Claude Certified Architect exam guide: 60 questions, 720 to pass
The Claude Certified Architect - Foundations exam (CCA-F, official code CCAR-F) tests architectural judgment across five weighted domains. It has 60 scenario-based questions in 120 minutes, with 720 on the scaled score required to pass. This guide covers the blueprint, format and preparation, with links to registration and cost.
Download the CCA-F exam guide (PDF, 14 pages)
The CCA-F is one of the Claude certifications Anthropic offers: see the Claude certification overview, or compare all four certifications.
How to registerWhat gets tested, weighted by importance
The CCA-F samples each domain at the official blueprint weight. Spend study time proportionally.
Four chapters, in the order you'll need them.
Register → plan → avoid the traps → sit the exam.
Registration
The partner-network gate, the Skilljar form field by field, and the corporate-domain trap that rejects most first attempts.
6 steps · 8 min readStudy plans
Three paths picked by diagnostic score, not ambition: 2-week sprint, 4-week canonical, 8-week comprehensive.
3 paths · 4-week day by day20 anti-patterns
Every distractor is an anti-pattern dressed up as the right call. Wrong call and right call, side by side, for all five domains.
8 critical · 10 common · 2 edgeDay of the exam
The six things to confirm before you start, five time tactics that move 700 to 760, and what happens after submit.
Checklist · 2 min per questionReady to sit the official exam?
Most readers come to this page for one thing: how to register. Start here, then check your eligibility.
As of 2026-09-11, registration requires Anthropic Partner Network access. Check your employer's eligibility before starting the registration process. Use Registration and cost for the dated eligibility policy and registration steps.
Register for the CCA-F exam
Register for the CCA-F (CCAR-F) exam through Anthropic's partner registration process. The list fee is $125 per attempt. Eligible partner cohorts may receive a fully covered attempt. The proctored exam has 60 questions in 120 minutes, with 720 on the scaled score required to pass.
Exam mechanics: format, timing, and proctoring rules
The CCA-F exam has 60 questions and a 120-minute time limit. Use the official exam guide for the format and your registration instructions for scheduling and proctoring requirements.
See your scaled score in a full mock.
Open the 60-question mock → · Get Pro →
Read the proctoring rules before you schedule. Several beta candidates lost their seat for trivial setup mistakes (a second monitor connected, a phone visible on the desk, a tab open that the proctor flagged). The exam is closed-book and the room sweep is real.
Pearson VUE and Anthropic: who does what
Three organizations touch the CCA-F (Claude Certified Architect – Foundations), and each has one job.
- Anthropic owns the certification, writes the exam and runs the prep courses on Skilljar (the Anthropic Partner Academy).
- Pearson VUE delivers the exam, either online proctored (OnVUE) or at a Pearson VUE test center. It checks your identity and runs the testing session.
- Credly issues your badge after you pass.
You register on the Partner Academy first, then schedule your session through the Pearson link. The $125 exam fee is paid at registration. See registration and cost for the steps and exam day rules for what to expect on the day.
Six in the official PDF, thirteen in the real pool
Anthropic's 2025 PDF lists six scenarios; the live exam draws from thirteen. Treat the six as the core and the other seven as fair game.
Frequently asked
Showing 24 of 24 questions · the full set ships in the PDF
CCA-F is short for the Claude Certified Architect - Foundations exam, also searched as the 'Claude Certified Architect exam' - Anthropic's official certification for engineers who design, build, and operate Claude-powered agents. It is a 60-question, 120-minute, online-proctored, closed-book exam scored out of 1000 with a 720 pass mark, launched 2026-03-12 through the Anthropic Partner Network.
Register for the CCA-F through Anthropic's Skilljar flow (partner-employer attestation), study the five weighted domains, then pass the 60-question proctored exam at 720/1000. Start with the practice test (the 10-question diagnostic, no login) to find your weak domains, then work a study plan.
120 minutes total for 60 scenario-based multiple-choice questions, which works out to roughly 2 minutes per question.
720 out of 1000 on a scaled score. Anthropic does not publish the raw question count required, because the form is equated.
12 months from the date the credential is awarded, per Anthropic's version 1.0 exam guide (effective July 2026). Competitor prep sites still say '2 years' (an LLM hallucination). Trust the guide.
$125 USD, per Anthropic's version 1.0 exam guide. Eligible partner-company employees get a 100% partner-network discount that takes it to $0.
Through the Skilljar entitlement flow triggered by Anthropic Partner Network attestation. Your employer must be in the Partner Network and you must use a corporate email on a recognized corporate domain. Personal email addresses are rejected.
Because the Skilljar attestation flow requires a corporate email on a recognized corporate domain. Personal addresses (gmail, outlook, yahoo, icloud) cannot map to a partner employer. Use your work email.
No. The exam is closed-book, online-proctored, and the proctor verifies a clean desk and a full-screen share before starting.
No. You cannot have Claude.ai, Claude Code, the API console, or any Anthropic surface running. The proctor will flag it during the room sweep and end the session.
Yes. The guide specifies a mix of multiple-choice and multiple-response items, and each item states how many responses to select - so read the instruction line on every item.
Aim for 850 / 1000 on our mock exam before booking. An 850 mock typically maps to a comfortable 720+ real-exam pass with margin for nerves and ambiguous questions.
Two to four weeks at 60-90 minutes a day if you already build with Claude. Six to eight weeks if you are coming in cold on Agent SDK, MCP, and Claude Code.
If you design, build, or operate Claude-powered agents for work, yes. The standard exam fee is $125, and eligible partner-company employees get it at $0. It is new (launched 2026-03-12), so treat it as an early-mover signal rather than an established industry standard.
About the same difficulty when the mock is calibrated correctly. The real exam has more curveballs in the 27% Agentic domain. If you are passing the mock at 850+, the real exam is well within reach.
Calibrated for working AI engineers, not absolute beginners. The questions punish surface-level Claude knowledge: you need the orchestration shapes, the stop_reason values, the Skills frontmatter, and the case-facts-block discipline by reflex.
CCA-F has 60 scenario-based questions. The official exam allows 120 minutes.
CCA-F covers five domains: Agentic Architecture & Orchestration (27%), Tool Design & MCP Integration (18%), Claude Code Configuration & Workflows (20%), Prompt Engineering & Structured Output (20%), and Context Management & Reliability (15%).
The exam allows 120 minutes for 60 questions, an average of two minutes per question.
The standard CCA-F credential is valid for 12 months. Check Anthropic's current renewal instructions before arranging recertification.
It is Anthropic's partner program. As of 2026-09-11, access through an eligible partner is required for exam registration. See Registration and cost for the eligibility policy.
Pearson VUE delivers the CCA-F exam. Section 10 of the official exam guide identifies the delivery provider.
Use the Credly badge guide for the badge-claim process. Follow the instructions supplied with your credential.
In Claude certification searches, CCAF may refer to CCA-F, the shorthand for Claude Certified Architect - Foundations. Anthropic's official exam code is CCAR-F. CCAF can also mean the unrelated Community College of the Air Force; these are different credentials.
Sources and evidence
8 sources · refreshed every 60 days · last reviewed 2026-10-20
How to read the evidence labels
This guide distinguishes confirmed official information, public consensus, community reports and conflicting or unverified claims. Check the source and its date before relying on a policy detail.
Claude Certified Architect Foundations Exam Guide (PDF, Feb 10 2025)
The canonical document. 30+ pages covering format, six PDF-canonical scenarios, and domain structure.
Anthropic Partner Network announcement
Confirms 2026-03-12 launch date and partner-employer eligibility model.
CCA-F Exam Guide v1.0 (effective July 2026)
The authoritative source: $125 fee, 12-month validity, 60 items, 720/1000. Supersedes beta-era figures.
Skilljar entitlement page (validity inspection, beta cohort)
Surfaced the 6-month validity that killed the '2-year' hallucination; since superseded by the v1.0 guide's 12 months.
zintaen, The Architect's Playbook (985/1000 debrief)
Highest-scoring beta cohort write-up; corroborates scenario pool expansion beyond the official six.
paullarionov, claude_architect_study_guide.pdf
Independent beta cohort study guide. Cross-checks domain weights and confirms scenario coverage.
r/ClaudeAI thread 1ruf70b (Sea_Creme5238 + 7 corroborators)
The thread that broke the '2 years validity' hallucination via Skilljar screenshot.
Skilljar entitlement flow (registration, attestation)
Authoritative on registration mechanics. Badge issuance moved to Credly in 2026; proctored delivery moved to Pearson VUE.