Salesforce Developer Interview Questions UK: 8 Real Questions and What Interviewers Want

Before your Salesforce Developer interview, it helps to see the questions from the interviewer's side. We have picked eight from our set of 16 and added the reason each one gets asked.

Eight Salesforce Developer interview questions, and what the interviewer is thinking

1. What are Salesforce governor limits, and how do you write Apex that stays within them?

Why they ask: Governor limits are the defining constraint of Apex development, so this is almost always asked.

2. Explain the order of execution when a record is saved in Salesforce, and why it matters for developers.

Why they ask: Understanding save order is essential for avoiding unexpected behaviour between triggers, flows and validations.

3. What is the difference between SOQL and SOSL, and when would you use each?

Why they ask: This tests basic data-retrieval knowledge every Salesforce developer needs.

4. When would you build with Lightning Web Components rather than Flow or Aura, and how do LWCs communicate?

Why they ask: LWC is the current standard front-end framework on the platform, so competence is expected.

5. What are the requirements and best practices for writing Apex tests and deploying code to production?

Why they ask: Testing is mandatory on the platform and shows professional discipline.

6. A trigger you wrote works in testing but fails with 'Too many SOQL queries: 101' when users do a bulk data load. What do you do?

Why they ask: Bulk failures are the classic Apex mistake, so they test debugging and bulk thinking.

7. Tell me about a time you optimised slow or failing Apex code or a Lightning page. What was the problem and the result?

Why they ask: They want proof you can diagnose performance problems methodically.

8. Why do you want to work as a Salesforce Developer, and how do you keep up with the platform?

Why they ask: They want to check genuine interest and a plan for ongoing professional development.

A sample answer to question 1

What are Salesforce governor limits, and how do you write Apex that stays within them?

Because Salesforce is multi-tenant, it enforces limits per transaction, such as 100 SOQL queries and 150 DML statements in synchronous Apex, plus CPU time, heap size and callout limits. The key habit is bulkification: never put a SOQL query or DML statement inside a loop. Instead I collect IDs into a Set, query once into a Map, and perform a single DML on a List. I use selective queries with indexed fields in the WHERE clause, query only the fields I need, and use relationship queries to avoid extra round trips. For heavy work I move to asynchronous Apex, such as Queueable or Batch Apex, which have higher limits. I also check the Limits class during development, write tests with 200 records to prove bulk safety, and use debug logs to review limit usage. Any logic I can do declaratively in Flow, I will, because it reduces custom code to maintain.

Common mistake to avoid: Treating limits as an afterthought; Testing only single records

Want the rest?

Full model answers, key points and common mistakes for all 16 questions are on the Salesforce Developer interview questions page. The first five are free, no sign-up needed.