As a new Salesforce Administrator, there was a long period of time where I would forget and incorrectly remember the difference between what a Role was in Salesforce, what a Profile was, and the different impact they had.
I eventually developed a mnemonic (memorization technique) that helped me remember and recall the difference anytime I needed, whether that be working in an actual Salesforce Org, or going for my Salesforce Administrator exam.
WHAT ARE ‘ROLES’ in SALESFORCE?
Salesforce roles are a way to define the level of access and responsibility that a user has within the Salesforce system. Roles are used to define a hierarchy of users within an organization and determine what data they can access and what actions they can perform.
The key statement that saved me was memorizing ‘Roles are about Records‘. Even when I forgot the connection, I remembered that the R’s matched, and that was the correct answer so could use deduction to determine that Profile was the ‘other one’.
RELATED RESOURCE: Salesforce User Management
You can extend it further in your mind if it makes sense by memorizing that ‘Profiles are about Permissions‘, meaning permissions to do things in Salesforce and Permission to access objects etc.
But for some, it could get confusing to incorporate the concept of permission sets into that statement as well (even though it fits very neatly conceptually).
WHAT ARE ‘PROFILES’ in SALESFORCE?
In Salesforce, profiles are a way to define the level of access and permissions that a user has within the system. Profiles are used to control what users can see and do within Salesforce, including which objects, fields, and records they can access, as well as what actions they can perform.
But overall, the key for me was locking in the ability to recall that ‘Roles are about records’ (meaning access to records), and then I could always deduce the rest from there.
Hope that helps.