Salesforce Advanced Administrator Certification Practice Test

The statement is true. Apex cannot be used to create criteria-based sharing rules because these rules are inherently part of Salesforce's declarative sharing model, which relies on metadata and configuration to govern data access. Criteria-based sharing rules allow administrators to define specific conditions under which records can be shared with certain users or groups based on record attributes.

While Apex can manipulate data in various ways, including sharing records through programmatic sharing methods, it does not directly create the criteria-based sharing rules that are set up through the Salesforce interface. These rules are typically managed within the sharing settings and involve selecting fields and criteria for sharing, which is separate from the programmatic capabilities offered by Apex. Apex can be used, however, to grant additional sharing access on individual records programmatically using the `Share` objects (like AccountShare or CustomObject__Share), but this is distinct from the automated logic provided by criteria-based sharing rules.