I passed the CPQ Specialist Exam after a lot of hard work and a bit too much googling. I want to share my experience with the exam and my tips for passing hopefully on the first try!

May 2020: CPQ Guide has been updated to reflect the most recent changes to the CPQ exam.

CPQ Practice Questions are now available!

About the Exam

The exam to me seemed very similar in style to the Administrator exam. 60 questions, 105 minutes, and a required 65% to pass. All of the questions are scenario-based, where the answer needs to be the best option to meet the scenario. You can take the test online or onsite (I opted for online as it was easier for me to control when I would take it).

Challenges I faced while trying to prepare

One of the key things that got me through the Admin exam on the first try was the fact that I had focusonforce’s practice tests and could study the types of questions until my face turned blue. There were also blogs on top of blogs to help you get there. Unfortunately, since the CPQ exam has only been out of beta since April 2017, there was very little data floating around the web that can help you get through this monstrosity of a test. Hopefully, this post will help you have to do a little less digging to find some useful data.

Key Elements for Passing:

1. Do have some amount of hands-on work experience with CPQ. I am in an environment where CPQ has been rolled out and using it in the real world helps with understanding the scenarios the test presents. I have only been with my company for several months, so enough to have gotten your hands wet.
   1. If you can’t get your hands into a real-world scenario, but want to pass, come up with a fake business with products and design how you would create that in CPQ.
2. I did the take the test once with the knowledge that I was most likely going to fail as I had not studied much yet, but I wanted some information about what the test questions would be like and how the material would be expressed. This was by far worth the extra $100 it cost to take the repeat exam.
3. Prepare to study! I studied a lot in two weeks. I used whatever blog posts I could get my hands on, the one cram set of flashcards, and my power of googling things that didn’t make sense.

Here are the links to the content that I used. The first two have many links inside of them going to the Steelbrick Community site. These are the most important for getting a well-rounded view of CPQ.

1. http://www.vandeveldejan.com/tips/for-admins/22-resources-for-passing-the-salesforce-certified-cpq-specialist-exam
2. https://rsbsarma.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/salesforce-certified-cpq-specialist-preparation-resources/
3. http://www.cram.com/flashcards/certified-cpq-specialist-8506541

I will note that I did take the CPQ 211 course and while I do not feel it improved my chances of passing the exam, it may have subconsciously provided me additional data.

To access the full Salesforce CPQ Specialist Study Guide please click the link below.

The Unofficial Salesforce CPQ Specialist Study Guide (Updated: May 2020)

CPQ Practice Questions are now available!