1
Agentic Architecture & Orchestration
27%of the exam
AnthropicFoundations
Claude CertifiedArchitect – Foundations
Validates that practitioners can make informed decisions about trade-offs when implementing real-world solutions with Claude, across Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, the Claude API, and Model Context Protocol.
What this certification assesses
The five content domains of the CCAR-F exam guide, with the approximate share of scored items drawn from each. Questions are framed by scenarios: each exam presents 4 drawn at random from a published bank of 6.
2
Tool Design & MCP Integration
18%of the exam
3
Claude Code Configuration & Workflows
20%of the exam
4
Prompt Engineering & Structured Output
20%of the exam
5
Context Management & Reliability
15%of the exam
Section names and weights are the published exam blueprint's own. The blueprint itself, with every objective under these sections, is in Official references.
Exam overview
What Anthropic publishes about the CCAR-F exam, read from the exam guide and the Partner Academy pages. Follow the sources for the authoritative version of any of it.
- Foundations
- Level
- CCAR-F
- Exam code
- 60
- Questions
- 120 minutes
- Duration
- $125 USD
- Fee
- Partners only
- Access
Published detail
- Assessment
- Multiple-choice and multiple-response items, each stating how many responses to select, framed by 4 scenarios drawn from a bank of 6
- Questions
- 60
- Duration
- 120 minutes. Anthropic advises planning about 135 minutes of seat time, including check-in, instructions, and a short post-exam survey
- Passing score
- A scaled score of 720 on a 100–1,000 scale. Results are pass/fail, and the score report adds the percentage correct in each domain
- Exam provider
- Pearson VUE
- Delivery
- Proctored, online or at a Pearson VUE test centre. The exam is closed book
- Languages
- English and Japanese
- Registration fee
- $125 USD, paid by card on Anthropic Partner Academy. Select, Preferred, and Global Premier partners receive 50% off, applied at checkout
- Cancelling or rescheduling
- At least 48 hours before the appointment
- Eligibility
- People at organisations in the Claude Partner Network, registering with a company email on a domain listed in their organisation's partner record. Candidates must be 18 or older
- Validity
- 12 months from the date the credential is awarded
- Recertification
- Renew on time with a free, non-proctored assessment on Anthropic Partner Academy. A lapsed credential requires the full exam at the full fee
- Retakes
- Waits of 14, 30, and 90 days after the first, second, and third failed attempts, and at most 4 attempts in a rolling 12 months. Each retake costs the exam fee again
- Candidate profile
- A solution architect who designs and implements production applications with Claude, typically with 6+ months of practical experience building with the Claude APIs, the Agent SDK, Claude Code, and MCP
- Partner standing
- Counts toward Claude Partner Network eligibility
Based on Anthropic's CCAR-F exam guide, Version 1.0, effective July 2026.
Who this certification is for
Our reading of who this certification is most relevant to. This framing is editorial — not something the vendor publishes.
- Solution architects
- Architects who make the implementation trade-offs of production Claude applications — the role the exam guide's candidate profile describes.
- Agent and platform engineers
- Engineers building agents with the Agent SDK and MCP, or configuring Claude Code and CI pipelines for a team.
- Partner practitioners
- Engineers inside Claude Partner Network organisations, often taking this exam before Architect – Professional.
These groups are editorial. The experience the vendor actually recommends for the exam is a published fact, and it is in Exam overview.
Official references
Primary sources for everything on this page. Follow them for the authoritative version of any certification fact.
- Certification page (opens in a new tab)The credential's page on Anthropic Partner Academy: the price, registration, and links to the exam guide and policies.
- CCAR-F exam guide (opens in a new tab)The authoritative reference: exam details, the five domains with their task statements, the six scenarios, sample questions, scoring, and policies.
- Claude Certification program (opens in a new tab)Every Claude certification on one page, with its role, level, price, prep courses, and exam guide.
- Who can take an exam (opens in a new tab)Eligibility: Claude Partner Network membership, the company-email requirement, and the age and ID rules.
- Certification FAQ (opens in a new tab)Languages, seat time, partner-tier discounts, retakes, renewal, and the move to Pearson VUE and Credly.
- Claude Partner Network launch (opens in a new tab)Anthropic's announcement of the partner programme and of this certification.
agentic-system.design is an independent learning guide. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic, and it is not an official Anthropic study guide. Anthropic, Claude, Claude Certified Architect – Foundations, and the certification badge shown on this page are trademarks of Anthropic PBC, reproduced unaltered to identify the certification this page covers.
Study guide
Study for the Claude Certified Architect – Foundations exam
The guide follows this blueprint section by section, one decision per bite. Read it in order to prepare, or open a single bite later as a reference.
- Guide version
- October 2026
- Cost
- Free, no account
- Progress
- Stays in your browser