Salesforce Apex Interview Questions

1. What is Apex?
2. Explain about Apex syntax?
3. Does Apex support DML operations?
4. Is Apex strongly typed language?
5. Does Apex supports unit tests?
6. When should developers choose Apex?
7. What are the different data types in Apex?
8. What are the common methods of data types in Apex?
9. What are the limitations of Apex?
10. Does Apex support switch statements?
11. What types of statements we can use in Apex?
12. What types of collection does Apex supports?
13. How can you declare List/Map/Set in Apex?
14. What are the different types of Apex code development tools?
15. What is Force.com Developer Console?

1) What is Apex?

A) Apex is a proprietary language developed by Salesforce.com. According to official

definitions, Apex is a strongly typed, object-oriented programming language that allows
developers to execute traffic and transaction control statements on the Force.com platform server
while calling the Force.com API.

2) Explain about Apex syntax?

A) It has a Java-like syntax and is like a database stored procedure. It enables developers to add
business logic to most system events, including button clicks, related record updates, and
Visualforce pages.

3) Does Apex support DML operations?

A) Apex has built-in support for DML operations such as INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and
DML exception handling. It supports inline SOQL and SOSL query processing, returning a set of
sObject records.

4) Is Apex strongly typed language?

A) Apex is a strongly typed language. It uses direct reference to architectural objects such as
sObject, and any invalid references that fail if they are deleted or if they are of the wrong data
type will fail quickly.

5) Does Apex supports unit tests?

A) Apex provides built-in support for unit test creation and execution, including test results
indicating how much code is covered, and which parts of the code can be more efficient.

6) When should developers choose Apex?

A) Apex should be used when we can’t use pre-built and existing out-of-the-box functionality to
implement complex business functions.

7) What are the different data types in Apex?

A) Different data types available in Apex are,

1. Basic data type (Integer/Boolean/String)

2. Boolean
3. Date/Datetime/Time
4. ID (18 bits and 15 bits, can be converted to and from String)
5. Integer/Long/Double/Decimal
6. String
7. Blob
8. Object
9. Enum (enumeration type)
 10. sObjects ( sObjects/Account/Position_c, etc. )
11. Collection (list, set, map, etc.)
12. User-defined and system custom objects
13. Null

8) What are the common methods of data types in Apex?

A) Common methods of data types

 Date: addDays()/dayOfYear()/daysBetween()/month()/toStartOfMonth()/year()
 Datetime: addHours()/hourGmt()/minute()
 String:
compareTo()/contains()/equals()/indexOf()/length()/split()/substring()/toUpperCase()/t
oLowerCase()
 Enum: ordinal()View location
 sObject: addError(), parent object_r
 List (ordered):
add()/remove()/clear()/clone()/deepClone()/get/set/isEmpty()/size()/sort()
 Set (unordered, not repeated):
add()/addAll()/clear()/clone()contains()/cnstainsAll()/isEmpty()/remove/removeAll()/r
etainAll()/size()
 Map(key-value):
clear()/clone()/deepClone()/constiansKey()/get/set/isEmpty()/keySet()/put/putAll/rem
ove/size/values

9) What are the limitations of Apex?

A) Apex limitations

The Apex programming language is saved and runs in the cloud – the Force.com multi-tenant
platform. Apex is tailored to data access and data manipulation on the platform, allowing you to
add custom business logic to system events. While it provides many benefits for business process
automation on the platform, it is not a general-purpose programming language.
Therefore, Apex cannot be used for:

1. Render elements in the user interface instead of error messages

2. Change standard features – Apex can only prevent features from happening or add
other features
3. Create a temporary file
4. Generating threads

10) Does Apex support switch statements?

A) Apex does not support switch statements.

Interview Questions on Salesforce Apex

11) What types of statements we can use in Apex?

A) Like java, Apex must end with a semicolon; it can be one of the following types:

 Assignment, such as assignment to a variable

 Condition (if-else)
 Loop: Do-While, While, For
 Locking
 Data manipulation language (DML)
 Transaction control
 Method call
 Exception handling (try catch)

12) What types of collection does Apex supports?

A) Apex has the following types of collections:

1. Lists (arrays)
2. Maps
3. Sets
13) How can you declare List/Map/Set in Apex?

A) Apex is similar to Java’s List/Map/Set declaration method, except that it allows direct
assignment when declaring:

 List<Integer> My_List = new List<Integer>(){1，2，3};

 Set<String> My_String = new Set<String>{‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’};
 Map<Integer, String> My_Map = new Map<Integer, String>{1 => ‘a’, 2 => ‘b’, 3 =>
‘c’};

14) What are the different types of Apex code development tools?

A) In all versions, we can use the following three tools to develop code:

 Force.com Developer Console

 Force.com IDE
 Code editor in the Salesforce user interface

15) What is Force.com Developer Console?

A) The Developer Console is an integrated development environment with a set of tools for
creating, debugging, and testing applications in your Salesforce organization.

16) What is sObject in Apex?

A) This is a special data type in Salesforce. It is similar to a table in SQL and contains fields
similar to those in SQL. There are two types of sObjects: Standard and Custom.

17) Can you write simple example code for sObject in Apex?

A) Here is the sample code for sObject,

//Declaring an sObject variable of type Account

Account objAccount = new Account();

//Assignment of values to fields of sObjects

objAccount.Name = ‘ABC Customer’;

objAccount.Description = ‘Test Account’;

System.debug(‘objAccount variable value’+objAccount);

//Declaring an sObject for custom object APEX_Invoice_c

APEX_Customer_c objCustomer = new APEX_Customer_c();

//Assigning value to fields

objCustomer.APEX_Customer_Decscription_c = ‘Test Customer’;

System.debug(‘value objCustomer’+objCustomer);

18) What in Enum in Apex?

A) An enumeration is an abstract data type that stores a value of a finite set of specified
identifiers. You can define an enumeration using the keyword Enum. Enumerations can be used
as any other data type in Salesforce.

19) Can you write sample example code for enumeration in Apex?

A) Here is the sample example code for enum,

Assuming you want to declare the possible name of the compound, then you can do this:

//Declaring enum for Chemical Compounds

Public enum Compounds {HCL, H2SO4, NACL, HG}

Compounds objC = Compounds.HCL;

System.debug(‘objC value: ‘+objC);

Advanced Salesforce Interview Questions And Answers

20) Difference between database methods and DML statements?

A) Differences between database methods and dml statemetns,

DML statement: Some updates are not allowed. For example, if there are 20 records in the list,
all records will be updated or not updated.

Database method: Allow partial updates. You can specify the parameter to true or false in the
Database method, true to allow partial updates, false to not allow the same.

DML statement: You cannot get a list of success and failure records.

Database method: You can get a list of success and failure records, as we saw in the examples.

DML Statement Example: insert listName;

Database Method Example: Database.insert(listName, False), where false means partial updates
are not allowed.

21) What are SOSL and SOQL methods in Salesforce Apex?

A) SOSL:

Searching for text strings across entire objects and fields will be done using SOSL. This is the
Salesforce object search language. It has the ability to search for specific strings on multiple
objects.
The SOSL statement evaluates a list of sObjects, each of which contains search results for a
particular sObject type. The result list is always returned in the same order as specified in the
SOSL query.

SOQL:

This is almost the same as SOQL. You can use it to get only one object record from an object.
You can write a nested query and get the record from the parent or child object you want to
query.

22) What is Apex Call?

A) The Apex call refers to the process of executing the Apex class. The Apex class can only be
executed when called by one of the following methods:

 Triggers and anonymous blocks

 The trigger is called for the specified event.
 Asynchronous Apex
 Schedule the Apex class to run at specified intervals or run a batch job.
 Web service class
 Apex Email Service Class
 Apex Web Services, which allows you to expose your methods through SOAP and
REST web services.
 Visualforce controller
 Apex email service to handle inbound email.
 Call Apex using JavaScript
 The Ajax toolkit is used to invoke the Web service methods implemented in Apex.

23) What are Apex Triggers?

A) Apex triggers are similar to stored procedures that are executed when a specific event occurs.
It is executed before and after the event is logged.

Syntax: Trigger triggerName on ObjectName ( trigger_events ) { Trigger_code_block }   

24) What is Batch Apex?

A) Batch Apex is asynchronously executed Apex code designed to handle large numbers of
records and has more flexibility in terms of regulator limits than synchronous code.

25) When do you use batch processing of Apex?

A) When you want to process a large number of records every day, or at specific intervals, you
can go to Batch Apex.

Also, when you want an operation to be asynchronous, you can implement batch processing.
Batch Apex is exposed as an interface that must be implemented by the developer. Batch jobs
can be called programmatically at runtime using Apex. Batch Apex operates on small batch
records, overwriting the entire recordset, and breaking the process down into manageable blocks
of data.

26) How do you debug the code in Apex?

A) In Apex, we have some tools for debugging. One of them is the system.debug() method,
which prints the value and output of the variable in the debug log.

There are two tools that you can debug:

 Developer console
 Debug log

27) What is Force.com Migration Tool?

A) This tool is used for script deployment. You must download the Force.com migration tool and
then you can perform a file-based deployment. You can download the Force.com migration tool
and then perform a script deployment.

28) What is SOQL loop?

A) This type of for loop is used when we don’t want to create a List and traverse the return
recordset of a SOQL query directly. We will delve deeper into SOQL queries in the next chapter.
Now, just remember that the list of records and fields it returns is given in the query.

Syntax:

for (variable : [soql_query]) { code_block }

or:

for (variable_list : [soql_query]) { code_block }

29) What is Blob in Apex?

A) Blob: Binary storage type, generally used to receive uploaded attachment documents, etc.

30) What is ID type in Salesforce Apex?

A) ID: This type is unique to Salesforce and is used to represent the 18-bit id identifier of
salesforce’s sObject.

Salesforce Apex Interview Questions And Answers For

Experienced
31) How do you convert a string to an Integer type?

A) Convert a string to an Integer type, valueOf(), for example:

Integer.valueOf(’12’); //12;

Integer.valueOf(’12a’); //throw TypeException

32) How do you convert long type is converted to int method?

A)  Long type is converted to int method, intValue(), for example:

Long curLong = 71;

Integer myInt = curLong.intValue(); //71

33) What does contains method do in Apex?

A) contains() to see if the string contains a method for a specified string.

E.g:

String str1 = ‘abc’;

String str2 = ‘a’;

str1.contains(str2); //true

34) Can you explain some string methods which were used in your projects?

A) I worked with various string methods in my previous projects, they are,

1) startsWith()- whether the string begins with a given string.

2) endsWith()- whether the string ends with a given string.

3) toUpperCase()- which is capitalized.

4) toLowerCase()- which is changed to lowercase.

5) length()- to find the length of the string.

6) replace()- replaces the string matching content.

7) split()- splits the string into a List collection according to the specified string.

8) trim()- remove the spaces before and after the string.

9) indexOf()- which gets the index of the first match of the string with the given string, and -1 if
there is no match.

10) lastIndexOf()- which gets the subscript of the last match of the string with the given string,
and no.

11) substring()- intercepts the string between the given subscripts in the string.

35) Can you explain about few commonly used date type methods?

A) Date and DateTime methods are many, I will mention a few commonly used methods here,

1) newInstance(), create a Date.

E.g:

Date d = Date.newInstance(2019,1,15); //2019-1-15

2) day(), get the day of the date.

E.g:

Date d = Date.newInstance(2018,9,12);

d.day(); //12

3) month(), get the month in the date.

E.g:
Date d = Date.newInstance(2018,9,12);

d.month(); //9

4) year(), get the year in the date.

E.g:

Date d = Date.newInstance(2019,9,12);

d.year(); //2019

5) daysBetween(), get the number of days between the two dates.

E.g:

Date startDay = Date.newInstance(2018,9,12);

Date endDay =Date.newInstance(2018,10,2);

startDay.daysBetween(endDay); //20

6) addDays(), add the number of days.

E.g:

Date d = Date.newInstance(2018,9,12);

d.addDay(3); //2018-9-15

7) getTime(), which is the number of milliseconds elapsed from 1970-01-01 00:00:00 to the
calculation time.

E.g:
DateTime d = Date.newInstance(2018,9,12,8,0,0);

d.getTime(); //1473681600000

36) What are the characteristics of Apex?

A) Apex has the following characteristics

1) Integration

   Insert, update and delete, etc., are included in the DmlException, called in the DML
language.
   The return is sObject type recode list, tandem Salesforce Oject Query Language
(SOQL) and Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) query
   Multiple records can be processed simultaneously
   Encounter repeated data updates automatically avoid, and lock
   The saved Apex method can be rebuilt, and can call the generic Force.com API
   The referenced Apex custom object or custom project will be warned when it is
edited or deleted.

2) More convenient to use

Apex’s variables and syntax components, modules, conditional declarations, loop declarations,
representations of objects and arrays are all based on JAVA. Considering that Apex is easier to
understand when importing new features, the Force.com platform can run more efficiently and
develop Apex.

3) Data pointing

And developers in the database server in the same essentials conduct multiple transactions
declared by the database stored procedure, on the Force.com platform server, Apex multiple
queries and DML statements are designed to a session. As with other database stored procedures,
Apex does not support execution on the user interface.
4) Very clear

The object name and project name in Apex are directly referenced to the schema object and are
strongly typed languages. When this reference is not available when the reference is not found, a
compilation error will occur immediately. In order to prevent the referenced Apex code from
being deleted, all the standard items in the master data and the class associations are saved.

5) Autonomy

The Apex language is based on the implementation, control and control of the Force.com
platform.

6) Multi-tenancy

Like other Force.com platforms, Apex is implemented in a rented environment. To accommodate

this environment, Apex’s real-time engine is designed to avoid code that interferes with each
other, and the shared code is not occupied by a single tenant. When the code that violates the rule
fails to execute, an error message that is easy to understand is displayed.

7) can be automatically upgraded

In Apex, the upgrade of other parts of the Force.com platform does not need to be directly
described. Because the compiled code is saved as master data in the platform, Apex has also
been upgraded as part of the release.

8) Easy to test

In Apex, how much is the code covered, is it more effective than a certain part of the code? They
are all expressed in the test results, etc., and can be tested and executed as a single unit. In
SalesForce, all of the individual tests were performed before the platform upgrade, and it was
confirmed that all standard Apex code was executed as expected.

9) Have version management

The version of the Apex code change can be saved in the Force.com   API. According to this, to
maintain normal operation. Apex includes Performance Edition, Unlimited Edition, Developer
Edition, Enterprise Edition and Database.com.

37) What are the conditions for using Apex?

A) SalesForce is a combination of various functions that provide CRM (customer relation

manage) applications. Or, SalesForce is a custom application that integrates the corresponding
organization. However, organizations have parts that do not support their own complex business
processes. In the SalesForce platform, senior administrators and developers can package a
variety of methods. Among these methods are Apex, VisualForce, and Soap APIs.

1) Apex – Use Apex for the following occasions

 Web service
 Create a mail service
 Detect multiple complex objects
 Create complex business processes that are not supported in workflow
 Make a custom transaction (not just a single record, object, the logic of the
transaction)

2) Visualforce

Visualforce uses a tag-based tagging language that allows developers to develop user interfaces
while developing efficient ones. With VisualForce, you can do the following

Build other multiple steps such as weChat

Develop custom controllers independently between applications

Navigation patterns and inherent rule definitions for the most appropriate and effective
application interaction.

For details, please refer to the book “VisualForce Handwriting” on the SalesForce website.
3) SOAP API

The need to manage only one record type at a time, managing transactions (savepoint settings
and rollback of changes, etc.) does not use the standard SOAP API call without adding
functionality to the composite application.

38) What are the functions of Apex?

A) Apex is compiled, saved and executed on the Force.com cloud platform. When the developer
saves the Apex code, the application server of the cloud platform translates the abstract
command settings into assembly code that can be recognized by the background according to the
Apex real-time translator, and then saves the commands as a metadata to the cloud platform.

The end user clicks the button and accesses the VisualForce screen to execute the Apex code.
The application server of the cloud platform obtains the compiled command from the metadata,
passes it to the cloud through the real-time program translator, and then returns the running
result. The end user does not have to care about the requirements of the cloud platform and the
difference in program execution time.