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Platform Administrator II practice questions: Auditing and Monitoring

Auditing and Monitoring is 10% of the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator II exam. It covers Setup Audit Trail, Login History, debug logs and Event Monitoring. Try these 4 free questions, then open each answer to see why every option is right or wrong.

01

Compliance needs two years of history on configuration changes made by an automated integration user, but the Setup Audit Trail only goes back 180 days. How should the admin meet the two-year retention requirement?

  1. Turn on the Salesforce Shield Event Monitoring add-on, which rebuilds audit data for the previous 2 years.
  2. Buy the Field Audit Trail add-on in Salesforce Shield to lengthen Setup Audit Trail retention to 2 years.
  3. Build a scheduled Flow that copies Setup Audit Trail data into a custom object every day, accumulating two years of history from now on.
  4. Export the Setup Audit Trail on a regular schedule (at least every 180 days) with the Download Now button or the API, and keep the CSV files in an external archive for long-term retention.
Show answer

Answer: D

A. Turn on the Salesforce Shield Event Monitoring add-on, which rebuilds audit data for the previous 2 years.Incorrect. Event Monitoring records activity only from the time it is enabled; it cannot recreate past setup changes.
B. Buy the Field Audit Trail add-on in Salesforce Shield to lengthen Setup Audit Trail retention to 2 years.Incorrect. Field Audit Trail lengthens field history retention (up to 10 years), not Setup Audit Trail retention.
C. Build a scheduled Flow that copies Setup Audit Trail data into a custom object every day, accumulating two years of history from now on.Incorrect. A flow would only help going forward, cannot recover older history, and does not answer the current request.
D. Export the Setup Audit Trail on a regular schedule (at least every 180 days) with the Download Now button or the API, and keep the CSV files in an external archive for long-term retention. ✓Correct. With only 180 days kept natively, scheduled exports archived outside Salesforce are the standard way to retain audit data long term.

Why: Setup Audit Trail keeps configuration changes for only 180 days. Longer retention requires regular CSV exports stored in an external compliance or document system. Shield Field Audit Trail is a different product that extends field history, not the Setup Audit Trail.

02

A regulated financial firm must keep every change to the Account Credit Rating field for 7 years to satisfy SEC rules. Standard Field History Tracking keeps data for only 18 months. Which feature extends that retention?

  1. Daily Reporting Snapshots that copy the Credit Rating value into a custom object for 7-year archiving.
  2. Setup Audit Trail exports that capture Credit Rating changes and are stored externally for 7 years.
  3. Salesforce Shield Field Audit Trail, which keeps field history for up to 10 years for chosen fields on chosen objects.
  4. Big Objects that hold daily exports of the Credit Rating value for long-term archiving.
Show answer

Answer: C

A. Daily Reporting Snapshots that copy the Credit Rating value into a custom object for 7-year archiving.Incorrect. Reporting Snapshots store periodic values, not record-level change history, and need ongoing upkeep.
B. Setup Audit Trail exports that capture Credit Rating changes and are stored externally for 7 years.Incorrect. Setup Audit Trail tracks Setup configuration, not data changes on Account records.
C. Salesforce Shield Field Audit Trail, which keeps field history for up to 10 years for chosen fields on chosen objects. ✓Correct. Field Audit Trail keeps every change to the configured fields well beyond 18 months, covering the 7-year requirement.
D. Big Objects that hold daily exports of the Credit Rating value for long-term archiving.Incorrect. Exporting values into Big Objects does not capture the full change history (who, old value, new value, when).

Why: Shield Field Audit Trail stretches field history retention from the standard 18 months to as long as 10 years for selected fields. It is a paid add-on aimed at regulatory needs and records old value, new value, who changed it and when in a queryable form.

03

A user's email deliverability test from Salesforce keeps failing. Which Salesforce setting determines whether system-generated emails, such as automated notifications, are sent from the org to external addresses?

  1. The 'Allow Mass Email' permission on the user's profile governs system email delivery to external addresses.
  2. Turning on the 'Outbound Email Delivery' connected app permission for the user's profile permits email to be sent.
  3. Setting up SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM records in the org's DNS lets Salesforce send emails.
  4. The Email Deliverability setting in Setup, with the options 'No Access' (no emails), 'System Email Only' (system emails only) and 'All Email' (every email, including user-triggered), governs outgoing email from the org.
Show answer

Answer: D

A. The 'Allow Mass Email' permission on the user's profile governs system email delivery to external addresses.Incorrect. 'Allow Mass Email' lets a user send list emails to contacts or leads; it does not control system notifications.
B. Turning on the 'Outbound Email Delivery' connected app permission for the user's profile permits email to be sent.Incorrect. No 'Outbound Email Delivery' connected app permission exists; delivery is an org-level setting.
C. Setting up SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM records in the org's DNS lets Salesforce send emails.Incorrect. SPF and DKIM are DNS authentication measures that improve deliverability; they do not decide whether Salesforce sends email.
D. The Email Deliverability setting in Setup, with the options 'No Access' (no emails), 'System Email Only' (system emails only) and 'All Email' (every email, including user-triggered), governs outgoing email from the org. ✓Correct. This org-level setting decides which email types can leave the org, from none to system-only to all.

Why: The Email Deliverability setting (Setup > Deliverability) has three access levels: 'No Access' sends nothing; 'System Email Only' sends only automatic system notifications and is the default for new sandboxes; 'All Email' allows every type of email and is used in production. Keeping sandboxes on 'System Email Only' avoids emailing real users by mistake.

04

An org now holds thousands of reports and dashboards. The admin wants to find and archive reports nobody has run in over 6 months. Which feature helps reveal report usage and last run dates?

  1. The Report Run History feature on each report's detail page, listing the date and user of every run.
  2. Salesforce Shield Event Monitoring, whose ReportRun events in event log files can be queried to find reports not executed in the last 6 months.
  3. The standard 'Report Audit' report type, which lists all reports with their last run date and owner.
  4. Salesforce Optimizer, whose report usage analysis ranks reports by last run date and user engagement.
Show answer

Answer: B

A. The Report Run History feature on each report's detail page, listing the date and user of every run.Incorrect. No org-wide 'Report Run History' view exists for thousands of reports.
B. Salesforce Shield Event Monitoring, whose ReportRun events in event log files can be queried to find reports not executed in the last 6 months. ✓Correct. ReportRun events show which reports ran, who ran them and when, so unused reports can be identified.
C. The standard 'Report Audit' report type, which lists all reports with their last run date and owner.Incorrect. No standard 'Report Audit' report type exists.
D. Salesforce Optimizer, whose report usage analysis ranks reports by last run date and user engagement.Incorrect. Per the source, Optimizer does not provide last-run analysis per report.

Why: Shield Event Monitoring produces ReportRun event log files recording each execution (report ID, user ID, timestamp). Querying them through the EventLogFile API shows which reports have gone unused for a given period, supporting decisions on archiving or deleting them.

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