Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Test 2025 - Free Practice Questions and Exam Preparation Guide

When the Organization-Wide Default (OWD) settings for an object are set to Public Read/Write, it means that all users have the ability to view and edit all records within that object. To restrict access to certain users or groups, profiles play a crucial role. Each user's profile determines their permissions, including what they can see and do with records of that object.

By adjusting the profile settings, administrators can restrict access at a granular level, including limiting the ability to view or edit specific objects or fields. Profiles allow for managing permissions for various operations such as create, read, edit, and delete. This feature is vital for tailoring user access based on roles and responsibilities within the organization, ensuring that sensitive data is protected even when the OWD setting allows broad access.

In contrast, items like Role Hierarchy, Page Layouts, and Record Types serve different functions, such as defining visibility based on user roles, customizing user interfaces, and organizing records respectively, but they do not inherently restrict access to records in the same way profiles do.