The Salesforce architect exams are some of the most rewarding and interesting exams to get. I really enjoy them because they offer a rare chance to dive very deep into a specific area of the platform. These can expand your capabilities within Salesforce, and provide you valuable understanding as you progress your career towards Technical Architect. This is the study guide for the Integration Architecture Designer certification exam.
Each of these exams has a study guide (like all other certifications), as well as a resource guide which has linked articles, Trailhead modules, documentation and more. To get the most out of those guides, I have written down some important areas to study and understand. If you understand the concepts below, you’ll do well on your exam.
Integration Architecture Designer
The Salesforce Integration Architecture Designer exam focuses on your understanding of the architectural decisions necessary to facilitate integrations with external systems, options available for integration, and key considerations for developing integrations. This was one of my favorite exams because I was able to learn a lot of new concepts, all of which I have found very applicable. Understanding those items has made me a better consultant.
Key Topics
Integration Architecture Patterns
What patterns are available, and why would you recommend one over another? This PDF references the five main patterns we see in Salesforce, as well as the benefits and considerations to each. In the exam, you will be presented with sample scenarios, and you will be asked to recommend a pattern based on the requirements.
APIs
Salesforce provides several APIs, you will need to know which one to recommend given a situation. Also, you need to understand the limitations and considerations around them (record limits, call limits, timeouts, etc.). There are learning modules on each type:
Mashups and Composite Apps
When a full integration is not recommended, you may want a mashup or composite app. Understand the limitations of this option, and when you would recommend it to an organization.
WSDL Files
There are two types of WSDL available. Learn which is preferred given a situation.
Salesforce-to-Salesforce
When two Salesforce orgs will be sharing data, you may recommend Salesforce-to-Salesforce. Make sure you understand what is required to use this, and key considerations behind the recommendation.
Hands-On Work
Understanding the concepts is important, but this certification is difficult to get without some good study combined with hands-on experience. The Trailhead superbadge around integration is a great place to start.
Hello Chris, thank you for creating this post, it is very useful, while reading through I observed link for mashup or composite app is broken
Thank you for bringing that to my attention. They archived that post without me realizing. I have updated the link to a working one.
Hi Chris 🙂
Thank you very much for providing excellent guidance on your blog for preparing Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer. This is really helpful !!!
HI Chris,
do you have any recommendations regarding mock exams for the Integration Architecture Designer Thanks in advance.
I haven’t seen any mock exams for the designer certifications. There are plenty for the common certs (admin, app builder, etc.), but I have yet to see any for these.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for a concise and very informative article. The links which point to lms.something is broken, so the API and mashup links are not working.
Yes, they unfortunately took those down. I’ve been looking for a good replacement, but haven’t found anything quite right yet.