Exam Format

The CTA Review Board is a half-day, scenario-based oral examination. You receive a complex hypothetical business scenario, design a solution, and present it to a panel of judges.

Three Phases

gantt
    title CTA Review Board Timeline
    dateFormat HH:mm
    axisFormat %H:%M

    section Phases
    Preparation    :prep, 00:00, 3h
    Break          :break, after prep, 15min
    Presentation   :pres, after break, 45min
    Q&A            :qa, after pres, 40min

Phase 1: Preparation (180 minutes)

You receive a detailed business scenario document describing a fictional company with complex requirements. You must design a complete technical solution using only the tools provided:

Provided: Google Docs (scenario document), Google Slides (presentation), Google Sheets (tables/calculations), Lucidchart (diagrams, with Salesforce Shape Library), paper and pen
Not allowed: Internet access, personal notes, reference materials, or any outside resources
Goal: Create a presentation that covers your recommended architecture, addressing all 7 exam domains
Non-English speakers: Receive 210 minutes (3.5 hours) instead of 180

Virtual format since October 2023

The review board is now entirely virtual. Hand-drawn artifacts are no longer accepted. Lucidchart is the only officially allowed diagramming tool. Practice creating all diagram types in Lucidchart before exam day.

What to focus on during prep

Don’t try to create polished slides. Focus on clear diagrams (architecture, data model, integration flow, security model) and bullet points that you can speak to. The judges care about your reasoning, not your slide design.

See Review Board Artifacts & Deliverables for the complete artifact creation guide — what to build, how to allocate your 180 minutes, Lucidchart techniques, and lessons from candidates who passed and failed.

Phase 2: Presentation (45 minutes)

You present your solution to a panel of 3-4 active CTA judges. This is your chance to walk through your architecture, explain your decisions, and demonstrate depth of knowledge.

What judges look for:

Clear articulation of the overall architecture
Identification of risks and trade-offs (not just the happy path)
Appropriate use of platform capabilities
Justification for technology choices
Realistic approach to data, integration, and security

Common mistake

Don’t just describe what you chose. Explain why you chose it, what alternatives you considered, and what trade-offs you accepted.

Phase 3: Q&A (40-90 minutes)

Judges probe your solution with challenging questions. They will:

Push back on decisions to test your conviction and reasoning
Ask about alternatives you didn’t choose
Explore edge cases and failure scenarios
Test depth in areas where your presentation was thin
Challenge your assumptions with “what if” scenarios

Handling pushback

Pushback doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Judges test whether you can defend your decisions or appropriately adjust when presented with new information. Stand firm when you have good reasoning; adapt gracefully when the challenge reveals a gap.

What the Scenario Looks Like

A typical CTA scenario includes:

Company profile: Industry, size, geography, org structure
Current state: Existing systems, pain points, technical debt
Requirements: Business requirements, technical constraints, compliance needs
Stakeholder concerns: Performance expectations, budget constraints, timeline
Integration landscape: Existing enterprise systems that must be connected
Data considerations: Volume, migration needs, reporting requirements
User types: Internal users, external communities, partner portals with different access needs

The scenario is intentionally complex and ambiguous — there is no single right answer. Judges evaluate the quality of your reasoning, not whether you matched a rubric.

Scoring

Pass/Fail — there is no percentage score
All 7 domains are scored independently by each judge
You must reach the minimum threshold in each domain
Failing more than one domain = full fail (must retake everything)
Failing exactly one domain = eligible for a targeted section retake

See Domains & Scoring for the full domain breakdown.