Heroku Architect
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Core Resources
Exam Overview
From the official exam guide
Questions
65
Duration
120 min
To Pass
68%
Pricing
$200 registration · $100 retake
Delivery
Online proctored or at a testing center
Experience
Hands-on experience with Heroku Enterprise and Salesforce integration
Prerequisites
No prerequisites required
Exam Topics
Each topic section shows the topic weight, learning objectives, and links to study resources.
Heroku Platform10%
Dyno types and formation, buildpacks (standard, custom, multi), slug compilation, horizontal and vertical scaling, release phase, Heroku Flow, pipelines, review apps, CI, and the Elements Marketplace.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the basics behind building and deploying apps on Heroku.
- Architect scalable solutions that are performant even during high-traffic spikes.
- Architect and deploy solutions using add-ons and other components from the Elements Marketplace, including various add-ons, buildpacks, and Heroku Buttons.
Resources
Data17%
Heroku Postgres follower vs. fork semantics, high availability, cross-region replication, continuous protection vs. backups, connection pooling with PgBouncer, Dataclips, Apache Kafka on Heroku (partitions, consumer groups, streaming vs. queue trade-offs), Heroku Key-Value Store use cases (session cache, pub/sub, leaderboard), and add-on sharing.
- Demonstrate knowledge of Heroku Postgres, including data handling, security, and common use cases for follower databases. Describe the use cases of Dataclips.
- Architect solutions using Apache Kafka on Heroku to facilitate streaming communication between applications, services, or functions.
- Architect solutions using Heroku Key-Value Store (KVS).
- Demonstrate the ability to prescribe a third-party add-on and add-on sharing, when appropriate.
Resources
Security15%
Common Runtime vs. Private Space vs. Shield Private Space decision matrix, compliance certifications by tier (HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2 Type II), Private Space Peering (VPC peering to AWS), VPN connections (site-to-site), and app isolation boundaries.
- Construct architectures that leverage Heroku to achieve different security certifications.
- Recommend Heroku Private Space Peering or VPN connections for appropriate use cases.
- Recommend when an app should run in the Private Space Runtime versus the Common Runtime.
Resources
Heroku Enterprise28%
Private Spaces (network isolation, app grouping, data residency regions), Heroku Shield (HIPAA/PCI compliance, Shield Postgres, enhanced audit logging), Enterprise Teams (Admin/Member/Viewer roles, space-level access, add-on sharing), and Common Runtime vs. Private Space networking decisions.
- Demonstrate how features of Heroku Enterprise can improve a system's architecture.
- Recommend networking solutions that use Heroku Private Spaces or the Common Runtime, appropriately.
- Describe the compliance features of Heroku Shield.
- Describe the features of Enterprise Teams.
Resources
Architect Applications15%
Twelve-Factor App methodology (codebase, dependencies, config via Config Vars, backing services, build/release/run, stateless processes, port binding, concurrency, disposability, dev/prod parity, logs as streams, admin processes), microservices orchestration with Apache Kafka on Heroku, and release phase for zero-downtime deployments.
- Recommend architectures that use the Twelve-Factor App methodology correctly.
- Construct solutions for creating an orchestration layer for building a microservices architecture using Apache Kafka on Heroku.
Resources
Integrations15%
Heroku Connect (write and read mappings, External IDs for upsert, conflict resolution, polling vs. accelerated streaming, when to use Connect vs. REST API), Salesforce Canvas and Connected Apps, OAuth flows between Heroku apps and Salesforce orgs, Salesforce REST APIs called from Heroku, and Apex Callouts and Outbound Messages.
- Recommend architectures that use Heroku Connect appropriately, including the correct use of External IDs.
- Recommend techniques to integrate Heroku apps with the Salesforce Lightning Platform, and understand when to apply particular techniques.
Resources
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