own due dates on your Trailhead profile. For fees and retake rules across every Salesforce exam, see Salesforce certification cost and retake fees.
Who the Platform App Builder Certification Is For
The exam guide describes a candidate who owns the whole lifecycle of a custom app: data model, security, business logic, automation, user interface, mobile and deployment. It suggests 6 months to 1 year of experience building applications on the platform (or a similar one). The primary audience it lists is experienced Platform Administrators, declarative app builders, business analysts, product/ISV developers and Salesforce architects. Developers, mobile developers and data or BI analysts are a secondary audience.
There's no prerequisite, but in practice most people take it after Platform Administrator. The two overlap on security, reports and automation, and App Builder goes deeper on data modeling and deployment. It's also one of the four credentials that together grant Application Architect. If you're still choosing a path, which Salesforce certification to get first lays out the options.
The Five Exam Sections and What They Test
All weights and objectives come from the official outline.
Business Logic and Process Automation: 32%
Almost a third of the exam: formula fields, roll-up summary fields, validation rules, building flows in Flow Builder, Flow Approval Processes, choosing the right flow type, maintaining and troubleshooting flows, and using Agentforce to automate business processes.
Watch for: roll-up summary prerequisites. A roll-up summary field lives on the master side of a master-detail relationship and can COUNT detail records or SUM, MIN or MAX a field on them (Roll-Up Summary Field). Lookups don't support roll-up summaries, so a scenario that needs a total on a parent linked by lookup either changes the relationship or uses a flow. Once a roll-up summary exists, you can't convert that master-detail back to a lookup.
Also watch for: flow type. Before-save record-triggered flows are the fast way to update fields on the record that triggered them; reach for after-save when you need to touch other records or send actions, and scheduled paths when something must happen later (Triggered Flows). Multistep reviews with stages, approvers and background steps belong in Flow Approval Processes.
Data Modeling and Management: 20%
Choosing the right data model, what each relationship type means for record access, the user interface and reporting, the consequences of picking or changing a field data type, and importing, exporting and working with external data sources.
Watch for: master-detail versus lookup. In a master-detail relationship, deleting the master deletes its details, the detail has no Owner field and inherits the master's owner, and custom detail objects can't have sharing rules, manual sharing or queues. Each custom object can have up to two master-detail relationships and 40 relationships in total. A many-to-many relationship uses a junction object with two master-detail fields. All of this is in Object Relationships Overview.
Salesforce Fundamentals: 18%
Where declarative customization stops and code begins, when to extend an org from AgentExchange, how to restrict and extend object, record and field access, picking the right sharing solution, and the capabilities of reports, report types and dashboards.
Watch for: the access layers. Object and field permissions come from profiles and permission sets; record access comes from org-wide defaults, the role hierarchy and sharing rules. A question about "users can see the object but not these records" is a sharing question, not a permission set question (Control Who Sees What).
User Interface: 17%
User interface customization options, custom buttons, links and actions, declarative ways to put Lightning components on a page, what programmatic custom Lightning components can add, and global and object-specific actions and layouts for the Salesforce mobile app.
Watch for: global versus object-specific actions. An object-specific action creates or updates records in the context of the record you're on; a global action works from anywhere and has no record context. Mobile scenarios usually turn on that difference.
App Deployment: 13%
Managing the application lifecycle and choosing sandbox types, using and troubleshooting change sets, unmanaged versus managed packages, and picking a deployment plan.
Watch for: sandbox fit. Developer and Developer Pro sandboxes copy metadata only; Partial Copy adds a sample of data defined by a sandbox template; only a Full sandbox supports performance testing, load testing and staging (Sandbox Types and Templates). Change sets carry metadata, not records, need a deployment connection, only move between orgs affiliated with the same production org, and deploy as a whole (Change Sets). Unmanaged packages suit one-time drops or open-source distribution, and Salesforce says not to use them for sandbox-to-production migration (Developing and Distributing Unmanaged Packages).
Declarative or Code? The Question Behind Many Answers
The first objective in the outline asks you to identify the boundaries of declarative customization. That idea runs through every section. When a scenario says "without code", "minimize maintenance" or "as an app builder", expect the answer to be a formula, validation rule, roll-up summary, flow or Lightning page setting. When the requirement truly can't be met declaratively, the right answer is often to involve a developer, and the exam rewards spotting that instead of forcing a tool to do something it can't.
A quick way to sort the options:
| Requirement | First tool to consider |
|---|---|
| Show a calculated value on the same record | Formula field |
| Total or count child records on the parent | Roll-up summary (master-detail) or a flow |
| Stop a bad value from saving | Validation rule |
| Update fields on the triggering record | Before-save record-triggered flow |
| Create or update related records, send email | After-save record-triggered flow |
| Run something days after a change | Scheduled path |
| Multistep, multi-approver review | Flow Approval Process |
A Four-to-Six-Week Study Plan
- Read the exam guide once. Mark every "Given a scenario" objective: that's where most questions come from.
- Take a baseline. Try the 18 free Platform App Builder practice questions to see the style and find your weak sections.
- Work the official trailmix. The credential page links Prepare for Your Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification. The guide also recommends five superbadge units: Object Relationships, User Access Fundamentals, Formulas, Data Quality and Validation and Flow Fundamentals.
- Build a small app in a free Developer Edition org. Two custom objects with a master-detail and a lookup, a junction object, a roll-up summary, two validation rules, a before-save and an after-save flow, a Lightning record page and an object-specific action. Then delete a master record and watch what happens to its details.
- Spend the most time on automation. At 32%, Business Logic and Process Automation is worth about 19 of the 60 scored questions. Practice choosing between flow types until it's automatic.
- Walk a deployment. Read up on sandbox types and outbound and inbound change sets, and know why a change set fails when a dependent component is missing.
- Practice under time. Book the exam once you're comfortably above 73% and can explain why each wrong option is wrong. Our guide to answering Salesforce scenario questions helps with the "choose 2" format.
Platform App Builder Practice Exam on Certifyforce
Certifyforce has a practice bank for this exam, written to the official outline and checked against Salesforce Help and Trailhead. It isn't affiliated with Salesforce, and it contains no recalled exam questions or brain dumps.
- The Platform App Builder practice exam: 300 reviewed questions across all five sections, with timed 60-question exams weighted like the real one, section practice, and an explanation and source for every answer. The full pack is launching soon.
- 18 free practice questions with answers, explanations and the official documentation each was checked against, no account needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many questions are on the Platform App Builder exam?
60 scored multiple-choice/multiple-select questions plus up to 5 unscored ones, in 105 minutes, with a 73% passing score, per the exam guide.
How much does the Platform App Builder exam cost?
US$200 (JPY 30,000) plus applicable taxes, and a retake costs US$100 (JPY 15,000), per the exam guide.
Do I need Platform Administrator before Platform App Builder?
No. The exam has no prerequisite. Many people take Platform Administrator first because the two share security, reporting and automation topics, but you can register for App Builder on its own.
Is Platform App Builder harder than Platform Administrator?
It goes deeper on data modeling, automation design and deployment, and its 73% passing score is high. If you build apps declaratively every day, it often feels more natural than the admin exam's breadth of user and org management.
Does the Platform App Builder exam include code?
You won't write code, but you do need to know where declarative tools stop and when programmatic customization, such as custom Lightning components, is the right recommendation. Two objectives cover exactly that.
Does the Platform App Builder certification expire?
Only if you skip maintenance. The exam guide says you'll complete the Platform App Builder maintenance badge on Trailhead three times a year, and missing a due date expires the certification.