Chapter 1: Starting Your Journey as a CTA

This chapter will get you started by providing general information about this book and the Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) credential. This chapter will help you get some answers to questions such as what the typical profile of a CTA looks like, how the exam is related to the day-to-day activities of a Salesforce Architect, and why understanding the way CTAs think is important even for senior architects who are not necessarily targeting the CTA credential. This chapter also provides general details about the review board exam's structure and setup (whether that is physical or virtual) and the main artifacts needed to document an end-to-end solution.

In this chapter, we're going to cover the following main topics:

• Understanding the profile of a Salesforce Certified Technical Architect
• The CTA review board's structure and format
• From exam to real life – how to train to become a CTA
• The nature of the exam – a point collection exercise
• What kind of artifacts you need to generate and why
• Let's get started!