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5 Things Every Senior Developer Should Know About Salesforce

Writer: Sowed ConsultingSowed Consulting

Becoming a Senior Salesforce Developer is more than just writing Apex code and building Lightning components. It requires strategic thinking, best practices, and a deep understanding of the platform to design scalable, maintainable, and high-performing solutions.


Whether you're looking to level up your expertise or avoid common pitfalls, here are five critical things every senior Salesforce developer should know.


1. Governor Limits Are Not a Suggestion—They’re a Hard Stop

Unlike traditional development environments, Salesforce enforces multi-tenant architecture through strict governor limits. If you ignore them, your code will fail in production.


Key limits to keep in mind:

  • SOQL Queries – Max 100 queries per transaction (avoid SOQL in loops!)

  • DML Statements – Max 150 DML operations per transaction

  • Heap Size – Max 6MB for synchronous and 12MB for async transactions

  • CPU Time – 10 seconds per transaction, regardless of efficiency


💡 Pro Tip: Use bulkification, asynchronous processing (Batch Apex, Queueable, Future methods), and efficient indexing to work within these limits.


2. Know When to Use Declarative vs. Programmatic Solutions

Senior developers should not default to writing code when Salesforce’s declarative tools (Flows, Validation Rules, Roll-Up Summary Fields, etc.) can do the job.


Why?


Declarative solutions execute faster and are easier to maintain.

Admins can modify declarative solutions without deploying code.

Salesforce is investing heavily in Flow, making it the go-to automation tool over Process Builder and Apex Triggers.

💡 Rule of Thumb: Code only when complexity, performance, or reusability demand it. Otherwise, use Clicks over Code.


3. Master Deployment & Version Control with SFDX and CI/CD

Deploying metadata manually via Change Sets? It’s time to level up.


Every senior Salesforce developer should be proficient with:

✔ Salesforce DX (SFDX) – Streamlined development workflows and scratch orgs.

✔ Git Version Control – Branching strategies for collaboration.

✔ CI/CD Pipelines – Tools like GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Copado, or Gearset for automated deployments.


💡 Why it matters: Manual deployments cause errors, inconsistencies, and delays. Using CI/CD ensures faster, repeatable, and reliable releases.


4. Understand Salesforce Security & Sharing Rules

Even the best code fails security reviews if it ignores Salesforce’s data protection model.


Senior developers must understand:


Org-Wide Defaults (OWD) – The baseline access to records.

Profiles & Permission Sets – Control user permissions effectively.

Sharing Rules & Apex Sharing – Grant access where needed.

CRUD & FLS Enforcement in Code – Use Schema.Describe or Security.stripInaccessible() to avoid exposing sensitive data.

💡 Pro Tip: Security reviews for AppExchange apps require strict adherence to CRUD/FLS checks—bypass them, and your app will be rejected.


5. Write Scalable & Maintainable Code

Being a great coder isn’t just about getting the job done—it’s about writing code that lasts, scales, and doesn’t break with each Salesforce update.


Follow These Best Practices:

  • Use the Apex Enterprise Patterns – Keep logic modular, reusable, and easy to test.

  • Bulkify Everything – Avoid hitting governor limits in high-volume transactions.

  • Unit Test Coverage (75%+ is not enough) – Write meaningful, assertion-based tests that validate logic, not just coverage %.

  • Think Future Releases – Will your code still work in 3 years when Salesforce rolls out new features?


💡 Pro Tip: If your code is hard to read, hard to test, and hard to debug, it’s not senior-level code.


Final Thoughts

Being a Senior Salesforce Developer is about more than just writing code—it’s about designing solutions that are scalable, efficient, and maintainable while working within Salesforce’s unique constraints.


By mastering governor limits, declarative tools, DevOps, security, and best practices, you’ll not only write better code—you’ll become a true Salesforce technical leader.

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