Salesforce Sharing & Visibility Architect Certification Exam Guide
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⚡ Quick Answer
What is the Salesforce Sharing & Visibility Architect Certification Exam Guide?
The Salesforce Sharing & Visibility Architect Certification Exam Guide validates expertise in the relevant Salesforce domain. Exam format: 65% passing score. Offered by Salesforce, registered through Webassessor/Kryterion. Updated for Winter '26.
Winter '26 Edition
Last Updated: March 2026 | Exam Version: Winter '26
The Salesforce Sharing & Visibility Architect certification validates your expertise in designing secure, scalable data access solutions that balance organizational needs with user requirements. This advanced credential is designed for architects with proven experience in security models and complex sharing implementations. Prerequisites include both Application and System Architect certifications plus demonstrated proficiency in enterprise-level security and sharing architecture.
⚡ What's New in Winter '26
🔐 Enhanced Security Frameworks
Winter '26 expands coverage of emerging data protection patterns and compliance-driven sharing architectures.
⚡ Performance Optimization Focus
New emphasis on measuring and optimizing sharing model performance at enterprise scale.
🏗️ Modern Architecture Patterns
Updated guidance on designing sharing solutions that integrate with AI and automation capabilities.
📊 Exam At a Glance
| Certification Name | Salesforce Sharing & Visibility Architect |
| Level | Architect |
| Prerequisites | Application Architect, System Architect, and deep security and sharing experience required |
| Number of Questions | 60 multiple-choice |
| Duration | 120 minutes |
| Passing Score | 68% |
| Exam Fee | $400 USD |
| Retake Fee | Contact Salesforce for retake pricing |
| Delivery | Proctored online or at a testing center |
🎯 Exam Domains & Weightings
1. Sharing Model
30%This domain tests your ability to architect effective sharing models from the ground up. You'll need to understand Organization-Wide Defaults, role hierarchies, sharing rules, and manual sharing mechanisms, then apply them to real-world scenarios requiring scalable access control.
🆕 Winter '26: Expanded focus on sharing model efficiency metrics and real-time access evaluation.
2. Visibility and Security
30%Visibility and security form the foundation of record-level access control in Salesforce. This section evaluates your understanding of how permissions, sharing rules, and organizational policies combine to determine what users can see and modify.
🆕 Winter '26: New coverage of security best practices for multi-cloud environments and integrated systems.
3. Data Access Patterns
25%Data access patterns focus on designing solutions that grant appropriate permissions while maintaining system performance and security. You'll analyze scenarios requiring different access models and select optimal approaches for each situation.
🆕 Winter '26: Includes new patterns for managed package integration and third-party data access.
4. Best Practices
15%This domain emphasizes proven methodologies for implementing sharing architectures in production environments. Best practices cover design principles, documentation standards, testing strategies, and maintenance approaches that ensure long-term solution success.
🆕 Winter '26: Enhanced guidance on change management and stakeholder communication during sharing implementation.
❓ Sample Exam Questions
During a large-scale Salesforce rollout, your organization needs someone to evaluate data access patterns, security constraints, and create a multi-layered access control strategy. Which role best describes this responsibility?
- A. Data Migration Specialist who focuses on ETL processes and data validation
- B. Professional who architects end-to-end access control solutions considering organizational security requirements and scalability across all data layers
- C. Change Management Lead responsible for user training and adoption metrics
- D. System Administrator managing user provisioning and license allocation
A Salesforce administrator needs to set the minimum access level that every user in the organization will have to Account records. Which configuration should be implemented first as the starting point?
- A. Create permission sets that grant specific object permissions to user groups
- B. Configure the baseline access setting for the Account object that applies organization-wide
- C. Apply sharing rules to open up read access for users in specific departments
- D. Adjust the role hierarchy to ensure managers inherit records from their subordinates
A Salesforce administrator implements an Organization-Wide Default that restricts Account record visibility to record owners only. The sales director needs her team members to access all Accounts owned by their respective regions. Which security mechanism should the administrator use to grant this additional access?
- A. Create a custom permission set that revokes access to non-owned Accounts
- B. Configure a sharing rule that grants access based on a region field value
- C. Modify the role hierarchy to make all Accounts visible to the sales director's role
- D. Implement a record type filter to hide Accounts by geographic location
A company needs to automatically share Account records with users based on the Industry field value. Which sharing mechanism should be configured to achieve this without requiring manual user assignments?
- A. Organizational role hierarchy with subordinate access
- B. Sharing rules that evaluate field conditions on the record
- C. Team membership assignments for each record owner
- D. Static public groups containing all relevant users
A Salesforce administrator needs to understand what controls whether a sales representative can see a specific account record in their org. Which combination of security settings directly determines this data visibility?
- A. The user's profile permissions and their ability to export reports to Excel
- B. The object's Organization-Wide Default setting combined with the user's role hierarchy, sharing rules, and assigned permissions
- C. Only the sharing rules configured at the organization level, regardless of other settings
- D. The page layout assignments and custom field visibility settings on the user's profile
📚 Study Resources
🏃 Trailhead
Complete the official Certification Prep trail — free, covers all exam domains, and is updated each release.
Go to Trailhead →📄 Official Exam Guide
Download the official exam guide from Trailhead for the exact domain weightings and topic list for Winter '26.
Official Guide →💬 Trailblazer Community
Join the study group on the Trailblazer Community to share tips, ask questions, and connect with other candidates.
Join Community →💡 Top Exam Tips
- Prioritize mastering the Sharing Model and Visibility/Security domains, which together represent 60% of the exam. Deep knowledge of Organization-Wide Defaults, sharing rules, role hierarchies, and their interactions is essential.
- Distinguish when to apply Private, Public Read-Only, Public Read/Write, or Controlled by Parent OWD settings. Each choice has distinct implications for your overall security architecture and sharing rule complexity.
- Study the performance implications of complex sharing models. Understand how deeply nested role hierarchies, extensive sharing rules, and criteria-based calculations affect system performance and user experience.
- Practice designing sharing architectures for intricate business scenarios. The exam emphasizes applying knowledge to real situations—anticipate questions asking how you would architect sharing for multi-dimensional access requirements or conflicting business needs.
- Review the Data Access Patterns domain (25%) thoroughly to understand different architectural approaches. Be prepared to evaluate trade-offs between manual sharing, rule-based approaches, and role-based hierarchies for specific requirements.
🙋 Frequently Asked Questions
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