Study guide
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Study guide for chapter 5 of the Integration Architect course. Read the six modules first; this page helps you check what stuck.
About this study guide. It’s built only from this course’s own content and the published Salesforce exam guide’s list of objectives. It is never based on real exam questions, and it doesn’t claim to know what’s on the exam. If you’ve taken the exam, please don’t send me questions from it: the certification agreement forbids sharing them, and memorizing answers is the wrong way to become an architect anyway.
This chapter carries the whole of one exam section and part of another: Evaluate the Current System Landscape (8% of the exam), with identifying the landscape (LAND-1) and analyzing its constraints and pain points (LAND-2), and, from Translate Needs to Integration Requirements (22%), inventorying the systems and patterns from a landscape diagram (REQ-1). Which Salesforce products run where is changing fast, so those facts are dated: check them again before you rely on them.
For the Exam
Section titled “For the Exam”Tick them off as you go. Each one links to where it’s taught.
Draw it first (LAND-1)
- I know a system landscape shows the systems and how they connect, and that even two boxes set the scope and protect the project. (Two Boxes Are Enough)
- I draw it on the first call and show it, because the client remembers the other systems when they see the picture. (Then the Memories Come)
- For every box the client adds, I record in scope or out, now or later, the date and who decided. (Draw It on the First Call)
Boxes and touch points (LAND-1)
- I know a box is a process boundary: anything that runs in its own space, whatever machine it’s on. (A Box Is a Process Boundary)
- I know the rule: anything in Salesforce core needs no integration; anything outside it needs a connector or an integration. (The Product Party)
- I can sort the products, as checked on 2026-11-01: Sales, Service, Field Service, the industry clouds, B2B Commerce and Experience Cloud on core; Data 360 near core; Marketing Cloud Engagement, Account Engagement, B2C Commerce, MuleSoft, Tableau, Heroku and Slack on their own hosting. (The Product Party)
- I know there are two commerce products: B2B Commerce on core, B2C Commerce with its own hosting. (The Product Party)
- I can find what’s behind each touch point: an IVR is an arrow in, with a screen pop through CTI; an outbound dialer is an arrow out. (Touch Points)
- I keep the insides of the boxes for their own diagrams, so the landscape stays about the connections. (Not the Schematic of a Processor)
The arrows (LAND-1, REQ-1)
- On a system landscape, the arrow starts at the system that opens the connection, and the label says what moves. (Read the Arrows)
- I draw two conversations as two arrows, each with its own mechanism, credentials and owner. (Two Conversations, Two Arrows)
- I use a double arrow only for a connector, and a dashed line for trust, such as an identity provider. (The Double Arrow Is a Connector)
- I know a database stores; a process calls, so an arrow can’t start at a box where nothing runs. (Who Can Start a Call)
- I draw data flows on their own diagram, and say in each legend which kind it is. (Data Flows Get Their Own Diagram)
Browser or server (LAND-1, LAND-2)
- I know a browser-level integration (a mashup, an iframe) makes the browser the client, with its own arrow on the landscape. (The Lateral Call)
- I know whatever the browser has, anyone using it can see, so if a call needs a secret, the server makes it. (What the Browser Has to Know)
- I know a Lightning web component calls another site only once it’s a trusted URL, and only if that site allows it under CORS. (Browser-Level Integration in Salesforce Today)
- I know Canvas puts another app inside Salesforce, and Lightning Out 2.0 puts Lightning web components inside another app. (Browser-Level Integration in Salesforce Today)
- I know browser-level integrations break per browser (third-party cookies, trusted URLs, CORS, frames) and show up in the browser’s console. (When It Breaks in the Browser)
- I can place an integration at the browser, the process or the data level, and know Salesforce’s patterns sort them as data, process and virtual integration. (Three Places an Integration Happens)
Point to point or hub and spoke (LAND-2, supports DES-2)
- I can count potential flows: n × (n − 1) point to point (20 for five systems), about two per system through a hub. (The Arithmetic)
- I know what tight interconnections cost: credentials spread across the estate, and every caller to talk to when one is breached. (The Arithmetic)
- I can list what middleware gives you: routing and orchestration, central security, data transformation and protocol transformation. (What the Middle Gives You)
- I know a hub is one basket: secure it, size it, and plan for it going down. (One Strong Basket)
- I know middleware may not be worth it for one or two connections, and can be a lifesaver at three, four or five systems. (When It Isn’t Worth It)
The inventory (REQ-1, supports LAND-3)
- I draw the current state first, honestly, and label it. (Current State First)
- For every arrow, the inventory has four answers: who starts it, how it travels, the credential and who holds it, and who owns it. (Every Arrow Gets Four Answers)
- For every credential, I know where it’s kept, who can see it, when it changes, and what to revoke. (The Credential Column)
- I retire an integration down to its credential, its integration user and its app or named credential. (Keep It Alive)
Beyond the Exam
Section titled “Beyond the Exam”The exam is the floor, not the ceiling. These are the habits from this chapter that an architect needs, whether or not a question ever asks about them.
- Two boxes can protect you. Draw the landscape on the first call.
- Keep every box where it first appeared, so people can see what’s new.
- When a product says Salesforce, don’t assume it’s in your org. Check, and write down the date.
- Double arrows are for connectors only. Two conversations are two mechanisms.
- If the page holds the secret, so does everyone who can view source.
- Without middleware, you still have to think about all the same things. The orchestration has to live somewhere.
- The dangerous integration is the one that never made it into the inventory.
- An inventory that’s wrong six months later is worse than none, because people trust it.
Words to Know
Section titled “Words to Know”| Term | In one line |
|---|---|
| System landscape | A picture of the systems and how they connect |
| Process boundary | A running system with its own memory; anything that crosses it is an integration |
| Salesforce core | Your org: the shared space where products need no integration between them |
| Touch point | Every place a person reaches the estate |
| IVR, CTI, screen pop | A phone menu that calls in; the link between phones and Salesforce; the record appearing as the phone rings |
| Connector | One thing, set up once, that moves data both ways; the only double arrow |
| Mashup, iframe | A page made from more than one site, with the browser calling the second one |
| Trusted URL | A site an admin allows Lightning web components to call from the browser |
| CORS | The rule that lets a site decide whether a page from another site may read its answer |
| Canvas | Puts another web app inside Salesforce, signed in and able to talk to the page |
| Lightning Out 2.0 | Runs Lightning web components inside another app |
| Point to point | Systems wired directly to each other: n × (n − 1) potential flows |
| Hub and spoke, ESB | Every system talks to one thing in the middle |
| Integration inventory | The list you run the estate from: every arrow, its mechanism, credential and owner |
Check Yourself
Section titled “Check Yourself”Short scenarios in the style of the course. Decide your answer before you open it.
1. A project's landscape has two boxes: users and Salesforce. Months later, the client asks where the mobile app is. How did the landscape help?
It set the scope, and everyone agreed to it. The mobile app wasn’t on it, so it’s new work: a conversation about time and cost, not a surprise at go-live. Reread Two Boxes Are Enough.
2. A client uses Service Cloud and B2C Commerce and says they're "both Salesforce, so no integration." Are they right?
No. Service Cloud runs on core; B2C Commerce has its own hosting, so reaching your org takes a connector or an integration. When a product says Salesforce, check where it runs, and date what you found. Reread The Product Party.
3. A partner sends orders in, and Salesforce sends each order's status back. Someone draws one double-headed arrow. What do you change?
Two arrows: orders in, started by the partner with credentials you gave it; status out, started by your side with credentials the partner gave you. Two mechanisms, two secrets, two owners, two ways to fail. A double arrow is only for a connector. Reread Two Conversations, Two Arrows.
4. A landscape shows an arrow from the analytics database to Salesforce, labeled "pulls every status." What's wrong?
A database stores; a process calls. Something has to run to make that call, such as an integration layer, and it’s missing from the landscape. Draw it, with the arrows starting there. Reread Who Can Start a Call.
5. A Lightning web component calls a partner's API from the browser, with the partner's client secret in the JavaScript. What do you recommend?
Move the call to the server, in Apex, with a named credential. Anything in the browser can be seen with view source. Keys that are meant to be in a page, such as a restricted map key, are different; a secret never is. Reread What the Browser Has to Know.
6. An embedded app in a Salesforce page signs in fine for some users and not for others. Where would you look?
The browsers. The app likely keeps its sign-in in a third-party cookie, and Safari blocks those by default while Chrome keeps them on. Look in the browser’s console, not Salesforce’s logs. Reread When It Breaks in the Browser.
7. Five systems all need to talk to each other, and one of them is breached. Compare point to point and hub and spoke.
Point to point, there are up to 20 potential flows and as many sets of credentials, and you have to talk to every system that calls the breached one. Through a hub, each system talks only to the middleware, which holds the credentials going out in one secured place. But then the hub has to be secured, sized and planned for going down. Reread The Arithmetic.
8. An integration is retired, and its arrow comes off the landscape. What else has to happen?
Revoke its credential, deactivate its integration user, and remove its External Client App or named credential. The integration that’s forgotten but still has a working credential is the dangerous one. Reread Keep It Alive.
Explore
Section titled “Explore”- Salesforce Certified Platform Integration Architect Exam Guide (opens in a new tab), Salesforce Help (checked 2026-11-01): the official list of objectives and their weights. Always check the current version before you book the exam.