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What is the CCA-F, and Who is it For?

The exam in one paragraph

The Claude Certified Architect – Foundations (CCA-F) is Anthropic's first official technical certification, publicly launched on 12 March 2026 alongside the Anthropic Partner Network. It validates that you can make sound architectural decisions when designing, building, and operating production-grade applications on Claude. The exam is 60 scenario-based multiple-choice questions, 120 minutes, delivered online-proctored and closed-book, scored on a scaled system with a 720 / 1000 pass mark.

It is not a syntax-recall test. Every question puts you inside a realistic production scenario and asks you to choose the best architectural decision from four plausible-looking options. Three of the four are distractors that a partially-informed architect would pick — so the exam rewards judgement about trade-offs, not memorisation.

Four core technologies underpin every question: the Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code, the Claude API (Messages, tool use, Batches), and the Model Context Protocol (MCP). If you are comfortable building with all four, you are most of the way there.

Who should sit it

  • Solution & AI architects designing Claude-powered agents, copilots, and automation.
  • Engineers with roughly 6+ months hands-on experience across the Claude API, Agent SDK, and Claude Code.
  • Technical leads at Anthropic Partner Network companies who need a formal, portable credential.

It is aimed at working practitioners rather than absolute beginners. If you have never written an agentic loop or configured a CLAUDE.md, budget more ramp-up time (see the study plan below).

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Exam Pattern & Format at a Glance

60
Questions (all scored)
120
Minutes (~2 min/Q)
720
To pass (of 1000)
4 / 6
Scenarios per sitting
5
Content domains
$125
Exam fee (USD)
AttributeDetail
Exam codeCCA-F (also written CCAF)
Full nameClaude Certified Architect – Foundations
Launched12 March 2026 — Anthropic's first official technical certification
Total questions60 — all scored (no unscored / pretest items reported)
Question formatMultiple choice, single correct answer + 3 distractors (no multi-select reported)
Duration120 minutes (2 hours) · roughly 2 minutes per question · no per-question cap
Scenario-basedYes — 4 of 6 production scenarios drawn at random per sitting
ScoringScaled score (reported 100–1000); results equated across exam forms
Passing score720 / 1000
Guessing penaltyNone — unanswered = incorrect, so answer every question
DeliveryOnline proctored (webcam + full screen share) via Anthropic Skilljar
Open bookNo — closed book; no Claude, no docs, no browser, no second monitor
Exam fee$125 USD (reported free for the first 5,000 Claude Partner Network seats)
EligibilityPartner Network attestation via corporate email during current access phase
LanguagesEnglish at launch; additional languages TBD
ResultsReported within ~2 business days
RetakeA waiting period applies between attempts
Validity / badgeSee note below — validity is disputed; badges migrating to Credly in 2026
Two figures are genuinely contested in the community. (1) Score scale: most sources say 100–1000, a few say 0–1000 — either way the pass mark is 720. (2) Validity: several prep sites state "2 years", but Skilljar-entitlement inspections and community reports point to a shorter window (≈6 months) for the standard certificate. Treat both as "verify on your own Credly badge / Skilljar dashboard" rather than settled facts.

How the scenario mechanic works

Questions are grouped under production scenarios. Each sitting draws 4 of 6 official scenarios, and questions inside a scenario span multiple domains (architecture, tool design, prompt engineering, and so on). Because you cannot predict which four you will get, you must prepare all six scenarios — do not gamble on a subset.

Some community write-ups from the beta cohort report the live question pool has grown beyond the six scenarios in the original guide PDF (authored well before launch). The six below are the load-bearing core; expect the exam to feel broader than the PDF.
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The 5 Content Domains & Their Weights

Domain 1
Agentic Architecture & Orchestration
27%
≈ 16 questions · highest weight
Agent loops · stop_reason · subagents · hooks
Domain 3
Claude Code Configuration & Workflows
20%
≈ 12 questions
CLAUDE.md · rules · plan mode · CI/CD -p
Domain 4
Prompt Engineering & Structured Output
20%
≈ 12 questions
JSON schemas · few-shot · retry loops · Batches
Domain 2
Tool Design & MCP Integration
18%
≈ 11 questions
Tool descriptions · tool_choice · MCP · errors
Domain 5
Context Management & Reliability
15%
≈ 9 questions
Lost-in-the-middle · escalation · state
The domains are tightly clustered (15%–27%), so nothing can be skipped — but D1 + D3 + D4 together are 67% of the exam. Spend study time proportionally, and make Domain 1 your single biggest investment.

What each domain actually tests

  • D1 — Agentic Architecture & Orchestration (27%): Picking the right orchestration shape (single agent vs. hub-and-spoke with subagents vs. multi-agent). Agent-loop control flow driven by stop_reason (tool_use → run tool + loop; end_turn → stop). The rule that subagents never inherit parent context. Programmatic enforcement (hooks / prerequisite gates) vs. probabilistic prompt instructions.
  • D3 — Claude Code Configuration & Workflows (20%): CLAUDE.md hierarchy and precedence, .claude/rules/ glob scoping, .claude/commands/ and skills, when to use Plan Mode vs. direct execution, and wiring Claude Code into CI/CD with the headless -p / --print flag.
  • D4 — Prompt Engineering & Structured Output (20%): tool_use with a JSON schema as the canonical structured-output mechanism, nullable/optional fields to prevent fabrication, few-shot examples for determinism, validation-and-retry loops, and the Message Batches API trade-offs.
  • D2 — Tool Design & MCP Integration (18%): Tool descriptions as the deterministic selector, structured error contracts (errorCategory, isRetryable), the "too many tools" degradation cliff, tool_choice modes, and when to expose a capability as a tool vs. an MCP resource vs. a skill.
  • D5 — Context Management & Reliability (15%): The lost-in-the-middle effect, trimming verbose tool output, scratchpad files and /compact, structured error propagation, crash-recovery state, and correct human-in-the-loop escalation triggers.
The single most-tested reflex: prompt-based enforcement is probabilistic. When a decision must be guaranteed (financial operations, identity verification, ordering), the correct answer is nearly always a programmatic gate or hook — not a stronger system-prompt instruction.
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The 6 Sections (Scenarios) You Must Study

S1Customer Support Resolution Agent

A support agent built on the Agent SDK with MCP tools (get_customer, lookup_order, process_refund, escalate_to_human). Targets high first-contact resolution.

D1D2D5
S2Code Generation with Claude Code

Claude Code for generation, refactoring, and debugging. Slash commands, CLAUDE.md configs, plan mode vs. direct execution.

D3D5
S3Multi-Agent Research System

A coordinator delegates to specialised subagents (search, analysis, synthesis) to produce cited reports. Context isolation is the theme.

D1D2D5
S4Developer Productivity with Claude

Agent SDK developer tools that explore codebases and generate boilerplate using built-in tools (Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob) plus MCP servers.

D2D3D1
S5Claude Code for CI/CD

Claude Code inside CI/CD pipelines: automated review, test generation, PR feedback. Designing prompts for actionable, low-false-positive output.

D3D4
S6Structured Data Extraction

Extraction from unstructured documents validated with JSON schemas. Edge cases, nullable fields, retry loops, and downstream integration.

D4D5
Because only 4 of these 6 appear on your sitting — and the live pool may be broader — study each scenario until you can, for any tricky question, explain why the three wrong options are wrong. That ability, not answer recall, is what the exam measures.
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Where to Study — Links & Resources

🔗 Official Anthropic documentation (primary sources)

The exam is written against these. Prioritise them over any third-party summary.

Read for understanding, not line-by-line retention. The exam tests trade-off judgement, so trace why a pattern is recommended over its alternatives.

🧪 Hands-on & code

🎥 Courses & community

Third-party prep sites vary in accuracy — several have copied each other's mistakes (notably around validity and scenario count). Anchor everything to Anthropic's own docs, the Skilljar entitlement page, and your own hands-on testing.

📝 Practice on this site

Pair every study session with active recall. See the Interactive Question Bank with 178 interactive questions built to the same exam format:

Practice Question Bank (178 Questions) →
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A 4-Week Study Plan (Weight-Aligned)

Choose your track

  • Already build with Claude daily? Compress this to ~2 weeks at 60–90 min/day.
  • New to the Agent SDK / MCP / Claude Code? Use the full 4–6 weeks and double the hands-on days.

Week 1 — Domain 1 (Agentic) + foundations:

  1. Read "Building Effective Agents" end-to-end; learn all orchestration patterns.
  2. Implement a real agentic loop; watch stop_reason drive control flow.
  3. Build a hub-and-spoke coordinator that spawns parallel subagents with the Task tool; prove that subagents don't inherit context.

Week 2 — Domains 3 & 4 (Claude Code + Prompt/Output):

  1. Create a CLAUDE.md hierarchy and a .claude/rules/ file with glob scoping; try a slash command and a skill.
  2. Run Claude Code headless with -p and --output-format json for a mock CI review.
  3. Build an extraction tool with a strict JSON schema; test nullable vs. required fields and a validation-retry loop.
  4. Run a Message Batches job; confirm custom_id correlation and the 24-hour window.

Week 3 — Domains 2 & 5 (Tools/MCP + Context/Reliability):

  1. Write rich tool descriptions; observe how description quality changes selection. Design a structured error contract.
  2. Configure a project .mcp.json with ${ENV_VAR} expansion; connect an MCP server.
  3. Practise context tactics: trim verbose tool output, use scratchpad files, /compact, and correct escalation triggers.

Week 4 — Drill & simulate:

  1. Work every question in the companion banks; for each miss, note the domain and re-read that section.
  2. For any tricky question, say out loud why the three distractors are wrong.
  3. Do a full 60-question / 120-minute timed run; review your exam-day checklist.
Target ~850 on your mock runs before booking — that leaves comfortable margin above the 720 cut for nerves and ambiguous phrasing.
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High-Frequency Exam Traps

When the scenario says…Correct instinctTempting wrong answer
Agentic & tools
A rule must be guaranteed (money, identity, ordering)Programmatic gate / hookStronger system-prompt wording or few-shot
A subagent needs prior findingsPass them explicitly in the Task promptRely on automatic context inheritance
Run subagents in parallelMultiple Task calls in one responseSeparate turns (sequential)
Agent keeps picking the wrong toolEnrich tool descriptions firstAdd few-shot / build a routing layer
Prompt, output & context
Guaranteed structured outputtool_use + JSON schema + tool_choice: "any""Respond only in JSON" in prose
Model fabricates absent fieldsMake the field optional/nullableMark everything required
Large latency-tolerant batch jobMessage Batches API (~50% cost)Synchronous real-time calls
Policy is silent / customer asks for a humanEscalate (valid HITL trigger)Escalate on sentiment or self-reported confidence
Facts lost in a huge contextKey info at start/end + section headersJust "use a bigger context window"
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Registration, Eligibility & Exam-Day Rules

Getting a seat

  • Access is through the Anthropic Skilljar entitlement flow, gated by Partner Network attestation in the current phase.
  • Register with a corporate email on a recognised company domain — personal addresses (gmail, outlook, etc.) are rejected.
  • Fee is $125 USD, reported free for the first 5,000 partner-company seats. Confirm your seat status with your partner admin.
  • Schedule within your entitlement window (beta reports suggest ~30 days — confirm on your dashboard).
Anthropic Partner Network ↗

✅ Exam-day / proctoring checklist

  • Closed book: no notes, no Claude, no docs, no second tab, no second monitor.
  • Webcam on for the full session; full-desktop screen share required.
  • Clean desk — no phone visible; the proctor runs a room sweep before you start.
  • No scheduled breaks — plan for one uninterrupted 120-minute sitting.
  • Answer every question (no guessing penalty); flag-and-return on the tough ones since there is no per-question cap.
  • Stable internet + a quiet, well-lit room. Several beta candidates lost their seat over trivial setup mistakes — read the rules before you schedule.
Result delivery is reported at ~2 business days. Badges are moving to Credly in 2026 — watch for the acceptance email and confirm your certificate's validity on the badge itself.
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Quick FAQ

Rapid answers

  • How many questions? 60, all scored, single-select with four options.
  • How long? 120 minutes (~2 min/question, no per-question cap).
  • Passing score? 720 out of 1000 (scaled).
  • Is it open book? No — closed book, online proctored.
  • How many domains / scenarios? 5 domains; 4 of 6 scenarios per sitting (study all 6).
  • Is there a guessing penalty? No — always answer.
  • Cost? $125 USD, reportedly free for the first 5,000 partner seats.
  • CCA-F vs CCAF? Same exam; Anthropic hyphenates it as CCA-F.
  • How long should I study? ~2 weeks if you build with Claude daily; 4–6 weeks coming in cold.

Ready to practise?

The fastest way to find your weak domains is to work full question sets under time pressure. Start here:

Interactive Question Bank (178 Questions) →
CCA-F Anthropic Partner Network Updated Jul 2026 Independent study aid
This is an independent preparation guide. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. Figures reflect the best public information as of July 2026 and should be cross-checked against Anthropic's official surfaces, which supersede this material where they differ.