Salesforce Certified Associate Practice Exam

What level of Salesforce security provides the ability to define access based on user hierarchies?

1. Record level security

2. Field level security

3. Profile level security

4. Permission set groups

The correct answer is: Record level security

The ability to define access based on user hierarchies is primarily illustrated through record level security. This type of security allows organizations to control access to records based on the role of a user within the hierarchy, which reflects the organization’s structure. When users are assigned roles in Salesforce, they can gain visibility into records owned by users in roles below them within the hierarchy. This means that a manager should be able to see the records of their reports, facilitating proper oversight and management while protecting sensitive information from others in the organization who are not part of that hierarchical view. Field level security, on the other hand, controls access to individual fields within a record for specific profiles, but does not provide a hierarchy-based access strategy. Profile level security determines the permissions for objects and records at a broader level rather than within specific hierarchies. Permission set groups are used to bundle multiple permission sets to manage access, but they also do not inherently provide the hierarchical record access that record level security does. Thus, record level security is the appropriate choice as it specifically addresses the capability to set access based on the roles and hierarchies established within Salesforce.