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What Is A Trailhead Playground?

A Trailhead Playground is a free Salesforce practice org. It's used by Salesforce learners to gain hands-on experience with the Salesforce platform.

It's called a Playground because you get to play around with the different Salesforce features and functionalities. And should you ever break something (and we recommend you do!) you don't have to worry. It's there for you to practice your skills, fail, practice even more and succeed. 🤓 You can even build your own Salesforce app and gain valuable skills every Salesforce professional should have.

 

Trailhead Playgrounds are provided by Trailhead, Salesforce's own learning platform. Your first Trailhead Playground is even created for you by default, so you can get started right away. Plus, each Trailhead Playground contains sample data you can use to explore and test the Salesforce user interface as well as the setup.

 

Throughout our Salesforce Certification Courses, we use Trailhead Playgrounds for your hands-on challenges. You not only get to practice the skills you'll be learning about, but you will also start collecting points and badges to build up your Trailblazer Profile. It will become your go-to Salesforce knowledge profile for recruiters and hiring managers. Learn more here.

 

 

 

How To Launch Your Trailhead Playground

 

There are two ways to launch and access your Trailhead Playground:

 

One way is from a hands-on challenge or project. Just scroll to the bottom of the page. You will find a default "My Trailhead Playground" you can get started with. And once you add more Playgrounds to your Trailhead Account, you will see the one you used most recently. You'll simply click the Launch button and the Playground will open in a new window, depending on your browser settings.

 

You'll notice the three dots. From here, you can view all your Playgrounds you may already have in place. This means, always make sure you have selected the correct hands-on org you want to use for your hands-on challenge.

 

 

Another way to access your Playgrounds is from your Profile Menu. This is a great option for whenever you would like to test out new Salesforce features or practice specific skills which are unrelated to a Trailhead Module or Project.

How To Create A New Trailhead Playground

 

While you can do pretty much all your hands-on challenges in the same Trailhead Playground, you will be required to use a new Playground from time to time. Don't worry, we will tell you when to do so. You can then create a new Playground on the spot from within the corresponding hands-on challenges. Just select "Create Playground".

 

  

🌶 HOT TIP: Each new Playground is a "fresh" Playground with the same baseline setup. You won't be able to copy customizations from one Playground to another. This means, if you run into an issue with a Trailhead challenge and you are asked to try again in a new Playground, you will have to recreate all associated steps. 

 

Connecting An Existing Salesforce Org

 

In case you have set up a Developer Org or you have access to a Salesforce Production Org or Sandbox, you can connect these Orgs to your Trailhead. BUT, I'd recommend never connecting a real Production Org with real Users. Even connecting a Sandbox development environment, is not the best idea.

 

Connecting a Developer Org though is very common. When you set up a Developer Org you will even be asked whether you want to connect it to your Trailhead Account, but you don't have to.

 

Managing Your Hands-On Orgs

 

The more Playgrounds you create, or start connecting a Developer Org, the more important it becomes to keep all these Orgs organized. This includes renaming your hands-on Orgs. Why? Consider what you are using each org for. For example, if you use a Playground to complete our WeLearnSalesforce Trailmixes (must be logged in to Trailhead Account to get access), you can rename it to "WLS Admin" or "WLS Advanced Admin" etc. Or if you use a Playground or Developer Org to complete a Superbadge, you want to use the name of the Superbadge. This will make it easier for you to pick the correct org, either a new one or one you have already started setting up some customization options.

 

And whenever you feel like you've got too many hands-on Orgs or you don't want to have your Developer Org associated anymore, you can simply disconnect them.

 

🌶 HOT TIP: Before you disconnect an org, consider whether you wish to keep using the org. If yes, make sure to save the URL, username and password. Otherwise, you won't be able to access the org anymore. You have been warned. 🤓

 

Good To Know

 

Trailhead Playgrounds are Developer Edition Orgs. This is relevant when it comes to available features and functionalities you may want to test out. Salesforce offers a range of different types of Editions. All of which contain different packages of features. This means some features are not available in Developer Edition Orgs, for example, Sandboxes.

 

Both Trailhead Playgrounds and Developer Org contain a similar set of sample data. However, Trailhead Playgrounds contain pre-installed unmanaged packages required to complete your Trailhead challenges and quizzes.

Watch the Video Tutorial

 

In the follow-along video demo above, you will learn how to set up your Trailhead Playground, where to go to manage your Playgrounds, and how to connect an existing Salesforce org. 

Want to see it in action? Let's go!

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Set Up A Developer Edition Org