If you are an admin, developer or architect who is looking to pass the integration architect exam and have been bummed by some failures, this blog post will help you to focus on the right areas and pass the exam. For me, having done integration for a lot of years and been in the salesforce ecosystem for a while now, it was perplexing, annoying that I continued to fail the integration architect exam 2 times. My initial reaction was self doubt and wondered salesforce questions really made sense. But as I went through the exam rigour, I learnt a lot on my journey and even learnt a lot of things which I knew before but were handy on my consulting projects. One of my core values is never give up and I will advise you guys as well is to have the mindset to take the exam no mater what happens. So here was my approach till I passed the exam and hope this will provide you insights to conquer yours.

Reflecting on the exam failure

Every time I see the dreaded word Fail on the exam screen, I would take a deep pause and spend an hour on calming myself to take the exam next. I usually go to starbucks and take a coffee and create an evernote where I reflect on the questions and possible answers.

1. The reflection is based on the following categories which I journal painfully
   • Questions which I did well and why
   • Questions which I did wrong and why
   • Action items on what I need to do next time.
2. I tried to recollect the questions and options and write them in evernote. Based on my memory, I will write the correct answer and possible wrong answer i would have entered.
3. Once I created the question list with all possible answers, I entered all the key action items i need to take next time to refocus on the topics.

Recheck your Analysis with LLM

Even though I thought my analysis is right based on my intutition and gut, I wanted to validate this with the LLM tool which is chatgpt and claude ai. What better way is to get insights from the tool which can be a third party reviewer for us. Here is how I leveraged it effectively to do an analysis of my strengths and weakness.

1. I created a spreadsheet which had 2 columns of questions I did well and questions i did not do well.
2. I had another spreadsheet where i downloaded the study guide and created an excel spreadsheet with topic and sub topics areas.
3. I created a prompt in Chatgpt which compared the study guide and my exam questions and created a detailed analysis of which topic and sub topic area in the study guide I did well and which did not. This helped me to focus on the weak areas and do it better. I have attached the prompt below, study guide and the analysis the tool created which helped me.

Key Areas You might want to focus to ace the exam.

1. I will highly advise on studying the different integration patterns ( Remote process invokation request and reply, Remote process invokation fire and forget, data virtualization, remote call in, batch data syncrhonization, UI update on changes ) and the usecases it applies as there is a lot of questions on them. Please click here to review the patterns which are key for the exam.
2. The other thing which is important is to know the different types of Streaming events ( Change data capture, generic events, push topic, platform event) supported in Salesforce, when to use them, storage limits for replays and key considerations. Please click here for a comparative guide.
3. Also understand where outbound messages can be used with the right integration pattern, the storage limit for retries and its usecases which will be helpful.
4. Brush up on Salesforce shield and Salesforce 2 salesforce limitations and how it can be used to integrate 2 orgs.
5. Do hands on exercises on external data sources and understand the limitations of reading, writing to external sources.
6. Be ready for Questions with diagrams which can distract you and take most of your time.
   • Expect questions based on system landscape diagrams with applications and be tested on capability of salesforce on enterprise functions like sales, service and marketing and how you would see the future state.
   • Expect questions on uml diagrams and sequence diagrams which will test you on performance, page loads from a system and user perspective.
   • My advise is bookmark the question and do it at the end instead of wasting too much time on it.
7. From a security standpoint, make sure you understand 2 way ssl, authentication, single sign on and working with social sign on using authentication providers. Understand where JIT handlers can be used vs not used like in Open ID connect.
8. For folks who have not worked with Mulesoft or any other ESB, API led integration might be a new term and hard to digest. I will recommend to read documentation on the 3 types of layers namely experience, process and system api and how they work together. Here is a link for a high level understanding.
9. Brush up on how to debug batch jobs which would be initiated by external applications which plan to load data in salesforce, options to see batch jobs and logs in Salesforce.
10. Prepare for high volume data load scenarios on when to use bulk api, what are the limitations on them like record locking, reducing batch sizes and difference between serial and parallel options on data load.
11. Create chitsheets on when to use custom settings, custom metadata types , named credentials and how can secure data be stored in them as options.

Agent Force in Help which you should leverage.

1. There is also a need to know all the types of API in Salesforce and how they can be used for effective usecases. For this , I actually used Agentforce which is available in Salesforce help. All you have to do is type a prompt which says” Give me the different API supported in Salesforce, usecases it can be used and its limitations.” Below is a screen shot which it provides for you.

By copy pasting the output of Agentforce in Chatgpt, you can create a formatted table like below which will help you to study for the exam and remember key points.

To wrap it up, I also had a flu which hit me hard on the exam week and had self doubts to take the exam or not. But i was determined to just take the exam without expectation of the result and it actually helped me to focus on something which will take our mind from the anxiety of the Flu. Here are 3 key takeaways on passing the exam.

1. Create comparison notes for yourself on key topics which I highlighted on the Key topics exam.
2. I used focusonforce study material and practice exams to prepare for questions. I even tried to have chat gpt ask questions and evaluate my performance.
3. Be read for long worded questions, diagrams and dont get overwhelmed. Have a plan to complete the exam in 70 minutes and use 30 minutes to review and answer the big questions.

Hope my blog is helpful to you and good luck with your exam. If you are like me where you have failed 1 or 2 times on an exam, it is worth taking the third time where Magic can happen and you will succeed. The point of the exams is to help us learn, also learn to pounce back which is the critical skill we need to succeed. Feel free to email me at buyan@eigenx.com for any questions.