Salesforce Admin – Sandbox & Change Set Deployment Questions

Sandbox management and deployment strategies are critical for maintaining consistent environments and smooth release processes in Salesforce. These questions cover sandbox types, refresh procedures, Change Set limitations, troubleshooting deployment failures, inbound/outbound Change Sets, data deployment techniques, sandbox templates, automation strategies, deployment checklists, post-deployment tasks, Change Set alternatives, mixed DML error resolution, Agile development strategies, and production deployment best practices. Understanding these concepts is essential for effective environment management.

Sandbox & Change Set Deployment - Q&A

  1. Q1. What are the different types of Salesforce sandboxes and when would you use each?
    Ans:
    - Developer: Code development (200MB data)
    - Developer Pro: Larger dev/testing (1GB data)
    - Partial Copy: UAT with subset of production data (5-50GB)
    - Full Copy: Full production replica (includes all data)
    - Metadata Only: Configuration testing (no data)
  2. Q2. How do you refresh a sandbox and what precautions should you take?
    Ans: Steps:
    1. Backup customizations in target sandbox
    2. Navigate to Setup → Sandboxes → Refresh
    3. Select template (for Partial Copy)
    Precautions: Notify users, check dependent integrations, validate post-refresh scripts
  3. Q3. What metadata components cannot be deployed via Change Sets?
    Ans:
    - Report folders (security settings)
    - Connected App credentials
    - Custom Metadata records
    - Content (files, documents)
  4. Q4. How would you troubleshoot a Change Set deployment failure?
    Ans:
    1. Check Email Notification for error details
    2. Review Setup Audit Trail in target org
    3. Common issues:
    - Missing dependencies
    - Profile/field-level security conflicts
    - API version mismatches
  5. Q5. What is the difference between inbound and outbound Change Sets?
    Ans:
    - Outbound: Created in source org to send components
    - Inbound: Received in target org for validation/deployment
    Pro Tip: Always validate inbound Change Sets before deployment
  6. Q6. How do you deploy record data between orgs without a Full sandbox?
    Ans: Options:
    - Data Loader with manual mapping
    - Salesforce Inspector for quick exports
    - ETL tools (Informatica, MuleSoft)
    - Custom Apex for complex transformations
  7. Q7. What are sandbox templates and how do they work?
    Ans: Templates define which data subsets get copied to Partial/Full sandboxes:
    - Standard templates (e.g., "All data", "Sample data")
    - Custom templates (filter by object/record type)
    Limit: 1 template per sandbox type
  8. Q8. Can you automate sandbox refreshes? If yes, how?
    Ans: Yes, via:
    - SandboxAPI (REST API calls)
    - SFDX CLI: sfdx force:org:clone
    - Scheduled jobs using Jenkins/CircleCI
  9. Q9. What are the limitations of Change Sets?
    Ans:
    - One-directional (production → sandbox or vice versa)
    - No rollback capability
    - Manual dependency management
    - No version control integration
  10. Q10. How would you deploy changes from a Developer sandbox to Production?
    Ans: Options:
    1. Change Sets (if orgs are connected)
    2. SFDX (recommended):
    sfdx force:source:retrieve → sfdx force:source:deploy
    3. Ant Migration Tool for complex metadata
  11. Q11. What is a deployment checklist you always follow?
    Ans:
    - [ ] Validate test coverage (75% minimum)
    - [ ] Verify profile permissions
    - [ ] Check dependent workflows/flows
    - [ ] Communicate downtime (if required)
    - [ ] Prepare rollback plan
  12. Q12. How do you handle post-deployment tasks?
    Ans:
    - Run data migration scripts
    - Update custom settings
    - Activate scheduled jobs
    - Verify integrations (endpoints, auth)
  13. Q13. What are the alternatives to Change Sets?
    Ans:
    - SFDX CLI (modern standard)
    - Ant Migration Tool
    - Copado/Gearset (third-party)
    - Metadata API (programmatic)
  14. Q14. How do you resolve "Insufficient Access" errors during deployment?
    Ans:
    1. Compare profile permissions between orgs
    2. Check FLS for custom fields
    3. Verify running user for automated deployments
    4. Ensure object accessibility in target org
  15. Q15. What's your strategy for managing sandbox data in Agile development?
    Ans:
    - Standardize datasets across team sandboxes
    - Use data scripts (e.g., Apex Data Factory)
    - Schedule weekly refreshes for QA sandboxes
    - Maintain masked PII for compliance

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