Salesforce Admin Certification Practice Test 2026 – Complete Exam Prep

A lookup relationship in Salesforce connects two objects with a simple association. This type of relationship allows one object to reference another object, establishing a one-to-many relationship. In this scenario, a record from one object (the child) can reference a single record from another object (the parent), but the relationship does not enforce any cascading actions like deletion or sharing rules.

The simplicity of this association makes it versatile for various use cases where a direct link is necessary but without the complexity of a structured hierarchy. For instance, a contact can have an optional lookup field to link it to an account, allowing you to associate a contact with a specific account without creating a strict dependency.

While other types of relationships exist in Salesforce, such as master-detail relationships which enforce stricter parent-child rules, a lookup relationship is specifically designed for establishing straightforward connections without the overhead of cascading behaviors. This is why the choice that highlights a simple association best describes how a lookup relationship functions.