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Mailbag: What to learn first?

March 7, 2015

Dear David,

I know that you need to be familiar with all the following items but I have always wondered that how should one prioritize them?

The ‘second to none’ Sfdc99 Apex tutorials (All 8 chapters)
Head First Java
Visualforce Tutorials (maybe use Trailhead until your tutorials are complete)
DEV 501 certification (Advanced Developer)

I have the following plan of action in mind (please feel free to make recommendations):

  1. Complete the eight chapters of Sfdc99 Apex tutorials.
  2. Learn Visualforce
  3. Take the DEV 501 exam (Advanced Developer) after completing 1. and 2. and ensure that you are immensely comfortable with Apex and Visualforce.

Simultaneously read Head First Java while doing all of the above, until you finish it.

Sincerely,
Pathfinder

————–

Dear Pathfinder,

The good news is there are no wrong ways to do this!

My learning path was completely abnormal and it went like this:

  1. Head First Java
  2. Apex Chapters 1, 2, 3, 10
  3. Tons of Visualforce!
  4. The rest of Apex
  5. DEV 501

It wasn’t the most efficient way of learning, but it was the most practical thing for me at the time since my org needed a lot of UI work.

For the most efficient way to learn, I recommend this path:

  1. Basic coding syntax and objects
    • Head First Java
    • Apex Chapters 1 – 8
  2. Visualforce
  3. Advanced Apex (Chapters 9+ material)
  4. DEV 501

The main thing to take away from the above is you need to have a good understanding of how objects work before jumping into Visualforce, otherwise it’ll be too much to learn at once.

DEV 501 should definitely be last, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have at least a year experience coding in Apex & Visualforce regularly! Trust me though the cert is worth it!

Hope this helps!
David

Join the discussion in the comments section below! Got a question? Send it to the mailbag: sfdc99.mailbag@gmail.com

9 Comments
Heitor Pereira
August 3, 2017 @ 6:13 am

Hi David, lot of people told me to take the adm test first.
Is this really necessary?

Or can i take straight to dev exam?

Thank you!

Reply
    David Liu
    August 4, 2017 @ 9:03 pm

    ADM first! Can’t be a good dev without being a good admin!

    Reply
Jayesh Bhatnagar
March 18, 2016 @ 12:17 pm

David,

It is great reading your blog. My question is around taking the DEV 501 or the new Advanced Developer Certification.

I already have the Admin and Developer certification for over a year. And am a self-taught Apex developer and have learnt on the job and feel comfortable enough in this part. I did have a non-object oriented programming background though.

We do not use much visualforce at my work. We use a 3rd party UI tool called skuid. I have taken the visualforce trailhead and am comfortable with the basics. Do you think this is enough for advanced developer certification? If not, how do I go about getting more hands-on experience on visualforce or how do i better prepare myself?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Reply
    David Liu
    March 21, 2016 @ 8:31 pm

    You’ll definitely need more than Trailhead to learn Visualforce! Try to find examples from the official developer forums!

    Reply
Cooler
March 14, 2015 @ 12:49 pm

Hi David, what would you suggest to guy with 2 years experience in java?

Reply
    David Liu
    March 16, 2015 @ 8:14 pm

    Skip Head First Java =)

    Reply
      Cooler
      March 17, 2015 @ 3:29 pm

      lol))

      BTW How much time did you spend from start and to your first job and from start to your first certificate?

      Reply
      Cooler
      August 21, 2022 @ 10:58 am

      Funny, found my question, in 2015 I was thinking how to start learning SF and now I work in Salesforce as architect, have 20+ certs and extremely happy so far! ;)

      Reply
        David Liu
        August 21, 2022 @ 11:46 am

        =)

        Reply

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