I recently had the fortunate opportunity to provide early testing and feedback for the latest Superbadge released by Salesforce’s Trailhead. This one covers all the different aspects of being a data integration specialist. This includes being able to configure both inbound and outbound security, being able to synchronize Salesforce data with external systems, and creating test Apex classes to do both Apex REST and SOAP callouts.

Even though I have done quite a bit of data integration work over the years (both with Salesforce and .NET), I admittedly had not done much with it in the past two years, so I figured this might be a bit of a challenge.

It sure was a challenge, but in a very good way I think. And, it was actually fun! Yeah, right, fun I said.

The superbadge is not like any of the other trailheads you may have completed in the past. This special superbadge is designed to test how well you really grasped the underlying material and not just walk you through yet another predictable tutorial. It is also based on real-world type scenarios, similar to what you would encounter in your development job.

This particular superbadge requires that you to complete 4 other Trailhead badges as pre-requisites before you can even attempt the badge. The other badges will give you the knowledge that you need, but the challenges in the superbadge will only offer you business requirements. You will be asked to complete 9 different challenges that will really confirm you know the material well. You will even be asked to apply best practices when applicable.

What is so fun about it, is that it forces you to think though the scenarios and not just repeat a bunch of steps. If you are a developer like me, then you actually like this type of challenge, You probably also like crossword puzzles and mind teasers too, I’m guessing

So, I challenge anyone with no to a lot of experience with Salesforce data integration to check out this newly available superbadge and let me know what you think. I bet you will love it just as much as I did.