Free Salesforce Certified Heroku Architect Exam Practice Questions

Sample Practice Questions

Try these 10 sample questions from the Salesforce Certified Heroku Architect Exam practice bank. Each includes the answer and explanation. Continue with the interactive practice above to review the full question set.

1. 1What does a Procfile declare for a Heroku application?

   1. A. The database schema and its migration history
   2. B. Named process types and their execution commands
   3. C. The access roles assigned to application collaborators
   4. D. The network routes allocated to application dynos

   Answer: B

   Explanation: The guide states, "Procfiles list process types - named commands that you want executed". Thus the Procfile declares runnable entry points, rather than schemas, collaborator roles, or network routes.

   Reference: How Heroku Works — Knowing What to Execute

2. 2A reporting workload can tolerate slightly stale data but is overloading a Heroku Postgres leader. Which design moves those reads away from the leader while retaining a continuously updated copy?

   1. A. Keep reports on the leader and move writes to a follower
   2. B. Refresh independent database forks on a fixed schedule
   3. C. Serve the reports from a read-only follower
   4. D. Increase only the leader's size and keep reporting there

   Answer: C

   Explanation: The guide states, "A database follower is a read-only copy of the leader database". Serving reports from that replica offloads reads while receiving replicated updates. Followers cannot take application writes; scheduled forks are not continuous replication, and a larger leader does not move reports away.

   Reference: Heroku Postgres Follower Databases — Introduction; Distributing App Reads to Followers

3. 3A healthcare project plans to process protected health information using appropriate Heroku services. Which agreement does Heroku identify as required for HIPAA compliance?

   1. A. A Data Processing Addendum alone
   2. B. A standard service contract without a HIPAA addendum
   3. C. A Business Associate Addendum
   4. D. A Service Level Agreement alone

   Answer: C

   Explanation: Heroku identifies a "Business Associate Addendum to the Master Subscription Agreement that is required for HIPAA compliance." General data-processing, service, or availability agreements alone do not substitute for that specific HIPAA addendum. It is one requirement, not a guarantee that the complete application is compliant.

   Reference: Heroku Security, Privacy, and Compliance — Audits and Certifications — HIPAA

4. 4An Enterprise Team wants production to run the exact stateless build artifact tested in staging, without rebuilding it. Which Heroku workflow meets this goal?

   1. A. Build the source again directly in production
   2. B. Copy only staging's config vars into production
   3. C. Recreate the staging database in production
   4. D. Promote staging's build artifact through a pipeline

   Answer: D

   Explanation: The pipeline guide states, "When a build artifact is promoted, Heroku copies it without making any changes." Promotion preserves the tested artifact. Rebuilding can produce another artifact; copying configuration or data does not deploy the tested build.

   Reference: Pipelines — Design Considerations

5. 5A team keeps adding named bundles such as staging-east, staging-west, and developer-specific environments to control configuration. Which redesign follows Twelve-Factor configuration management?

   1. A. Put all deploy variants into one source-code switch statement
   2. B. Use independently managed, orthogonal environment variables per deploy
   3. C. Compile one configuration bundle permanently into each runtime
   4. D. Require every deploy to use the production configuration unchanged

   Answer: B

   Explanation: The Config factor states, "env vars are granular controls, each fully orthogonal to other env vars." Manage them independently for each deploy instead of multiplying named bundles or forcing distinct deploys to share values.

   Reference: The Twelve-Factor App — III. Config — III. Config — grouping and granular controls

6. 6A Heroku app needs local SQL access to selected Salesforce object data in Heroku Postgres, with ongoing synchronization and optional write-back. Which integration fits this data architecture?

   1. A. Canvas embedding of the Heroku user interface
   2. B. A direct HTTP callout for each application read
   3. C. A Platform Event subscription without a database mapping
   4. D. Heroku Connect object-to-table mappings

   Answer: D

   Explanation: The Connect guide describes an add-on that "synchronizes data between your Salesforce organization and a Heroku Postgres database." Mappings provide the local SQL data architecture. UI embedding, per-request callouts, and event subscriptions alone do not maintain the specified mapped tables.

   Reference: Heroku Connect — Introduction; Use Cases

7. 7A Cedar app uses classic buildpacks. Which artifact contains its source, fetched dependencies, runtime, and compiled output ready for execution?

   1. A. A dyno formation
   2. B. A config var
   3. C. A slug
   4. D. A log drain

   Answer: C

   Explanation: The article states, "The build artifact for apps using classic buildpacks is a slug." The slug is the runnable build bundle; a formation counts processes, a config var carries configuration, and a drain exports logs.

   Reference: How Heroku Works — Building Applications

8. 8A Heroku app must read back a just-committed update without accepting replication staleness. Where should it send that read in a leader-follower architecture?

   1. A. To the leader that accepted the update
   2. B. To any follower because commits are synchronous
   3. C. To the follower with the fewest current connections
   4. D. To a randomly selected follower of the leader

   Answer: A

   Explanation: The guide states, "Because followers are asynchronously updated, they can be behind their leader by some number of commits." A read that cannot tolerate replication staleness must use the leader. Connection count and random selection do not remove asynchronous lag.

   Reference: Heroku Postgres Follower Databases — Monitoring Followers

9. 9After choosing a Heroku service with suitable security certifications, what responsibility remains with the application owner?

   1. A. Secure the application and manage access to its resources
   2. B. Transfer all application authorization decisions to Heroku audits
   3. C. Replace application access controls with the platform's certificate
   4. D. Treat provider certification as certification of all application code

   Answer: A

   Explanation: Heroku describes data protection as a "shared responsibility". The customer remains responsible for application security and account/resource access; provider certifications do not implement application authorization or certify arbitrary customer code.

   Reference: Heroku Security, Privacy, and Compliance — Shared responsibility model

10. 10After a pipeline promotion, an Enterprise Team expects staging's database attachment and config vars to replace production's. Which correction should the architect make?

    1. A. Promotion copies databases but not config vars
    2. B. Manage production configuration and backing services separately
    3. C. Promotion copies config vars but not database attachments
    4. D. Reorder the pipeline stages to enable automatic resource copying

    Answer: B

    Explanation: The guide states, "Pipelines manage the flow of application build artifacts only." Config vars, add-ons, and other environment dependencies remain independently managed; changing stage order does not make promotion clone them.

    Reference: Pipelines — Design Considerations