Heroku Architect
The Salesforce Certified Heroku Architect credential is for engineers and architects who design enterprise-grade solutions on the Heroku platform. This is a deep, scenario-heavy exam. Every question puts you in a real architecture conversation: a customer has a compliance mandate or a traffic-spike problem, and you have to pick the right Heroku topology. If you know how Private Spaces, Heroku Shield, Heroku Connect, and the Twelve-Factor methodology fit together, you will do well. If you have only read the docs but never thought through the trade-offs, you will struggle. Study the decision axes first: Common Runtime vs. Private Space, Heroku Shield vs. standard Private Space, follower vs. fork in Postgres, and Connect vs. REST API. Get those right and the rest of the exam falls into place.
3-Step Path to Passing
- 1
Complete the Heroku Architect Trailmix
Start with the official Salesforce-curated trailmix. It walks through the core Heroku Enterprise modules you need and is the closest thing to a guaranteed syllabus for this exam. - 2
Attempt Practice Exams
I recommend my own practice exams first, but I have linked other options in the study resources below. The Heroku Architect exam is scenario-driven, so practice under timed conditions to build the pattern-recognition skills the exam tests. - 3Exams are available most days. Schedule with short notice once you are consistently scoring above 75% on practice exams. The 68% passing score leaves little margin, so do not rush.
Core Resources
Exam Overview
Questions
65
60 scored + 5 unscored
Duration
120 min
2 hours
To Pass
68%
Minimum Score
Question Format
Scored
92%60questions
Unscored
8%5questions
Exam Details
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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