Hey friends,
The Salesforce Admin certification is Salesforce's official credential for people who set up and run a Salesforce org. Today it's called Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator, and it's where most Salesforce admin careers start. You earn it by passing one proctored exam: 60 scored questions in 105 minutes, with 68% needed to pass. The exam costs US$200.
Below are the key facts, what it really costs, who it's for (and who should wait), and the study plan I'd follow if I were starting today.
| Fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Official name | Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator (formerly Salesforce Certified Administrator, still widely called "Salesforce Admin" or ADM-201) |
| Exam code | Plat-Admn-201 |
| Questions | 60 scored multiple-choice and multiple-select questions, plus up to 5 unscored ones |
| Time | 105 minutes |
| Passing score | 68% for English (65% for Japanese) |
| Exam fee | US$200 plus tax (JPY 30,000) |
| Retake fee | US$100 plus tax (JPY 15,000) |
| Prerequisite | None. Salesforce suggests 6 or more months of admin experience. |
| Delivery | Proctored at a test center or online. You register through Trailhead Academy, and Pearson VUE delivers the exam. |
| Languages | English, Japanese, French and Spanish |
| Notes allowed? | No. You can't use any printed or online materials during the exam. |
| Keeping it | Complete one free maintenance badge on Trailhead each year |
Last verified October 7, 2026 against the official exam guide, the Trailhead Academy exam page and Salesforce's retake policy. Salesforce updates exams, so check the exam guide before you book.
Contents
- What the certification is
- Who should take it, and who should wait
- What it costs
- Exam format and sections
- An 8-week study plan
- Three sample questions
- Booking and exam day
- Keeping your certification
- What to take next
- Quick answers
What the certification is
The Platform Administrator exam checks that you can keep a Salesforce org running and adapt it to what the business needs, using configuration rather than code. That means managing users and access, building fields, objects and page layouts, setting up sales and service features, handling data and reports, and automating work with Flow. Since the exam update that took effect on December 15, 2025, it also includes a small Agentforce section on using AI agents safely.
It's the first of two admin certifications. The second, Platform Administrator II (formerly Advanced Administrator), requires this one. Salesforce rates the exam as intermediate, and it's scenario-based: most questions describe a business request and ask for the best standard solution. If you want the full topic-by-topic breakdown, that lives in my Salesforce Administrator certification study guide. This page is the overview.
Who should take it, and who should wait
It's a good fit if:
- You've been doing admin work for about six months, which is what Salesforce suggests, and you want proof of what you know.
- You're moving into an admin role and you've been practicing in a free Developer Edition org or Trailhead Playground, not just reading.
- You're a business analyst, consultant or developer on Salesforce projects and want a solid grounding in how the platform is configured. Several consultant certifications build on it.
You might want to wait if:
- You're brand new to Salesforce and haven't built anything yet. Spend a few weeks on Trailhead first, or start with Platform Foundations, which is cheaper, has no retake fee and never expires.
- You're hoping the certification alone will get you hired. It helps your resume get noticed, but interviews tend to be scenario questions about real orgs. Pair it with hands-on projects you can talk about.
- Your job is mostly writing code. Admin knowledge helps every developer, but Platform Developer may be the certification your role actually asks for.
How hard is it? It's broad rather than deep. Most questions aren't tricky if you've configured the feature yourself, but the exam covers a lot of ground, and the wrong answers are usually real features that don't fit the scenario. I haven't seen Salesforce publish official pass rates, so take any pass rate you see quoted online with a grain of salt.
What it costs
- Exam: US$200 plus tax.
- Retake: US$100 plus tax. Salesforce prices retakes at half the exam fee. So budget US$200 if you pass the first time and US$300 if you need one retake.
- Preparation: it can cost nothing. Trailhead, the official Trailmix, a Developer Edition org, my Admin Cert Lab course and my practice test are all free. Salesforce also sells instructor-led classes, CRT101 (1 day) and ADX201 (5 days). The exam guide recommends them, but they're optional.
- Keeping it: free. The yearly maintenance badge is a Trailhead module.
Retake rules: you get 3 attempts at the same exam in each Salesforce release cycle. After a first fail, you wait 24 hours before registering again. After a second fail, you wait 14 days. After a third, you wait for the next release cycle, when your attempts reset. Salesforce lists the current cycle, Summer '26, as running through December 6, 2026 (dates can change). Source: Retake Policy for Salesforce Certification Exams.
Exam format and sections
You get 105 minutes for 60 scored questions, plus up to 5 unscored questions that Salesforce uses to gather data on new content. They're mixed in at random and don't affect your result, and you can't tell which they are, so answer everything. Questions are multiple-choice or multiple-select, and you need 68% to pass, which works out to about 41 of the 60 scored questions.
| Section | Weight (about how many questions) | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Configuration and Setup | 15% (about 9) | Company settings, users and licenses, security controls, the sharing model, profiles and permission sets |
| Object Manager and Lightning App Builder | 15% (about 9) | Objects, fields, relationships, record types, page layouts, Lightning pages and actions |
| Sales and Marketing Applications | 10% (about 6) | Leads, opportunities, path, lead assignment and campaigns |
| Service and Support Applications | 10% (about 6) | Cases, queues, and assignment, auto-response and escalation rules |
| Productivity and Collaboration | 10% (about 6) | Activities, Chatter, the Salesforce mobile app and AppExchange packages |
| Data and Analytics Management | 17% (about 10) | Imports and Data Loader, duplicate and validation rules, reports, dashboards and report sharing |
| Automation | 15% (about 9) | Flow, approval processes, assignment and escalation rules, and the order of execution |
| Agentforce | 8% (about 5) | When AI fits, agent security and permissions, and updating instructions and testing with conversation preview |
One oddity worth knowing: the exam guide says the questions "align to Summer '25." So study the outline rather than chasing every feature from the newest release. After a practice session, you can enter your section scores in my Salesforce exam score calculator to see which sections are costing you the most points.
An 8-week study plan
This plan assumes about 5 to 7 hours a week. If you already work as an admin, you can often squeeze it into 4 to 6 weeks. If Salesforce is new to you, give yourself 10 to 12 weeks. Whatever the pace, build each feature in a free org as you learn it. That's what makes the scenario questions feel familiar.
| Week | Focus | Do this |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Configuration and Setup | Read the exam guide. Sign up for a free Developer Edition org. Practice users, profiles, permission sets, org-wide defaults, roles and sharing rules. |
| 2 | Object Manager and Lightning App Builder | Build a custom object with lookup and master-detail fields, record types, page layouts and a Lightning record page. The Object Relationships superbadge fits here. |
| 3 | Sales, marketing and service | Set up leads and lead conversion, opportunities and path, campaigns, cases, queues, and assignment, auto-response and escalation rules. |
| 4 | Data and Analytics Management | Import data with the Data Import Wizard and Data Loader. Build duplicate and validation rules, reports with cross filters and summary formulas, and a dashboard. This is the biggest section. |
| 5 | Automation | Build record-triggered, scheduled and screen flows, plus a two-step approval process. Learn the order of execution. The Flow Administration superbadge fits here. |
| 6 | Productivity, collaboration and Agentforce | Cover activities, Chatter, the mobile app, AppExchange packages, and how agents handle permissions, instructions and testing. |
| 7 | Practice and review | Take my 25-question practice test, score it, and reread your weakest sections in the full study guide. |
| 8 | Final pass | Do timed practice, review every question you missed, and book the exam if you're comfortably above 68% in every section. |
Want the lessons, quizzes and flashcards in one place? My free Admin Cert Lab follows the same exam sections. Configuration and Setup is live with 9 short lessons, a quiz and flashcards, Object Manager and Lightning App Builder has its quiz and flashcards, and the other sections are rolling out. You need a free account to save your progress, with no card and no paid tier. (What's in Cert Lab?)
Three sample questions
These are original questions written in the same scenario style as the exam. Answer each one before you open the toggle. For 25 more, weighted like the real exam, try my Salesforce Admin practice test.
Sample question 1. A contractor can suddenly see reports she shouldn't. You suspect someone assigned her a permission set last week. Where can the admin see who assigned it and when?
- A. Field history tracking on the User object
- B. The contractor's Login History
- C. View Setup Audit Trail
- D. The Recycle Bin
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: C. Setup Audit Trail tracks setup changes, including permission sets assigned to or removed from users, and shows who made each change and when. Setup shows the 20 most recent changes, and you can download the last 180 days.
Field history tracking records changes to field values on records, not permission set assignments. Login History shows when and how people logged in. The Recycle Bin holds deleted records.
Exam section: Configuration and Setup (15%). Source: Monitor Setup Changes with Setup Audit Trail.
Sample question 2. An admin needs to delete 60,000 outdated leads from an old trade show and wants a way to recover if something goes wrong. Which two statements are true? (Choose two.)
- A. Exporting the leads first, for example with Data Loader's export, gives you a backup copy of the data
- B. The Data Import Wizard can delete the leads listed in a file
- C. Records deleted with Mass Delete Records always skip the Recycle Bin
- D. Data Loader can delete records listed by their record IDs in a CSV file
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: A and D. Data Loader can insert, update, delete and export records, so you can export the leads as a backup and then delete them with a CSV of their IDs. Salesforce's own mass delete docs strongly suggest archiving your data and exporting it regularly.
The Data Import Wizard adds new records, updates existing ones, or both. It doesn't delete anything. Mass Delete Records sends deleted items to the Recycle Bin unless you choose to delete them permanently, and the Recycle Bin keeps them for 15 days.
Exam section: Data and Analytics Management (17%). Source: Data Loader, Data Import Wizard, Delete Multiple Records and Reports.
Sample question 3. Gold support cases that aren't closed within 4 business hours should move to the Tier 2 queue, and the Tier 2 lead should get an email. The support team works 8 AM to 6 PM on weekdays. What should the admin set up?
- A. A case assignment rule entry that sends Gold cases to the Tier 2 queue
- B. An escalation rule entry for Gold cases that uses the support team's business hours, with an escalation action at 4 hours that reassigns the case to the Tier 2 queue and sends a notification email
- C. A case auto-response rule for Gold cases
- D. A report of open Gold cases emailed to the Tier 2 lead
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: B. Escalation rules act on cases that stay open too long. Each rule entry sets the criteria and which business hours apply, and each escalation action sets the age in hours, the new owner (a user or queue) and who gets notified. Escalation actions only run during the business hours they're tied to, so nights and weekends don't count toward the 4 hours.
Assignment rules set the owner when a case comes in. They don't wait to see whether it gets closed. Auto-response rules email the customer, not your team. A report can tell someone about old cases, but it doesn't move them.
Exam section: Service and Support Applications (10%). Source: Set Up Escalation Rules.
Booking and exam day
- Booking: find the exam on Trailhead Academy and choose Register Now. You schedule and pay through Pearson VUE, which delivers Salesforce exams.
- Test center or online: you can test at a center or online with a remote proctor. If you go online, check Pearson's OnVUE requirements and run the system test on the computer you'll use, well before exam day.
- No notes: you can't use any printed or online materials during the exam.
- Pacing: 105 minutes for up to 65 questions is about a minute and a half each. If a question stalls you, mark it, move on and come back.
Keeping your certification
Once you pass, you keep the certification by completing the Platform Administrator certification maintenance badge on Trailhead once a year. It's free, it comes out with the Spring release cycle, and Salesforce emails you when it's ready. Your Trailblazer profile shows your certification status. If you miss it, the certification expires. If you later earn Platform Administrator II, this same badge maintains both. Source: Maintain Your Salesforce Certification.
What to take next
- Platform App Builder: the natural next step if you like building data models, Lightning pages and Flow.
- Platform Administrator II (formerly Advanced Administrator): deeper admin scenarios. It requires Platform Administrator.
- Agentforce Sales Consultant or Agentforce Service Consultant: if you're heading toward consulting on Sales Cloud or Service Cloud projects.
- Agentforce Specialist: if the Agentforce section got you curious about building agents.
Quick answers
Is it still ADM-201? It's the same credential under a new name. The exam code is now Plat-Admn-201, but plenty of people still say ADM-201.
Can I take it from home? Yes. You can take it online with a remote proctor or at a test center.
Do I need the superbadges or paid classes? No. There's no prerequisite. The exam guide recommends the Object Relationships and Flow Administration superbadges and two instructor-led classes, but none of them is required.
Does it expire? Only if you skip the yearly maintenance badge.
Where to go next
- Salesforce Admin practice test: 25 free, original questions weighted like the real exam, with every answer explained.
- Salesforce Administrator certification study guide: every exam section in depth, with cheat sheets and more practice questions.
- Admin Cert Lab: my free course for this exam, with lessons, quizzes and flashcards.
- Salesforce exam score calculator: see where your practice scores leave you.
- All my Salesforce certification study guides.
About this guide
I'm Nick Frates, a senior Salesforce developer with 17 Salesforce certifications. This site is independent and isn't affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Salesforce. The facts above come from Salesforce's own exam guide, Trailhead Academy and Salesforce Help, and the sample questions are my own, not real exam questions. Nothing here can guarantee a passing score. Salesforce, Agentforce and Trailhead are trademarks of Salesforce, Inc.
Hope this helps, and good luck on the exam!
Best,
Nick