Sharing, Visibility, and Licensing17% of the exam

External roles, super users and role optimization

How partner and customer account roles are created under the account owner's role, what the number-of-roles setting changes, how account role optimization assigns a shared person role and when it creates account roles, how to stay under the 50,000-role allocation, and how Partner and Portal Super User access differ.

Official exam objective
Describe roles for external users.

~8 min read · 9 practice questions ·

What the exam expects

  • Describe how partner and customer roles are created for an account and where they sit in the role hierarchy.
  • Explain what changing the number of partner or customer roles affects, and what deleting a partner role does.
  • Describe account role optimization (ARO): the shared person role, what happens when a second role-based user is activated, and its limits.
  • Keep an org under the external role allocation with ARO and role clean-up.
  • Choose between Partner Super User access and the Portal Super User permission.

Key terms: account roles (the 1-3 roles created per account, User, Manager and Executive); number of roles (the Digital Experiences setting for 1-3 customer or partner roles); shared person role (one role ARO assigns to the only role-based user on an account); role-based user (a Customer Community Plus or Partner Community user, who must hold a role); super user (an external user who sees peers' and subordinates' records).

Key facts

When account roles are created
Detail
First external user enabled on the account; 1-3 per setting
Number-of-roles change
Detail
Doesn't affect existing accounts
Deleting a middle role
Detail
Executive renamed to Manager; object ID unchanged
Account owner change
Detail
Partner roles move under the new owner's role
ARO second user
Detail
Default number of roles created; all get the lowest role
ARO setting
Detail
Sharing Settings > Minimize the number of roles created
Role allocation
Detail
50,000 roles for role-based external users
ARO and external account hierarchies
Detail
Incompatible
Partner super user scope
Detail
Cases, leads, custom objects, opportunities
Customer Community Plus super user
Detail
Portal Super User permission in a permission set
Sources for this section (5)
  • Why do partner roles follow the account owner when ownership changes?
  • When does ARO stop using the shared person role for an account?
  • When a middle partner role is deleted, why does the role above it change its name?
  • What must be on before a partner contact can be given super user access, and where is it then granted?

The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.

Keep reading with the Experience Cloud Consultant pack

  • Core concepts
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  • Worked scenario

The pack includes:

  • All 37 lessons of the Experience Cloud Consultant guide, with reading progress
  • Interactive decision walks and step-by-step sequence steppers
  • Inline practice questions and one-click topic practice (9 questions for this lesson)
  • An official source cited for every claim
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Practice for the Experience Cloud Consultant exam