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Salesforce PD1 - 8-Week Practice Plan

This plan assumes 1.5-2 hours of theory + 1-2 hours of hands-on coding per day.

You cannot pass PD1 without writing Apex by hand. Build at least 5-10 small projects.

Lab setup

Week 1 - Apex syntax + Data model

  • Read notes/01-data-model-and-soql.md
  • Trailhead: "Apex Basics & Database" + "Apex Triggers"
  • Lab: Write 5 SOQL queries (filtered, joined parent-child, aggregate, with bind vars)
  • Lab: Use Apex collections (List, Set, Map) to manipulate Account/Contact data

Week 2 - Apex Triggers + Bulkification

  • Read notes/02-apex-triggers-and-classes.md
  • Trailhead: "Apex Triggers" trail
  • Lab: Write a before-insert trigger to default a field
  • Lab: Write an after-update trigger that updates related records (bulkified)
  • Lab: Add recursion guard to a trigger
  • Lab: Refactor trigger logic into a handler class

Week 3 - Async Apex

  • Read notes/03-async-apex-and-platform-events.md
  • Trailhead: "Asynchronous Apex" trail
  • Lab: Write a @future(callout=true) method
  • Lab: Write a Queueable class that chains another Queueable
  • Lab: Write a Batch class processing 5,000+ records
  • Lab: Schedule a Batch job nightly via Schedulable

Week 4 - Lightning Web Components

  • Read notes/04-lwc-and-visualforce.md
  • Trailhead: "Lightning Web Components" + "Lightning Web Components Basics"
  • Lab: Build a simple LWC that lists Accounts (wire to @AuraEnabled Apex method)
  • Lab: Add filtering by an @api input
  • Lab: Use Lightning Data Service to read/update a single record without Apex
  • Lab: Parent + child LWC with custom event communication

Week 5 - Visualforce + Aura (legacy)

  • Read notes/04-lwc-and-visualforce.md - legacy sections
  • Trailhead: "Visualforce Basics" module
  • Lab: Build a simple Visualforce page with custom controller
  • Lab: Build an Aura component (briefly, for awareness)

Week 6 - Testing

  • Read notes/05-testing-debugging-deployment.md
  • Trailhead: "Apex Testing" trail
  • Lab: Write tests for your Week-2 trigger achieving 90%+ coverage
  • Lab: Test code with HTTP callout using HttpCalloutMock
  • Lab: Test bulk scenario with 200 records

Week 7 - Debugging + Deployment

  • Read notes/05-testing-debugging-deployment.md
  • Lab: Set up debug logs in Developer Console
  • Lab: Use System.debug() to trace a complex trigger
  • Lab: Deploy code from sandbox via Change Set
  • Lab: Use Salesforce CLI to deploy from VS Code

Week 8 - Practice exams + Weak areas

  • Re-read fact-sheet.md
  • scenarios.md - work through all
  • Practice exams: Focus On Force PD1, Salesforce Ben questions
  • Score 80%+ on multiple practice exams

Stop signals

  • You can write a bulkified trigger from memory
  • You can write a Queueable / Batch class
  • You can build an LWC with @wire to Apex
  • You can write Apex tests with mocks and 90%+ coverage
  • You score 80%+ on practice exams twice in a row