Become a Certified Technical Architect
Flow from zero experience to CTA. Follow the path below—each box is a certification you can study.
Start here – Foundations
Build core platform and CRM knowledge. No prior Salesforce experience needed.
Administrator & App Builder
Admin and configuration skills. Required base for the architect path.
Developer I & II
Development depth. Developer I is required; Developer II is required for Dev Lifecycle & Deployment Architect.
Consultant credentials (recommended)
Broaden scope with implementation experience. Not mandatory for CTA but highly valuable.
Domain architects (all four required)
You must earn all four domain architect credentials. Two feed Application Architect, two feed System Architect.
Integration & cloud (recommended)
Integration and Heroku architect certs strengthen solution design. Not required for CTA but common among CTAs.
Application Architect & System Architect
Combine domain certs: Application Architect (Data + Sharing) and System Architect (Identity + Dev Lifecycle). Both are required for CTA.
Technical Architect (CTA)
CTA credential requires both Application Architect and System Architect. Then you pursue the CTA board.
Flow legend
- Left to right = order: first, then second, then third
- ↓Down = next phase (complete row above, then go to next row)
- Required for CTA
- Recommended / optional
Minimum path to CTA
Follow the required certs in order: Platform Foundations → Administrator → App Builder → Developer I → Developer II → all four Domain Architects → Application Architect + System Architect → Technical Architect (CTA) → Evaluation → Review Board.
Start the flow
Begin with Platform Foundations or see all certification paths.