What are SOQL Date Literals and when do you use them?

SOQL Date Literals are dynamic date ranges that automatically adjust relative to today — no hardcoded dates needed. Examples: TODAY, THIS_WEEK, THIS_MONTH, LAST_N_DAYS:30, NEXT_N_DAYS:7, LAST_MONTH. Use them in WHERE clauses on date fields. NEXT_N_DAYS:7 does not include today — only the next 7 days from tomorrow. Date Literals are preferred over hardcoded dates because they work correctly regardless of when the query runs.

How do you query parent and child related records in SOQL?

Child to Parent uses dot notation — traverse up to parent fields using the relationship name, for example Account.Name from Opportunity. Parent to Child uses a sub-query in SELECT — use the child relationship name in plural, for example SELECT Name, (SELECT Name, Amount FROM Opportunities) FROM Account. SOQL supports up to 5 levels of parent traversal. The child relationship name is always plural for standard objects.

Does SOQL support SELECT * like SQL?

No. SOQL does not support SELECT *. Field names must always be explicitly specified in the SELECT clause. Writing SELECT * FROM Account throws a compile error. You must list every field you need by its API name. To get all fields dynamically in Apex, use Schema.SObjectType.Account.fields.getMap() to retrieve field names programmatically.

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Salesforce SOQL Interview Questions — Queries, Aggregates & Relationships Explained

SELECT, GROUP BY, HAVING, Date Literals, Sub-Queries & Relationship Traversal — Beginner to Intermediate

Beginner Intermediate 13 Questions

Questions Index

1Retrieve Account Names & Industry 2Total Opportunities per Account 3Contacts on "XYZ Opportunity" 4All Closed Won Opportunities 55 Most Recently Created Leads 6Account Names with Opps > $50,000 7Average Amount of Closed Won Opps 8Opportunities Closing in Next 7 Days 9Contacts on Proposal Stage Opps 10Account with Maximum Opportunities 11Accounts with Exactly 2 Contacts 12Full Account Record — Max Opportunities 13Latest 10 Account Records

Question 01 · 🟢 Basic

Retrieve all Account names and their corresponding Industry from Salesforce.

✅ Answer

Use a basic SELECT statement. SOQL does NOT support SELECT * — field names must always be explicitly specified! 📋

📌 Query

SELECT Name, Industry
FROM   Account
ORDER BY Name ASC

📋 Breaking It Down

Clause	Purpose
SELECT Name, Industry	Fetch only these two fields from the Account object
FROM Account	Target the standard Account sObject
ORDER BY Name ASC	Sort results alphabetically by Account name

⚠️ No SELECT * in SOQL. Writing SELECT * FROM Account will throw an error in Salesforce. Always use field API names explicitly.

💻 In Apex

List<Account> accounts = [
    SELECT Name, Industry
    FROM  Account
    ORDER BY Name ASC
];
for (Account acc : accounts) {
    System.debug(acc.Name + ' | ' + acc.Industry);
}

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I use SOQL's SELECT statement to query the Name and Industry fields from the Account object — SOQL doesn't support SELECT *, so field names must always be explicitly specified."

Question 02 · 🟠 Intermediate

Find the total number of Opportunities for each Account.

✅ Answer

Use COUNT(Id) with GROUP BY. In Apex, aggregate queries return AggregateResult — not a standard sObject list! 📊

📌 Query

SELECT AccountId, Account.Name, COUNT(Id) total
FROM   Opportunity
GROUP BY AccountId, Account.Name
ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC

📋 Breaking It Down

Clause	Purpose
COUNT(Id)	Counts total Opportunities for each Account
GROUP BY AccountId, Account.Name	Required when using any aggregate function
ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC	Shows Account with highest Opportunities first

⚠️ Golden Rule: Every non-aggregate field in SELECT must also be in GROUP BY. Use HAVING (not WHERE) to filter on aggregated results — e.g. HAVING COUNT(Id) > 5

💻 In Apex

List<AggregateResult> results = [
    SELECT AccountId, Account.Name, COUNT(Id) total
    FROM  Opportunity
    GROUP BY AccountId, Account.Name
];
for (AggregateResult ar : results) {
    System.debug(ar.get('Name') + ' → ' + ar.get('total'));
}

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I use COUNT(Id) with GROUP BY AccountId on the Opportunity object to get total Opportunities per Account — and since it's an aggregate query, the Apex return type is AggregateResult, not a standard sObject list."

Question 03 · 🟠 Intermediate

Retrieve the names of Contacts associated with an Opportunity named "XYZ Opportunity."

✅ Answer

Contact and Opportunity are NOT directly related — they are connected through the standard junction object OpportunityContactRole! 🔗

🔗 Relationship Chain: Opportunity ──── OpportunityContactRole ──── Contact

📌 Approach 1 — Query from OCR (Most Common)

SELECT Contact.Name, Contact.Email, Role
FROM   OpportunityContactRole
WHERE  Opportunity.Name = 'XYZ Opportunity'

📌 Approach 2 — Unique Contacts Only (No Duplicates)

SELECT Name, Email
FROM   Contact
WHERE  Id IN (
    SELECT ContactId
    FROM  OpportunityContactRole
    WHERE Opportunity.Name = 'XYZ Opportunity'
)

🔑 Approach 1 vs Approach 2

💡Approach 1 returns one row per OCR record — same Contact appears multiple times if linked to multiple Opportunities
💡Approach 2 returns unique Contacts only by querying the Contact object directly via sub-query

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"Contact and Opportunity are not directly related — they are linked through the standard junction object OpportunityContactRole. So I query OpportunityContactRole and traverse the relationship to Contact.Name using dot notation."

Question 04 · 🟢 Basic

List all Closed Won Opportunities along with their amounts.

✅ Answer

Filter using WHERE StageName = 'Closed Won'. StageName is a picklist field and the value is case-sensitive! 🎯

📌 Query

SELECT Name, Amount, StageName, CloseDate, Account.Name
FROM   Opportunity
WHERE  StageName = 'Closed Won'
ORDER BY Amount DESC

⚠️ 'closed won' or 'Closed won' will return ZERO records. Must be exactly 'Closed Won'.

📋 Opportunity Stage Reference

StageName	IsClosed	IsWon	Meaning
Prospecting	false	false	Early stage lead
Proposal/Price Quote	false	false	Quote shared
Closed Won	✅ true	✅ true	Deal won
Closed Lost	✅ true	❌ false	Deal lost

💡 IsClosed = true returns BOTH Closed Won AND Closed Lost. Use StageName = 'Closed Won' specifically for only won deals.

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I filter the Opportunity object using WHERE StageName = 'Closed Won' — StageName is a picklist field and the value is case-sensitive. IsClosed = true returns both Closed Won and Closed Lost, so for only won deals, StageName filter is the right approach."

Question 05 · 🟢 Basic

Identify the five most recently created Leads.

✅ Answer

Use ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC + LIMIT 5. Forgetting DESC returns the OLDEST 5 leads — ASC is the default! 📅

📌 Query

SELECT Name, Email, Phone, Company, LeadSource, Status, CreatedDate
FROM   Lead
ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC
LIMIT  5

📋 LIMIT — Key Rules

Scenario	Behaviour
LIMIT 1	Exactly 1 record — used when you expect a unique result
LIMIT 200	Default max records shown in Developer Console
LIMIT 50000	Maximum records a single SOQL can return in Apex

💡 CreatedDate vs LastModifiedDate: CreatedDate is set ONCE when record is created — never changes. LastModifiedDate updates every time the record is edited.

⚠️ Always pair LIMIT with ORDER BY for predictable results — without ORDER BY, LIMIT picks records in arbitrary order.

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I use ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC to sort Leads from newest to oldest and LIMIT 5 to restrict the output — DESC is critical here because the default SOQL sort order is ascending, which would return the oldest records instead of the newest."

Question 06 · 🟠 Intermediate

Retrieve Account names and their associated Opportunities where the Opportunity Amount is greater than $50,000.

✅ Answer

Two approaches — Child to Parent (dot notation) or Parent to Child (sub-query). Both valid — choose based on what data you need as the primary result! 🔗

📌 Approach 1 — Child to Parent (Most Common)

SELECT Account.Name, Name, Amount, StageName, CloseDate
FROM   Opportunity
WHERE  Amount > 50000
ORDER BY Amount DESC

📌 Approach 2 — Parent to Child (Sub-query)

SELECT Name,
    (SELECT Name, Amount, StageName
     FROM  Opportunities
     WHERE Amount > 50000)
FROM   Account
WHERE  Id IN (SELECT AccountId FROM Opportunity WHERE Amount > 50000)

⚠️ Opportunity is the object name — Opportunities (plural) is the child relationship name used in sub-queries. Wrong name = error.

📋 Child to Parent vs Parent to Child

Type	Syntax	Use When
Child to Parent	Account.Name (dot notation)	Need Opp data + parent Account name
Parent to Child	(SELECT ... FROM Opportunities)	Need Account + all its child Opps

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I query from Opportunity and use dot notation Account.Name to traverse up to the parent Account — Child-to-Parent relationship. Amount > 50000 uses no quotes since Amount is a Currency field. The Parent-to-Child sub-query uses the relationship name Opportunities in plural."

Question 07 · 🟠 Intermediate

Find the average amount of all Closed Won Opportunities.

✅ Answer

Use AVG() aggregate function. Since we calculate a single value across all records with no grouping needed, no GROUP BY is required! 📊

📌 Query

SELECT AVG(Amount) avgAmount
FROM   Opportunity
WHERE  StageName = 'Closed Won'

📋 All SOQL Aggregate Functions

Function	Purpose	Returns
COUNT()	Total rows (including nulls)	Integer
COUNT(field)	Count of non-null values	Integer
SUM(field)	Total sum of numeric field	Decimal
AVG(field)	Average of numeric field	Decimal
MIN(field)	Minimum value	Same as field type
MAX(field)	Maximum value	Same as field type

💡 All aggregate functions ignore NULL values except COUNT(). COUNT() counts all rows including those with null fields — a very common interview distinction!

💻 In Apex

List<AggregateResult> result = [
    SELECT AVG(Amount) avgAmount
    FROM  Opportunity
    WHERE StageName = 'Closed Won'
];
if (!result.isEmpty()) {
    Decimal avg = (Decimal) result[0].get('avgAmount');
    System.debug('Average: ' + avg);
}

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I use the AVG() aggregate function on the Amount field with WHERE StageName = 'Closed Won' — since it's a single aggregated value with no grouping, no GROUP BY is needed. In Apex, return type is AggregateResult and I cast the result as Decimal using ar.get('aliasName')."

Question 08 · 🟠 Intermediate

List the Opportunities that are due to close in the next 7 days.

✅ Answer

Use SOQL Date Literal: NEXT_N_DAYS:7. Date Literals are preferred over hardcoded dates — they automatically adjust relative to today! 📅

📌 Query

SELECT Name, Amount, StageName, CloseDate, Account.Name
FROM   Opportunity
WHERE  CloseDate  = NEXT_N_DAYS:7
AND    IsClosed   = false
ORDER BY CloseDate ASC

📋 Most Important SOQL Date Literals

Date Literal	Meaning
TODAY	Only today's date
YESTERDAY / TOMORROW	Yesterday or tomorrow's date
THIS_WEEK / THIS_MONTH	Current week (Sun–Sat) or calendar month
THIS_FISCAL_YEAR	Current fiscal year as configured in org
LAST_N_DAYS:n	Past n days from today (excludes today)
NEXT_N_DAYS:n	Next n days from tomorrow (excludes today)
LAST_N_MONTHS:n	Past n months

⚠️ NEXT_N_DAYS:7 does NOT include today. To include today: WHERE CloseDate >= TODAY AND CloseDate <= NEXT_N_DAYS:7

💡 Bonus — Overdue open deals: WHERE CloseDate < TODAY AND IsClosed = false — very useful for sales managers to identify deals that passed their close date!

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I use the SOQL Date Literal NEXT_N_DAYS:7 on CloseDate to dynamically filter Opportunities closing in the next 7 days — Date Literals are preferred over hardcoded dates because they automatically adjust relative to today. I also add IsClosed = false to exclude already closed deals."

Question 09 · 🟠 Intermediate

Retrieve the names and email addresses of all Contacts associated with Opportunities that are in the "Proposal" stage.

✅ Answer

This is a 3-object join — Opportunity + OpportunityContactRole + Contact. Traverse from OCR up to both objects using dot notation simultaneously! 🔗

📌 Approach 1 — With Opportunity Context

SELECT Contact.Name, Contact.Email, Opportunity.Name, Role
FROM   OpportunityContactRole
WHERE  Opportunity.StageName = 'Proposal/Price Quote'
ORDER BY Contact.Name ASC

📌 Approach 2 — Unique Contacts Only

SELECT Name, Email
FROM   Contact
WHERE  Id IN (
    SELECT ContactId
    FROM  OpportunityContactRole
    WHERE Opportunity.StageName = 'Proposal/Price Quote'
)
ORDER BY Name ASC

⚠️ 'Proposal' alone is NOT a standard Salesforce stage name. The correct standard value is 'Proposal/Price Quote'. Always verify exact picklist values in Setup → Object Manager → Opportunity → StageName.

💡 SOQL supports up to 5 levels of parent relationship traversal via dot notation — e.g. Opportunity.Account.Owner.Profile.Name

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"Contact and Opportunity are linked through OpportunityContactRole — I query from OCR and use dot notation to traverse to Contact.Name, Contact.Email, and Opportunity.StageName simultaneously. For unique Contacts without duplicates, I use a sub-query: WHERE Id IN (SELECT ContactId FROM OpportunityContactRole WHERE Opportunity.StageName = 'Proposal/Price Quote')."

Question 10 · 🟠 Intermediate

Find the Account with the maximum number of Opportunities.

✅ Answer

There is no direct MAX(COUNT()) in SOQL. Use the pattern: COUNT → GROUP BY → ORDER BY DESC → LIMIT 1! 🏆

📌 Query

SELECT AccountId, Account.Name, COUNT(Id) totalOpps
FROM   Opportunity
GROUP BY AccountId, Account.Name
ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC
LIMIT  1

📋 The 4-Step Pattern — Maximum in a Group

Step	Clause	Purpose
1	COUNT(Id)	Count Opportunities per group
2	GROUP BY AccountId, Account.Name	Define the grouping
3	ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC	Rank highest count first
4	LIMIT 1	Pick only the top result

⚠️ SOQL does NOT support MAX(COUNT(Id)) — throws error. Always use the ORDER BY DESC + LIMIT 1 pattern.

💡 Handling Ties: If two Accounts have same count, LIMIT 1 returns only one. Use HAVING COUNT(Id) >= 18 to get all tied Accounts.

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"SOQL does not support MAX(COUNT()) directly — so I use COUNT(Id) with GROUP BY AccountId, sort using ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC, and pick the top result with LIMIT 1. To handle tie scenarios, I replace LIMIT 1 with a HAVING COUNT(Id) >= n filter."

Question 11 · 🟠 Intermediate

Find the Accounts that have exactly 2 Contacts.

✅ Answer

Use HAVING clause — you CANNOT use WHERE COUNT(Id) = 2, that throws an error. HAVING is the only way to filter on aggregate functions! 🎯

📌 Query

SELECT AccountId, Account.Name, COUNT(Id) totalContacts
FROM   Contact
WHERE  AccountId != null
GROUP BY AccountId, Account.Name
HAVING COUNT(Id) = 2
ORDER BY Account.Name ASC

📋 WHERE vs HAVING — The Golden Rule

Clause	Runs When	Filters On	Example
WHERE	Before grouping	Individual record fields	WHERE AccountId != null
HAVING	After grouping	Aggregated results only	HAVING COUNT(Id) = 2

💡 Both can be used together in the same query — WHERE filters individual records first, then HAVING filters the aggregated groups after.

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I query from Contact, use COUNT(Id) with GROUP BY AccountId and Account.Name, and apply HAVING COUNT(Id) = 2 to filter only Accounts with exactly 2 Contacts — HAVING is used because WHERE cannot filter on aggregated results, it only works on individual record fields before grouping."

Question 12 · 🟠 Intermediate

Write a SOQL query to fetch the Account record with maximum Opportunities.

✅ Answer

Since ORDER BY and LIMIT are NOT allowed inside SOQL sub-queries, a 2-Step Apex approach is required to fetch the complete Account record! 🔗

📌 Step 1 — Find AccountId with Max Opportunities

SELECT AccountId, COUNT(Id) totalOpps
FROM   Opportunity
GROUP BY AccountId
ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC
LIMIT  1

📌 Step 2 — Fetch Full Account Record

SELECT Id, Name, Industry, Phone, BillingCity,
       Website, Type, AnnualRevenue, Owner.Name
FROM   Account
WHERE  Id = :topAccountId  // bind variable from Step 1

💻 Full Apex Implementation

List<AggregateResult> agg = [
    SELECT AccountId, COUNT(Id) totalOpps
    FROM  Opportunity
    GROUP BY AccountId
    ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC
    LIMIT 1
];
if (!agg.isEmpty()) {
    Id topId = (Id) agg[0].get('AccountId');
    Account acc = [
        SELECT Id, Name, Industry, Phone, BillingCity, Owner.Name
        FROM  Account
        WHERE Id = :topId LIMIT 1
    ];
    System.debug(acc.Name + ' — ' + agg[0].get('totalOpps') + ' Opportunities');
}

⚠️ ORDER BY and LIMIT are NOT allowed inside SOQL sub-queries. WHERE Id IN (SELECT AccountId ... ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC LIMIT 1) will throw a compile error. Always use the 2-step Apex approach.

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"Since SOQL doesn't allow ORDER BY and LIMIT inside sub-queries, I use a 2-step Apex approach — first an aggregate query on Opportunity with COUNT(Id), GROUP BY AccountId, ORDER BY COUNT(Id) DESC, LIMIT 1 to get the top AccountId, then a second query on Account using that Id to fetch the complete record."

Question 13 · 🟢 Basic

Write a SOQL query to fetch the latest 10 records of the Account.

✅ Answer

Use ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC + LIMIT 10. For pagination beyond 2000 records, switch from OFFSET to Keyset Pagination! 📋

📌 Query — Latest 10 by Creation Date

SELECT Id, Name, Industry, Phone, BillingCity,
       BillingCountry, Type, CreatedDate,
       CreatedBy.Name, Owner.Name
FROM   Account
ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC
LIMIT  10

📌 Bonus — Pagination using OFFSET

// Page 1 → Records 1–10
SELECT Id, Name, CreatedDate FROM Account
ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC LIMIT 10 OFFSET 0

// Page 2 → Records 11–20
SELECT Id, Name, CreatedDate FROM Account
ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC LIMIT 10 OFFSET 10

📋 Standard Audit Fields — Quick Reference

Field	Purpose	Changeable?
CreatedDate	When record was first created	❌ Never
CreatedById	User who created the record	❌ Never
LastModifiedDate	When record was last edited	✅ Auto-updated
LastModifiedById	User who last edited the record	✅ Auto-updated
SystemModstamp	Last modified by system or user (includes automation)	✅ Auto-updated

⚠️ OFFSET has a hard limit of 2000 records. For datasets beyond 2000, use Keyset Pagination: WHERE CreatedDate < :lastCreatedDate ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC LIMIT 10

🎤 One-Line Answer for Interview

"I use ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC to sort Account records newest to oldest and LIMIT 10 to restrict output — DESC is critical because default SOQL sort is ascending. For pagination beyond 2000 records, OFFSET has a hard limit so I switch to keyset pagination using the last CreatedDate value as a cursor."

📚 Also Read:

→ Salesforce Record Sharing & Visibility Interview Questions
→ Salesforce Apex Triggers Interview Questions
→ Reports & Dashboards Interview Questions

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Top 40 Salesforce SOQL Interview Questions and Answers 2026 — Aggregate Queries, Relationships, Governor Limits & SOSL Explained with Apex Code

Salesforce SOQL Interview Questions — Queries, Aggregates & Relationships Explained

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