How to Pass Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Developer Exam

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Developer credential is for developers who has experience developing dynamic, personalized marketing assets such as emails, landing pages, and forms leveraging HTML, CSS, SQL, AMPscript and Marketing Cloud APIs.

1. About Salesforce Marketing Cloud Developer Exam

• Content: 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions, up to 5 unscored questions
• Time allotted to complete the exam: 105 minutes
• Passing score: 63% (38 out of 60 Questions)
• Registration fee: USD 200, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
• Retake fee: USD 100, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
• Prerequisite: Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialist credential

2. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Developer Exam Guide

• Exam Guide

3. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Developer Trail

• Develop for Marketing Cloud

4. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Developer Exam Outline

Data Modeling: 14%

• Configure account Contact model in Marketing Cloud.
• Given a scenario, differentiate the various types and uses of data extensions in Marketing Cloud.
• Describe how Contact Records relate across channels.
• Explain the Contact Delete process.

Programmatic Languages: 35%

• Given a scenario, demonstrate knowledge of AMPscript and SSJS language syntax and functions.
• Implement standard development best practices using Marketing Cloud programming languages.
• Describe how Marketing Cloud handles AMPscript processing.
• Given a customer scenario, determine how to programmatically exclude a subscriber at email send time.

API: 22%

• Given a scenario, describe API objects, methods, and routes.
• Describe the OAuth authentication flow and how an access token is used in SOAP and REST headers.
• Given a scenario, evaluate the significance of response handling.

Data Management: 22%

• Configure import activity using various file formats within Marketing Cloud.
• Given a scenario, apply SQL to produce the desired results.
• Given a scenario, explain the different ways to extract data from Marketing Cloud.
• Describe SQL best practices for managing data in Marketing Cloud.
• Given a scenario, apply best practices for send logs.
• Given a scenario, describe how data is affected by the Contact delete process.

Security: 7%

• Identify different options to secure data in Marketing Cloud.
• Describe security best practices in Marketing Cloud.

5. Important Topics for Salesforce Marketing Cloud Developer Exam

This article covers important topics not already covered in Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant Exam Guide as both of these exams have a lot of overlapping topics.

5.1 Data Modeling: 14% (8 Questions)

• Configure account Contact model in Marketing Cloud
• Types of Data Extensions
  • Standard
  • Filtered
  • Random
• Data extensions can be non-sendable or sendable
  • Non-sendable data extensions are reference data
  • Sendable data extensions have a send relationship and map to a subscriber. Contacts are added to All Contacts when you send to them
• The view as web page link refers to a record in the sendable data extension, not the HTML of the email received
• Email Studio vs Contact Builder Features

• By default, the data extension retention policy deletes unused data extensions after 6 months. The deletion process runs nightly
• You cannot remove the configured data retention settings on a data extension once you configure them
• Retention settings must be enabled when creating a data extension. You can modify the data retention policy for existing data extension where retention settings were enabled at creation
• Contact information synchronized from Sales or Service Cloud appears in All Contacts, even if you don’t send a message to them
• Attribute groups are data sources that are logically grouped together, and they allow you to organize data and configure relationships in Contact Builder
• Populations are used to categorize distinct subgroups of contacts. Limit populations to three or fewer to improve performance
• Contact Deletion Process – applies only to Email Studio, MobileConnect, MobilePush, and Contact Builder
• For Enterprise 2.0, the enablement of Contact Deletion feature occurs at parent account level
• Contact deletion deletes contact from lists and sendable data extensions
• Default suppression for contact deletion is 14 days but can be changed to 0 to immediately delete contacts
• Contact deletion limit per request batch is one million contacts
• Synchronized data extensions can not be deleted
• Use OperationID values to follow up on invalid or processing contact deletion requests with ‘/contacts/v1/contacts/actions/delete/status?operationID=’ resource
• To make the deletion process faster, delete any sendable data extensions you don’t need
• Marketing Cloud prevents contacts from reintroducing themselves into your account while the suppression period continues
• Contact deletion process takes less precedence than other account activities, such as sends, imports, automations, and queries 
• For Synchronized Data Sources, delete the information from the original data source in Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or another cloud. This deletes the corresponding record in the Synchronized Data Extension, but it doesn’t delete the contact record from Marketing Cloud

5.2 Programmatic Languages: 35% (21 Questions)

• Salesforce Marketing Cloud Programming Languages

• AMPscript Variables, Attributes and Constants
• AMPscript Syntax
• AMPscript Functions

• Personalization strings return data from Email Studio lists. Use AMPscript functions to return content from data extensions in other Marketing Cloud functions
• Impression Tracking
  • BeginImpressionRegion()
  • EndImpressionRegion()
• AMPScript comment syntax:
  • /* Insert Comment Here */
• AMPscript processes functions in this order :
  • HTML Body (Any preheader values reside at the beginning of the body and process accordingly)
  • Text Body
  • Subject Line

• Given a customer scenario, determine how to programmatically exclude a subscriber at email send time (Exclusion Script)
• SSJS Core Function – To personalize landing pages and create applications to run on Marketing Cloud
• SSJS Platform Functions – To work with messages, landing pages, and applications
• SSJS Syntax
• Display values in HTML using SSJS
• SSJS supports the following methods:
  • Add – Invokes the web service API Create method on an API object
  • Remove – Invokes the web service API Delete method on an API object
  • Update – Invokes the web service API Update method on an API object
  • Retrieve – Invokes the web service API Retrieve method on an API object

• Guide Template Language (GTL) is a Salesforce Marketing Cloud proprietary language bases on MustacheJS and HandleBarsJS. Recommended for parsing JSON and creation of repeatable content blocks. GTL + JSON is fater than AMPscript + XML
• GTL Data Sources
  • AMPscript
  • Data Extension
  • REST API Service
• You can change a Data Extension into a Suppression List without exporting and importing your Subscribers using the Exclusion script feature with Triggered Send or User-Initiated Send Definitions. The Exclusion script uses AMPscript and the personalization strings on the Data Extension to match email addresses in the Data Extension with email addresses defined in the Triggered Send. If a match is found, the row count value returned is 1. Because the value is greater than zero, the condition has been met and the subscriber is not sent to.

5.3 API: 22% (13 Questions)

• Given a scenario, describe API objects, methods, and routes
• Describe the OAuth authentication flow and how an access token is used in SOAP and REST headers
• Given a scenario, evaluate the significance of response handling
• SOAP Vs REST

• Marketing Cloud REST API routes

• REST API
  • JSON
  • Maximum Payload Size is 4MB
  • Request time out – 120 seconds and 300 seconds for tracking requests
• SOAP API
  • XML
  • Supports Username and password authentication
  • Request time out – 3 second for single email send, 30 second for tracking data
  • Most API objects return results in batches of 2,500
• SOAP API – 20 or fewer synchronous API threads per request with references to up to 50 objects per synchronous call or 100 objects per asynchronous call
• You can retrieve tracking information on the send using JobID
• You can retrieve the status of API call using RequestId property on ResultItem object  
• Marketing Cloud SOAP API common key methods
  • Retrieve – Get information on a single object type
  • Configure – Configure a Marketing Cloud account
  • Perform – Perform an asynchronous action
  • Extract – Extract a file to the Marketing Cloud FTP site
• DataExtension – Represents a Data Extension (name, attributes, retention policies, etc) where as DataExtensionObject – Represents a row within a Data Extension

• Installed package Integration Type
  • Server-to-Server with Client Credentials Grant Type
  • Web and Public App Integrations with Authorization Code Grant Type
• A web app can securely store a client secret, but a public app cannot
• OAuth token is only valid for 18 minutes (actual expiry is 20 minutes but needs to refreshed before 18 minutes)
• LogUnsubEvent call allows you to unsubscribe a subscriber and log an UnsubEvent that is tracked against a specific Job
  • The Subscriber Context is defined by the SubscriberID, SubscriberKey and EmailAddress parameters
  • The Job Context is defined by the JobID, ListID and BatchID parameters
  • Unsub Reason is used to specify the reason the subscriber is being unsubscribed from the system
• REST Error Codes

• SOAP Error Codes

5.4 Data Management: 22% (13 Questions)

• Configure import activity using various file formats within Marketing Cloud
• Types of Data Extract
  • Convert XML
  • Data Extension
  • ZIP Data
  • Tracking Data
• Given a scenario, apply SQL to produce the desired results
• Given a scenario, explain the different ways to extract data from Marketing Cloud
• Describe SQL best practices for managing data in Marketing Cloud
• Given a scenario, apply best practices for send logs
• Send Logging can be enabled at Parent or Child Business Unit
• It’s best practice to add 10 or fewer custom fields to the Send Log
• Content Builder test sends are not recorded on Send Log Data Extensions
• To record the new send log, ensure that you pause, republish, and restart triggered sends and Journey Builder triggered sends
• SQL commands are not case sensitive: select is the same as SELECT
• SQL Queries time-out after 30 minutes
• SQL Query Activity is based on Microsoft SQL Server 2016
• Avoid Data Extensions where the sum of the length of all attributes is greater than 4000 characters
• SQL Join Statement
• Sample SQL Queries

• Queries that include both a join and a Select * statement are not permitted
• Query Failure Possible Reasons
  • Query failed during execution. Error: Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint. Can’t insert duplicate key in object ‘{{DE name}}’
  • Query failed: Timeout
  • Query failed during execution. Error: Conversion failed when converting the nvarchar value ‘123ABC’ to data type int
  • Query Source has a longer field length than the Destination field
  • Inserting null into a field which does not allow null values

5.5 Security: 7% (5 Questions)

• Identify different options to secure data in Marketing Cloud
• Audit Trail is available to all Marketing Cloud accounts and provides 30 days of information
• Describe security best practices in Marketing Cloud
• Transparent Data Encryption
• Type of Encryption
  • Asymmetric – requires a pre-created certificate uploaded from your computer to your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account
  • Symmetric – requires you to create a passphrase for use with the key
  • Initialization vector – requires you to enter the block of bits to be used as the initialization vector
  • Salt – requires a hex value longer than 8 bits for use as a salt value
  • SAML -allows you to provide either the required metadata or the URL from which to retrieve that metadata to use this feature
• Encrypt and Decrypt Data with AMPscript 

• Salt keys can be used to encode JSON Web Token (JWT) information in a Journey Builder activity
• Use SSL Certificates to Secure
  • CloudPage URLs
  • Landing Pages
  • Links included in email messages from Email Studio
  • Portfolio Content
• Field Level Encryption – converts encrypted fields to plain text at the time of sending
• Data at Rest Encryption (Transparent Data Encryption) – encrypts data at rest using SQL Server’s built-in data protection technology
• Tokenized Sending – take information from your own data systems and transmit it to the Marketing Cloud only at send time via an API call. Instead of storing sensitive information in your Marketing Cloud account database, your account stores a single token per send attribute. This token resembles a standard email address or phone number but does not include any information about the contact
• Data at Rest Encryption is not available for
  • Predictive Intelligence
  • Audience Builder
  • Social Studio
• Marketing Cloud Shield combines security products to provide trusted encryption solutions with advanced Audit Trail functionality
• Marketing Cloud supports PGP or GPG decryption and encryption