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I need your expertise as an answer to my query. I am new to Salesforce and no prior working experience in Salesforce, I am from Mainframe background and working in an IT company now.

I am planning to take the "Developer - Salesforce Platform App Builder" and "Administrator - ADM201" certification and I am having the study guide for the both. Currently I am going through the Admin & Developer TrailHeads daily and planning to do more in depth study with help on study guide using different blogs and websites helping for certifications(Admin-Adminhero,certifiedondemand Dev-sdfc99,udacity also Flash cards etc).

Since I am completely new and no prior experience in Salesforce, I would like to know which Certification will be suitable or comparatively easy for a Beginner to take first. So that I can put my 100% towards it using the study guide and later focus on next certification?

Also please let me know if any blogs or sites other than above which will help me to learn myself for the certification and anything related to Saleforce. I am keen to learn Salesforce as I need a change from my current career. Thanks in advance, Please help.

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    Hi, Robert Its better to go for Administrator - ADM201 first because it'll help you to know exactly what a salesforce is, how it works, all basic things. and you know from where you can take any help as you mentioned the sites above in your post. So all the best. Prepare well.
    – Sharma_raj
    Commented Apr 12, 2016 at 6:03

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When I started working with Salesforce, my colleagues told me that DEV401 is the easiest to get and ADM201 being almost identical to it, but maybe just a little bit more difficult.

However, being myself I was postponing my exam till it was too late to do the DEV401. When I finally decided to get certified, DEV401 was split into 2 other exams:

Being a developer, I decided to try my luck with the platform dev certification. My personal feeling is that you would need some(not much) experience with Salesforce and coding, but it should be pretty doable.

My next certification was the App Builder. It's sort of a new/updated DEV401 exam, so there's nothing about Apex/VF, but mostly just standard functionality(a lot of questions about permissions/OWD/sharing/profiles/roles). Talking to some of my colleagues it looks like the App Builder is a bit more difficult than ADM201, but still very doable.

Also, I know a person who got ADM201, SalesCloud, ServiceCloud and Platform Dev certifications without any prior experience in Salesforce, he just studied for a few weeks and did it.

So to answer your question: you are on the right track, get the ADM201 and App Builder and then you can see what you want exactly.

And you may also want to take a look at SalesforceBen, he has a few tips for the certifications

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    In my experience app builder covers less than admin and it was much easier.
    – Samuel De Rycke
    Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 14:24
  • Thanks @SamuelDeRycke... Yes some people are saying the new App Builder exam is easier than old DEV401. Also I checked the Study Guide for both ADM201 & App Builder and they both overlap each other for most of the topic. Since I don't have any previous working experience in Salesforce everybody is advising me to take ADM201 first as it covers the basics and can be self learned comparatively. Any thoughts on this, please share
    – Robert Thomas
    Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 7:39
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    All certifications can be self learned on your own tempo. Consider also which certifications you want in the long run. If you're going for admin anyway later on..i'd skip app builder. If you're moving into the dev certifications, i'd start with app builder to get a broader knowledge.
    – Samuel De Rycke
    Commented Apr 19, 2016 at 10:05

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