Salesforce Certified Tableau Data Analyst Quick Facts (2025)

Exam Domain Breakdown

Domain 1: Connect to and Transform Data (24% of the exam)

Connect to data sources

• Identify data source
• Determine live connection vs. extract
• Connect to extracts
• Connect to files
• Connect to relational databases
• Connect to published data sources from a Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud site
• Replace the connected data source with another data source for an existing chart or sheet

Summary: This section ensures you can establish the foundation of any Tableau project by connecting to diverse data sources. You will learn how to identify the appropriate source, decide between live connections and extracts, and work with files, databases, and published sources seamlessly. Scenario-based knowledge such as recognizing when to replace a data source for an existing chart is also emphasized, giving you practical tools for adapting visualizations without rebuilding.

Beyond simply connecting, this area highlights strategic decision making that influences performance and user experience. Understanding when to use a live connection for real-time insights versus opting for an extract to optimize performance is critical. Walking away from this section, you'll have the confidence to connect Tableau with virtually any supported system and prepare your analysis quickly and effectively.

Prepare data for analysis

• Assess data quality (completeness, consistency, accuracy)
• Perform cleaning operations
• Organize data fields into folders
• Use multiple data sources (establish relationships, create joins, union tables)
• Prepare data by using Data Interpreter, pivot, and split
• Create extract and data source filters

Summary: This section focuses on making raw data ready for high-impact analysis. You will evaluate data quality, perform cleaning processes, and organize fields so your workbook remains structured and intuitive. Key tools like Data Interpreter, pivot, and split allow you to refine datasets, while relationships, joins, and unions ensure you can combine insights from multiple sources.

Equally important is filtering both extracts and sources to improve focus and performance. Walking into this area of the exam, you’ll demonstrate not only technical skills but also the ability to enhance trust in your data’s accuracy. You come away with the skills to transform messy, multi-source data into clean, reliable datasets that flow naturally into powerful Tableau analysis.

Perform data transformation in Tableau Prep

• Choose which data transformation to perform based on a business scenario
• Combine data by using unions
• Combine data by using joins
• Shape data by using aggregations
• Perform filtering
• Shape data by using pivots
• Determine which output type to use

Summary: This section centers on Tableau Prep, giving you the tools to transform datasets with precision and purpose. You will gain the ability to select appropriate transformation methods based on business needs, whether that requires unions for consolidating tables, joins for linking datasets, or pivots for restructuring layouts. Applied correctly, these transformations unlock smoother workflows that make downstream analysis both easier and richer.

Additionally, you’ll practice shaping data with aggregations and filters while recognizing the importance of choosing the right output type for your use case. With this knowledge, you will not only produce performant datasets but also build repeatable, scalable processes that shorten the time-to-insight for analysts and stakeholders.

Customize fields

• Change default field properties (types, sorting, etc.)
• Rename columns
• Choose when to convert between discrete and continuous
• Choose when to convert between dimension and measure
• Create aliases

Summary: This section equips you with practical tools for making data easier to interpret and tailor to your needs. You will rename columns for clarity, manage default properties like types and sorting, and apply aliases that improve readability. These steps prevent confusion and ensure that when others access your visualizations, they understand the data story immediately.

On top of that, the exam expects you to discern when to convert between discrete and continuous fields or shift between dimensions and measures. Mastering these conversions provides flexibility in handling calculations, aggregations, and visuals. These fundamental skills bring precision to your analysis and guarantee that your dashboards speak in the clearest language possible.

Domain 2: Explore and Analyze Data (41% of the exam)

Create calculated fields

• Write date calculations
• Write string functions
• Write logical and Boolean expressions
• Write number functions
• Write type conversion functions
• Write aggregate functions
• Write basic spatial calculations

Summary: This section highlights how calculated fields extend Tableau’s analytical power. You will work with functions across numeric, string, logical, and date types to create fields that reveal patterns best suited for each dataset. From Boolean expressions to spatial calculations, these tools allow you to model business logic within your analysis directly.

As you build proficiency, calculated fields transform into a versatile language for data storytelling. Whether solving for year-over-year growth, cleaning messy text, or building logical categories, you’ll showcase how to translate business questions into analytical formulas. The ability to generate calculations ensures insights match organizational goals with precision.

Create table calculations

• Moving average and window average
• Percent of total
• Running total
• Difference and percent of difference
• Percentile
• Index
• Ranking
• Apply quick table calculations
• Customize table calculations

Summary: This section emphasizes refining and adding layers of insight through table calculations. You’ll calculate percentages, running totals, differences, rankings, and moving averages, each of which provides valuable context beyond raw numbers. Mastery of these tools allows you to present KPIs and trends in ways that managers and teams can act on immediately.

Table calculations also come with customization options, letting you shape the analysis for unique scenarios. By moving beyond quick defaults into configuring detailed expressions, you control how data is presented and interpreted. This ensures uniform consistency across dashboards, making visualizations not only more trustworthy but also tailored to the story being told.

Create and use filters

• Apply filters to dimensions and measures
• Configure filter settings including Top N, Bottom N, include, exclude, wildcard, and conditional
• Add filters to context
• Apply filters to multiple sheets and data sources

Summary: This section is all about shaping focus within datasets by applying and managing filters effectively. You’ll use filters across both dimensions and measures and configure them with options such as Top N and conditional logic. Applying filters strategically presents stakeholders only with the most relevant data for their purpose.

Another important takeaway is filters across multiple contexts and sheets. This knowledge allows you to improve usability across interactive dashboards where one filter impacts multiple elements. Through careful design, filters guide users seamlessly through complex datasets while keeping the experience natural and cohesive.

Create parameters to enable interactivity

• In calculations
• With filters
• With reference lines
• Set parameters to dynamically refresh

Summary: This section introduces parameters as drivers of interactivity in Tableau. You will integrate them into calculations, filters, and reference lines to allow users to control how they view data. This transforms dashboards from being static visuals into engaging, scenario-driven exploration tools.

By enabling dynamic refresh and flexible configurations, parameters invite users to test their own assumptions within the dashboard itself. Each role has the power to drill deeper without needing new worksheets built for them. The result is intuitive dashboards that inspire curiosity and discovery.

Structure the data

• Sets
• Bins
• Hierarchies
• Groups

Summary: This section covers additional ways to organize your data beyond standard calculations. You will learn to group related items, create hierarchies, and apply bins and sets to ensure the data becomes approachable and hierarchical. These structures allow analysts to drill into details on demand while providing a clear framework for navigation.

With sets and bins, you’ll segment values to highlight performance categories or time brackets. With hierarchies and groups, you’ll ensure that dashboards maintain a logical storytelling flow, empowering users to explore data while still being guided by clear structure.

Map data geographically

• Create symbol maps
• Create density maps
• Create choropleth maps (filled maps)
• Create mark layers

Summary: This section focuses on visualizing geographic elements through maps. You’ll move beyond standard charts into spatial analysis, creating symbol, density, and filled maps to make location data highly actionable. Adding mark layers offers even greater depth by combining multiple layers of geographic context.

Geographic mapping ensures you can illustrate key insights across locations with clarity and beauty. From pinpointing customer distribution patterns to analyzing regional sales trends, mapping places data within the landscape where decision makers operate.

Summarize, model, and customize data by using the Analytics pane

• Totals and subtotals
• Reference lines
• Reference bands
• Average lines
• Trend lines
• Distribution bands
• Forecast by using default settings
• Customize a data forecasting model

Summary: This section demonstrates how Tableau’s Analytics pane brings statistical and forecast features into everyday dashboards. You’ll apply totals, reference bands, lines, and distributions to more clearly illustrate variance and central trends. Forecasting and modeling features display projections directly within the visual, enhancing the decision-making power of your dashboards.

Additionally, you’ll learn how to customize models beyond default values, tailoring them for better accuracy in your business context. The Analytics pane streamlines presentation by embedding advanced data capabilities transparently within charts, ensuring insights are both powerful and approachable.

Create Level of Detail (LOD) calculations

• Write FIXED LOD calculations
• Write INCLUDE LOD calculations
• Write EXCLUDE LOD calculations
• Write nested LOD calculations

Summary: This section elevates your ability to perform precise calculations at custom levels of detail. You will write FIXED, INCLUDE, and EXCLUDE expressions to shape metrics beyond the defaults. Nested LOD designs provide additional sophistication, enabling side-by-side analysis from multiple perspectives within one visualization.

Mastery of LOD calculations provides unparalleled flexibility. Analysts can answer deep business questions about segment trends, specific regions, or custom aggregations with accuracy. LOD functions empower you to align the display of metrics exactly to business requirements.

Domain 3: Create Content (26% of the exam)

Create charts

• Create basic charts from scratch (bar, line, pie, highlight table, scatter plot, histogram, tree map, bubbles, data tables, Gantt, box plots, area, dual axis, combo)
• Sort data (including custom sort)

Summary: This section ensures you can bring data stories to life through a wide variety of charts. You will learn to select and build appropriate chart types based on the insights needed, whether it’s time-based trends with line charts, distributions with histograms, or comparison views with bar charts.

Sorting techniques, including custom sorts, ensure that visuals emphasize the most important elements to the audience. With these abilities, you’ll design charts that communicate with predictable clarity and aesthetic appeal, making complex data patterns easy to understand.

Create dashboards and stories

• Combine sheets into a dashboard by using containers and layout options
• Add objects (containers, images, text)
• Create stories using story points

Summary: This section teaches you how to bring multiple elements together into a cohesive dashboard. You’ll combine sheets with layout containers, enhance dashboards with text and images, and make compelling stories that flow from story points for presentations and reports.

Stories and dashboards are where analysis becomes communication. By designing layouts that support logical data exploration, you create seamless user experiences that highlight key insights across different perspectives.

Add interactivity to dashboards

• Use filter in a dashboard
• Add filter, URL, and highlight actions
• Create interactivity using dynamic zone visibility
• Add navigation buttons
• Create interactivity using set and parameter actions
• Create show/hide buttons for dashboard objects

Summary: This section emphasizes adding engagement to dashboards. You will integrate interactivity with filters, highlights, URL actions, and navigation buttons, allowing users to navigate and explore at their own pace.

Dynamic features like parameter actions, set interactions, and show/hide buttons make dashboards responsive to users’ decisions. The ability to actively engage users increases adoption and ensures dashboards are used as actionable tools rather than static reports.

Format workbooks, worksheets, and dashboards

• Apply color, font, shapes, styling
• Add custom shapes and color palettes
• Add annotations
• Customize tooltips
• Apply padding
• Format gridlines, row-level and column-level bands, and shading
• Create a responsive design for specific device layouts

Summary: This section focuses on presentation and polish. You will bring dashboards to life with thoughtful formatting including color palettes, custom icons, annotations, gridlines, and layout adjustments. By customizing tooltips and padding, dashboards look cleaner and read more intuitively.

This ensures dashboards feel professional while strengthening trust in the analysis. Responsive design for multiple device layouts ensures accessibility, so teams can engage with data wherever they work.

Domain 4: Publish and Manage Content on Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud (9% of the exam)

Publish Content

• Publish a workbook
• Publish a data source from Desktop or Prep
• Export content
• Publish a flow

Summary: This section empowers you to share completed content with others effectively. You will publish workbooks, datasets, and flows to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud so that insights are always accessible. Exporting content offers flexibility for distributing beyond Tableau.

By mastering publishing workflows, you enable teams across your organization to collaborate. These processes ensure that accurate, refreshed content is shared consistently to support informed decisions.

Schedule data updates

• Schedule data extract refreshes

Summary: This section covers automating data refreshes so dashboards always reflect the latest insights. By scheduling refreshes, you eliminate manual updates and ensure that users rely on up-to-date numbers.

This capability maintains confidence in dashboards as live business tools, ensuring accuracy and timeliness for stakeholders making daily decisions.

Manage published workbooks

• Create alerts
• Create subscriptions
• Create and save custom views
• Understand user roles and permissions
• Customize and distribute a published workbook

Summary: This section ensures you can manage shared content effectively and securely. You’ll create alerts, set subscriptions, and allow tailored custom views so end-users stay connected to the insights most relevant to them.

At the same time, you’ll learn to manage permissions and roles to ensure access is appropriately controlled. With careful management, published workbooks become collaborative hubs where insights are delivered exactly to those who need them.