ADM-201 - Configuration and Setup - Section 1.3

Apply the Salesforce security model, including profiles, permission sets, organization-wide defaults, role hierarchy, and sharing rules to control record and object access.

Layer object and field access from profiles and permission sets on top of record access controlled by organization-wide defaults, the role hierarchy, sharing rules, and manual sharing. Recognise that org-wide defaults set the most restrictive baseline, that the role hierarchy and sharing rules can only open access wider, and that permission sets grant additional access without changing a user's profile.

ProfilesPermission setsOrganization-wide defaultsRole hierarchySharing rules

Practice question for this objective

Free sampleConfiguration and Setuphard

Which statement accurately distinguishes a profile from a permission set in the Salesforce access model?

  • AA user can be assigned many profiles simultaneously, whereas only one permission set can ever be active for that user at a time.
  • BA permission set establishes the baseline access for a user, and the profile then extends that access for individuals who happen to need more.
  • CBoth a profile and a permission set can remove an access a user has already gained through another profile assignment.
  • DA user has one profile that establishes baseline permissions, while permission sets grant additional access on top without removing anything the profile already allows. Correct
A profile is the single baseline permission set per user, and permission sets add access without changing the profile. Salesforce assigns one profile per user as the permission baseline and layers permission sets additively over it, so combined access is the union of profile and permission set grants, never a subtraction.

Why A is wrong: This reverses the real behaviour: a user has a single profile but can hold many permission sets at once, so the multiplicity is attributed to the wrong feature.

Why B is wrong: The roles are swapped here: the profile is the baseline and the permission set is the additive layer, not the other way round, which makes this a common but incorrect framing.

Why C is wrong: Permission sets and profiles only grant access; neither revokes an access granted elsewhere, and a user cannot hold more than one profile for one to strip another's permissions.

Why D is correct: Each user is assigned exactly one profile as their baseline, and permission sets are purely additive, extending access to specific users without altering the profile or reducing its granted permissions.

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