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At a glance
Format: Proctored (Pearson VUE test centre or OnVUE online), multiple choice single-answer and multiple select with the count stated; no partial credit; cut score not published
Domain weight map
Heaviest first - spend your time hereHow this exam thinks
CSA is a scenario exam about mechanism boundaries: the marks are in knowing which tool produces the stated outcome and which merely looks like it does.
Spot the trap
Tempting wrong answers, and why they failCommon misconception
A UI policy does hide a field, but only on the form at runtime; it cannot strip a column from a list view or from an exported file.
Database Management and Platform Security
Common misconception
Saving it as a personal filter and passing the query string round reproduces the conditions, but each user then owns a separate copy, so any later change has to be redistributed by hand.
Configuring Applications for Collaboration
Common misconception
Filing the articles under a category named Finance organises browsing and search only. A category carries no audience and hides nothing from anyone.
Self Service & Automation
Common misconception
Making a field mandatory with a UI policy is the usual no-code move, but the action only runs in the browser on a loaded form, so an import or a web service insert writes the record without it.
Data Migration and Integration
Common misconception
Store applications are not confined to reports and dashboards over tables the platform already provides; one can deliver tables, roles and server logic of its own.
Instance Configuration
Common misconception
Importing vendor files as an update set is not the same thing. An update set is a change transport for work done in house, carrying no vendor versioning or certification, so the supported upgrade path is lost.
Platform Overview and Navigation
Common misconception
Nested groups do pass roles down a hierarchy, but inheritance runs from parent to child, so a parent group's members gain nothing from roles held by a child group.
Database Management and Platform Security
Common misconception
Adding the related field through the form layout does not help: placing a field on a form does not create a column on the source record for the filter to evaluate.
Configuring Applications for Collaboration
Key terms
Exam-day rules
- Read the last line of the scenario first. It carries the requirement, and every option has to be judged against that requirement rather than against whether it is a true statement about the platform.
- Ask which surface the requirement touches: the form only, every read of the data, the server before the write, or the record after it. That one question separates UI policies, access control rules and the business rule run points faster than anything else.
- Count the selections on a multiple-select item. The item states how many to pick and there is no partial credit, so picking four where three were asked scores zero however good the four were.
- Prefer the least powerful tool that meets the requirement. When configuration and script both work, the exam is almost always pointing at the configuration.
- Never leave a single-answer item blank. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so flag the hard ones, cover every question first, and come back with whatever time is left.
Revision schedule
- Day 1Get an instance and map the blueprint
- Week 1Navigate and configure the instance
- Weeks 1-2Live in lists and forms
- Week 2Build the self-service front door
- Weeks 3-4Go deep on data and security