SF-PD2 Performance Practice Question
An enterprise Salesforce application requires high-performance execution of complex SOQL queries across millions of records. Which strategy should a developer implement to ensure optimal query performance and prevent governor limit violations?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often rely on adding more filter conditions without checking index status, leading to expensive full table scans on large data volumes.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Apply custom indexes on frequently filtered fields and ensure filters use selective criteria.
Utilizing selective queries with custom indexes combined with proper bind variables ensures that database operations avoid full table scans. This optimization directly prevents CPU time and query row limit exceptions, protecting platform resources and maintaining user experience under heavy transaction loads.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Write dynamic SOQL strings concatenating user inputs to filter datasets flexibly.
Why it's wrong here
String concatenation in dynamic SOQL introduces severe security vulnerabilities like injection attacks and prevents query plan optimization. The database query optimizer cannot effectively cache or pre-compute execution plans for arbitrarily concatenated query strings, leading to degradation.
- ✓
Apply custom indexes on frequently filtered fields and ensure filters use selective criteria.
Why this is correct
Custom indexes allow the database query engine to instantly locate record subsets without scanning entire tables. When queries use selective filters matching indexed fields, database statistics optimize execution paths, drastically reducing query execution times and preventing timeout errors.
- ✗
Retrieve all records into an Apex collection and filter them using nested loops.
Why it's wrong here
Processing entire datasets in memory using Apex loops causes heap size exceptions and consumes excessive CPU time. Database operations should always filter data at the database layer using SOQL rather than transferring massive record volumes into application memory.
- ✗
Wrap every SOQL query in a try-catch block to automatically fallback to unindexed searches.
Why it's wrong here
Catching exceptions does not resolve the root cause of performance degradation or bypass governor limits. Unindexed searches will still hit query time limits and governor thresholds regardless of exception handling blocks surrounding the execution statement.
About these practice questions
One of 226 original SF-PD2 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Salesforce exam blueprint
This SF-PD2 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Salesforce certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SF-PD2 exam.