Salesforce Platform Basic: Getting started with Platform

Note: All credit goes to Salesforce, I am just a developer who enjoy playing trailhead and try to make note to myself.

What the platform is?

Platform is where customer can use SFDC technologies to build apps.Platform enable customer to customize standard functionality or build an app from the scratch.

Customer/Developer able to	SFDC platform functionality:
Manage internal project requests	Custom objects for managing projects
Add custom fields to capture important data	Custom fields for standard and custom objects
Set up automatic email alerts	Processes with email alert actions
Build a custom internal app	Lightning Components and Lightning App Builder for creating an employee app
Build a custom customer-facing app	Heroku for creating a customer-facing app

Explain the differences between declarative and programmatic development.

Declarative

Point-and-click functionality in Salesforce.No code required,just configuration.

Declarative
User Interface	Create forms and page layouts using drag-and-drop tools in the Page Layout editor.
LightningProcess Builder	Create rules that take time-dependent actions and automate multi-step processes using Workflows. Automate the processes your organization uses to approve Salesforce records using Approvals.
Schema Builder	Customize objects and create relationships between them using drag-and-drop tools in Schema Builder.
Reports and Dashboards	Present data quickly and comprehensively using Report Builder. Show data from source reports as visual components using Dashboards.

Programmatic

Code-driven functionality in Salesforce, mean using Apex,Visualforce,Lightning,Javascript,CSS etc.

Programmatic
Apex	Develop with an object-oriented, Java-like programming language that’s optimized and tuned for accessing Salesforce database objects.
Visualforce	Define user interface components and construct visual elements using a markup language similar to HTML, thus allowing the user to interact with and modify data from the database.
SOQL	Look at a specific set of data, like all contacts in a geographic region, using Force.com’s object database query language, similar in syntax to SQL.SOQL is used in many of the Salesforce APIs.
LightningComponents	Develop dynamic web apps for mobile and desktop devices, using a modern, component-based UI framework.

The module end up with challenge to build a simple app.

Source:Getting started with Platform