Claude Certified Architect (CCAR-F): the exam, the domains and a study plan
The Claude Certified Architect Foundations exam (CCAR-F) has 60 questions in 120 minutes, built on 4 of 6 published scenarios, and you need a scaled 720 out of 1,000 to pass. It tests five domains across Claude Code, the Agent SDK, the Claude API and MCP. Below: every exam fact from the official guide, what each domain asks, and a free study plan with a short video for each concept.
What is the Claude Certified Architect certification?
Claude Certified Architect Foundations is Anthropic's certification for people who design production systems with Claude. The exam guide says it validates that you can "make informed decisions about tradeoffs when implementing real-world solutions with Claude", across four technologies: Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, the Claude API and the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
If those four names blur together, start with what each one is for.
The intended candidate is a solution architect with six months or more of hands-on work with those four. The questions are scenario based: a realistic production setting first, then several decisions about it. Knowing definitions is not enough; you need to pick the better design and know why the tempting alternative fails.
Claude certified architect exam: format, score and fee
Everything in this table comes from section 3 of the official exam guide (version 1.0).
| Exam code | CCAR-F |
| Questions | 60, multiple choice and multiple response (each says how many to pick) |
| Structure | 4 scenarios drawn at random from a bank of 6 |
| Time | 120 minutes |
| Passing score | 720 on a scaled range of 100 to 1,000 |
| Delivery | Proctored by Pearson VUE, online or at a test center |
| Fee | 125 USD per attempt |
| Validity | 12 months, with a free on-time renewal assessment |
| Result | Pass or fail, the scaled score and your percent correct per domain |
The exam is criterion referenced: you are measured against a fixed standard, not against other candidates. Scaled scoring keeps different exam forms comparable.
Who can take the Anthropic certification?
Registration runs through the Anthropic Partner Academy, and its certifications page presents the credentials as built for Anthropic Partners. In practice that means you sit the exam through an employer that is an Anthropic partner. Everything you need to learn the material, though, is public: the docs for the API, the Agent SDK, Claude Code and MCP, plus the exam guide itself.
The five domains and what each one tests
| Domain | Weight | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Agentic Architecture & Orchestration | 27% | Agent loops driven by stop_reason, coordinator and subagents, passing context, hooks, sessions, enforcing rules in code |
| 2. Tool Design & MCP Integration | 18% | Tool descriptions Claude picks correctly, structured tool errors, tool_choice, MCP servers and their scope |
| 3. Claude Code Configuration & Workflows | 20% | CLAUDE.md levels, path rules, skills and slash commands, plan mode, Claude Code in CI |
| 4. Prompt Engineering & Structured Output | 20% | Explicit criteria, few-shot examples, JSON through tool use and schemas, validation and retry, batch processing |
| 5. Context Management & Reliability | 15% | Context budgets, long conversations, error propagation, escalation to humans, confidence and review |
Domain 1 is the biggest single block. The playlist splits it in two chapters, agent patterns and then multi-agent systems with the Agent SDK, so each stays short.
The six exam scenarios
Each exam draws 4 of these 6. The guide publishes them, so you can prepare for all six:
- Customer Support Resolution Agent: an Agent SDK agent with backend tools over MCP, aiming for high first-contact resolution while knowing when to escalate.
- Code Generation with Claude Code: slash commands, CLAUDE.md and when to use plan mode.
- Multi-Agent Research System: a coordinator delegating to search, analysis, synthesis and report subagents.
- Developer Productivity with Claude: an Agent SDK agent with the built-in tools and MCP servers.
- Claude Code for Continuous Integration: automated reviews and tests in a CI/CD pipeline.
- Structured Data Extraction: JSON schemas, validation and edge cases.
What the exam does not cover
The guide lists topics that will not appear, which saves real study time. Among them: fine-tuning or training models, API authentication and billing, deploying or hosting MCP servers, Claude's internal architecture and training, Constitutional AI and RLHF, embeddings and vector database internals, and computer use (browser and desktop automation).
A study plan for the Claude certification: practice first
The free CCAR-F playlist follows the guide domain by domain. After a short start, it has seven chapters, each opening with a two-minute intro and ending with three original practice questions:
| Chapter | Domain | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Tools and MCP | 2 (18%) | Tool use, descriptions, tool_choice, tool errors, MCP servers, resources and scopes |
| 2. Prompts and structured output | 4 (20%) | Explicit criteria, few-shot, JSON and schemas, validation and retry, Message Batches |
| 3. Agent patterns | 1 (27%, part 1) | Workflow or agent, the agentic loop, stopping a loop, gates in code |
| 4. Multi-agent and the Agent SDK | 1 (27%, part 2) | Coordinator and subagents, context passing, Agent SDK, hooks, sessions |
| 5. Context and reliability | 5 (15%) | The context budget, trimming tool output, errors across agents, human handoff |
| 6. Claude Code | 3 (20%) | CLAUDE.md, rules, skills, built-in tools, plan mode, Claude Code in CI |
| 7. Exam review | all | The six scenarios mapped, key distinctions, exam day |
The method: take a chapter's three practice questions before watching anything.
A question you get right and can explain, you skip. A question you miss tells you which video to watch, and only that one. At one practice set plus two or three short videos a day, about twenty minutes, you get through the whole plan in roughly two weeks. That pace is our suggestion, not an exam rule.
Start with the first video, the CCAR-F exam explained in 5 minutes, then the four technologies and what each one is for.
How to register for the Claude certified architect exam
Section 11 of the guide gives the steps:
- Open the exam's certification page on the Anthropic Partner Academy and review the details.
- Download the exam guide and read the Certification Terms and Conditions and the Exam Policy.
- Register and pay. The checkout price reflects any discount for your partner tier.
- Create your Pearson VUE account from the confirmation email and sign in to schedule.
- Pick a date and choose online proctoring or a Pearson test center.
- Cancel or reschedule at least 24 hours ahead; later changes forfeit the fee.
Bring a valid, unexpired, government-issued photo ID whose name matches your registration exactly. Accommodations are requested through Pearson VUE before you schedule.
Retakes and renewal
If you don't pass, waiting periods grow with each attempt: 14 days after the first, 30 after the second, 90 after the third, with at most four attempts in a rolling twelve months. Each attempt costs the full fee.
The credential lasts 12 months. To renew on time you review what changed and take a free, non-proctored assessment on the Partner Academy. If it lapses, you retake the full exam.
The exam guide vs the product today
Claude's tools move faster than any exam guide. A few places where the product has changed since guide version 1.0, each checked against the official docs:
- Forcing a tool. The guide teaches
tool_choiceset toanyor to a named tool. On Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1 those two values now return a 400 error; the docs recommendautowith strict tools, or structured outputs (define tools). - MCP scopes in Claude Code. The guide contrasts project scope (
.mcp.json) with user scope. Claude Code now has three scopes, and the default is a third one, local (Claude Code MCP). - The Task tool that spawns subagents now appears as the Agent tool in
tool_useblocks (since Claude Code v2.1.63); the init tools list still names it Task, so code that detects subagents should match both (subagents in the Agent SDK). - Skills.
allowed-toolsin a skill's front matter pre-approves tools for that skill; it does not restrict the others (skills).
On the exam, answer the way the guide teaches. At work, use what is true today. Every video in the playlist flags these differences where they matter.
Free official resources
- The CCAR-F exam guide (PDF), from the exam's page on the Anthropic Partner Academy: its section 7 lists hands-on exercises worth doing.
- The Claude API docs at platform.claude.com/docs, the Claude Code and Agent SDK docs at code.claude.com/docs, and modelcontextprotocol.io for MCP.
- The free courses on Anthropic Academy.
For more, see all articles or the Software Engineering Unpacked home page.
Sources: Claude Certified Architect Foundations exam guide, version 1.0 (sections 1 to 15 and the out-of-scope appendix); Claude Agent SDK overview; Define tools; Claude Code MCP; Agent SDK subagents; Skills. Independent study material, not affiliated with Anthropic.
FAQ
How many questions are on the Claude Certified Architect exam?
60 items in 120 minutes. Each item is multiple choice or multiple response, and says how many answers to pick. The questions sit inside 4 scenarios drawn at random from a bank of 6.
What score do you need to pass the CCAR-F exam?
A scaled score of 720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000. The score report also shows your percent correct per domain, but only the total scaled score decides pass or fail.
How much does the Claude certification cost?
The exam guide lists a fee of 125 US dollars. The price at checkout reflects any discount for your partner tier, and the fee applies to each attempt.
Can anyone take the Anthropic certification?
The certifications are offered through the Anthropic Partner Academy, which describes them as built for Anthropic Partners. The preparation material in the official docs is open to everyone.
How long is the Claude Certified Architect certification valid?
12 months from the date it is awarded. On-time renewal is a free, non-proctored assessment on the Partner Academy; if it lapses, you retake the full exam at the full fee.