Salesforce Sharing & Visibility Architect Exam Guide | Security Model & Data Access

Salesforce Architect • Domain Credential

Salesforce Sharing & Visibility Architect Exam Guide

Design secure, scalable data access on Salesforce. This guide walks through the exam format, domains, core patterns and study approach for the Salesforce Certified Sharing & Visibility Architect credential, with scenario-style examples.

Who is the Sharing & Visibility Architect for?

This credential is for professionals who own or influence the security model and data access strategy for Salesforce implementations. You’re a good fit if you:

• Design org-wide defaults, role hierarchies, sharing rules, teams and territories.
• Advise on large data volumes and the performance impact of sharing configuration.
• Review solutions for least privilege, regulatory compliance, and auditability.
• Work closely with security, compliance and enterprise architects on governance.

This exam is one of the core Domain Architect credentials and contributes towards both Application Architect and System Architect in the Salesforce Architect Journey.

Exam Overview

📊 Exam at a Glance

Exam Name	Salesforce Certified Sharing & Visibility Architect
Format	Proctored, multiple-choice / multiple-select, scenario-driven
Duration	120 minutes
Number of Questions	~60 scored questions (+ a few unscored items)
Passing Score	Typically mid-60% range (verify the latest value in the official exam guide)
Registration Fee	$400 USD (Retake: $200 USD)
Prerequisites	No mandatory certification prereq, but solid experience configuring security & sharing in production orgs is strongly recommended.

🧭 What this Exam Focuses On

Expect questions that test your ability to:

• Design an end-to-end sharing model that balances access and security.
• Use OWDs, roles, sharing rules, teams, territories and programmatic sharing.
• Optimize performance and recalculation for large data volumes.
• Address compliance, audit and regulatory requirements.
• Evaluate complex scenario options and articulate trade-offs to stakeholders.

Org-Wide Defaults Role Hierarchy Sharing Rules Teams & Territories Programmatic Sharing

Sharing & Visibility Exam Domains

Domain names and percentages shift slightly over releases, but the core ideas stay consistent. Use this as a practical study map and always cross-check against the current official exam guide.

🔍 View High-Level Domains & Concepts

• Data Access Fundamentals – OWDs, role hierarchy, profile & permission set interactions, object- vs record-level access.
• Declarative Sharing – Criteria-based and owner-based sharing rules, teams, territories, manual sharing and implicit sharing.
• Programmatic Sharing & Performance – Apex managed sharing, recalculation behaviour, large data volumes and performance tuning.
• Enterprise & Multi-Org Security – Patterns across multiple orgs, partner communities / Experience Cloud, external users and complex account structures.
• Governance, Compliance & Monitoring – Audit trail, field history, event monitoring, access reviews and regulatory requirements.

Exact weightage changes over time. Use the official exam outline for the precise domain breakdown, and this list as a practical lens on what you’ll actually design.

🆕 Recent Exam & Platform Trends (High-Level)

• More scenarios combining territories, teams and complex account hierarchies.
• Focus on performance when recalculating sharing in very large orgs.
• Increased emphasis on compliance, data residency, audit and monitoring.
• End-to-end designs involving internal, partner and external users in Experience Cloud.

Key Sharing & Visibility Design Decisions

🏗️ Building the Core Sharing Model

• Set appropriate org-wide defaults (OWDs) as your baseline posture.
• Use the role hierarchy for managerial access, not for every reporting line.
• Layer sharing rules (owner- and criteria-based) to open up access where needed.
• Use teams and territories for collaboration scenarios (e.g. sales pods, region-based access).

📈 Performance & Large Data Volumes

• Minimize unnecessary sharing complexity in orgs with large data volumes.
• Understand when sharing recalculation is triggered and how to avoid excessive recompute.
• Use deferred sharing or strategic changes when restructuring security models.
• Plan batch jobs and data loads to avoid peak sharing recalculation times.

💻 Programmatic Sharing

• Know when built-in mechanisms are sufficient vs when you truly need Apex managed sharing.
• Design for idempotency so sharing records aren’t created/removed inconsistently.
• Be aware of limitations of manual and Apex sharing (e.g., ownership or role changes).
• Implement maintenance jobs to align programmatic sharing with business rules over time.

🛡️ Compliance, Audit & External Users

• Align security with privacy, regulatory and industry standards.
• Use profiles, permission sets and restriction rules alongside sharing.
• Handle partner & Experience Cloud users carefully to prevent data leakage.
• Leverage field history, event monitoring and access reviews for auditability.

4-Week Study Plan (Adjust for Your Experience)

This plan assumes 1–2 hours per weekday plus some weekend time. If you’re newer to Salesforce security, extend it and spend more time in a sandbox.

Week 1 – Fundamentals & Current Org Review

• Read the official Sharing & Visibility Architect exam guide end-to-end.
• Review your org’s current OWDs, roles, profiles and permission sets.
• Refresh Admin-level security concepts: object/field security, login access, session settings.

Week 2 – Declarative Sharing & Territories

• Hands-on: configure sharing rules, teams and manual sharing in a sandbox.
• Explore territory management and its impact on visibility.
• Work through scenarios mixing role hierarchy, teams and territories.

Week 3 – Programmatic Sharing & Performance

• Study Apex managed sharing, limitations and best practices.
• Review Salesforce docs on large data volumes and sharing recalculation.
• Design a sharing model for a fictional LDV org and test changes in a sandbox.

Week 4 – Scenario Practice, Compliance & Mocks

• Practice scenario-based questions emphasizing trade-offs and justification.
• Review audit, monitoring, event logs and access review patterns.
• Take full-length mock exams and refine weak domains with targeted reading and labs.

Sample Scenario-Style Questions

Question 1

A global sales org uses private OWD on Accounts. Regional managers must see all accounts in their region, while sales reps should only see accounts they own or that belong to their team. What’s the most appropriate design?

1. Set Account OWD to Public Read Only and use role hierarchy for full access.
2. Keep OWD Private, use the role hierarchy plus account teams and sharing rules by region.
3. Use manual sharing for every account to grant regional access.
4. Create a custom “Region Access” object and store sharing settings there.

Correct Answer: B

With private OWD, combining the role hierarchy (for upward visibility) and sharing rules / teams (for regional and collaborative access) is scalable and aligned with platform capabilities.

Question 2

A customer recently changed their sharing model, adding many criteria-based sharing rules on Opportunities. Shortly after, users report slow performance and long sharing recalculation times. What should the architect recommend?

1. Increase the org’s API limit to speed up recalculation.
2. Change OWD for Opportunities to Public Read/Write.
3. Simplify and consolidate sharing rules, using role design, teams or territories where appropriate.
4. Disable sharing calculation and rely on manual sharing only.

Correct Answer: C

Excessive or overly complex sharing rules can slow recalculation in LDV orgs. The architect should simplify the model and leverage structural tools like roles, teams and territories instead of many overlapping rules.

Question 3

An Experience Cloud site exposes cases to partner users. Partners should only see cases for accounts they are related to, while internal support reps see all cases. Which approach best meets the requirement?

1. Set Case OWD to Public Read Only for all users.
2. Use private OWD, partner roles below internal roles, and sharing rules based on account ownership or partner account.
3. Give partners “View All” on the Case object via profile.
4. Disable the role hierarchy and use manual sharing for each case.

Correct Answer: B

For partners, you typically use private OWD, partner roles and targeted sharing rules that grant access based on related accounts, ensuring they only see relevant cases while internal users retain broader visibility.