Salesforce Platform Developer Practice Exam

What determines whether a lookup record can be deleted?

1. The settings defined in the lookup relationship

2. The user's profile permissions and role

3. The organization-wide default settings

4. The record's creation date

The correct answer is: The settings defined in the lookup relationship

The ability to delete a lookup record is primarily determined by the settings defined in the lookup relationship. In Salesforce, lookup relationships can be configured with various settings that dictate how deletion behaves concerning the parent and child records. For instance, if a lookup relationship is configured with the "cascading delete" option, deleting the parent record will also delete the related child records. Conversely, if the relationship does not allow cascading deletes, the child records may need to be removed manually before the parent record can be deleted. This behavior is fundamentally rooted in the relationship settings, establishing a clear linkage between how records can interact with one another upon deletion. In contrast, while user permissions, profile settings, and organization-wide default settings can influence a user’s ability to access or modify records, they do not determine the structural capabilities of data deletion within lookup relationships. The creation date of a record is also irrelevant to the ability to delete; it is more tied to the relationships and dependencies defined within the system. Thus, understanding these lookup relationship settings is key to managing record deletions effectively in Salesforce.