A user reports that they cannot see certain records they should have access to according to their profile permissions. What should you check first?

Correct answer: Organization-Wide Defaults (OWD)

Option C is correct because Organization-Wide Defaults (OWD) set the baseline level of record access across the entire organization, and if OWD is set to Private or more restrictive than expected, users will be unable to see records they do not own, making OWD the correct first check when record visibility is unexpectedly restricted. Option A is wrong because the role hierarchy only extends record access above the baseline set by OWD, and checking it before confirming the OWD baseline skips the foundational layer of the sharing model. Option B is wrong because field-level security controls visibility of individual fields on a record, not whether the user can see the record itself, so it would not cause the described symptom. Option D is wrong because sharing rules open up access beyond OWD to specific groups or roles, but they cannot grant access if OWD is the restrictive layer that has not yet been evaluated.