Exam Overview
Claude Certified Architect – Foundations
Anthropic
Multiple choice, scenario-based
720 / 1000
4 of 6 scenarios randomly selected
Solution architects building production applications with Claude
Free for first 5,000 partner company employees
Available now for Anthropic partners
Register for the Exam
Request access through Anthropic's official Skilljar portal. Currently available for partner company employees.
Go to Registration Portal5 Exam Domains
The exam covers five domains. Each domain has a specific weight indicating how many questions relate to that topic. Understanding all five domains is essential for passing.
Domain 1: Agentic Architecture & Orchestration
~25%Design and implement agentic systems using Claude's Agent SDK. Covers agentic loops, multi-agent orchestration, hooks, workflows, session management, and task decomposition patterns for production-grade AI applications.
Domain 2: Tool Design & MCP Integration
~20%Design effective tools and integrate with Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Covers tool description best practices, structured error responses, tool distribution, MCP configuration, and Claude's built-in tools.
Domain 3: Claude Code Configuration & Workflows
~20%Configure Claude Code for development workflows. Covers CLAUDE.md hierarchy, custom commands and skills, plan mode, iterative refinement, CI/CD integration, and batch processing.
Domain 4: Prompt Engineering & Structured Output
~20%Master prompt engineering techniques for production systems. Covers explicit criteria, few-shot prompting, tool_use for structured output, JSON schema design, validation-retry loops, and multi-pass review strategies.
Domain 5: Context Management & Reliability
~15%Manage context effectively in production systems. Covers progressive summarization risks, context positioning, escalation patterns, error propagation, context degradation, human review, and information provenance.
6 Exam Scenarios
The exam presents you with 4 of 6 possible scenarios, randomly selected. Each scenario places you in a real-world context where you must make architectural decisions for production Claude applications.
Customer Support Resolution Agent
Design an AI-powered customer support agent that handles inquiries, resolves issues, and escalates complex cases. Tests Agent SDK usage, MCP tools, and escalation logic.
Key Skills Tested
Code Generation with Claude Code
Configure Claude Code for a development team workflow. Tests CLAUDE.md configuration, plan mode, slash commands, and iterative refinement strategies.
Key Skills Tested
Multi-Agent Research System
Build a coordinator-subagent system for parallel research tasks. Tests multi-agent orchestration, context passing, error propagation, and result synthesis.
Key Skills Tested
Developer Productivity with Claude
Build developer tools using the Claude Agent SDK with built-in tools and MCP servers. Tests tool selection, codebase exploration, and code generation workflows.
Key Skills Tested
Claude Code for CI/CD
Integrate Claude Code into continuous integration and delivery pipelines. Tests -p flag usage, structured output, batch API, and multi-pass code review.
Key Skills Tested
Structured Data Extraction
Build a structured data extraction pipeline from unstructured documents. Tests JSON schemas, tool_use, validation-retry loops, and few-shot prompting.
Key Skills Tested
Key Anti-Patterns (Common Wrong Answers)
These anti-patterns frequently appear as distractor answers on the exam. Recognizing them is critical for choosing the correct answer.
Parsing natural language for loop termination
✓ Instead: Check stop_reason ('tool_use' vs 'end_turn')
Arbitrary iteration caps as primary stopping
✓ Instead: Let the agentic loop terminate naturally via stop_reason
Prompt-based enforcement for critical business rules
✓ Instead: Use programmatic hooks for deterministic enforcement
Self-reported confidence scores for escalation
✓ Instead: Use structured criteria and programmatic checks
Sentiment-based escalation
✓ Instead: Escalate based on task complexity, policy gaps, not sentiment
Generic error messages ('Operation failed')
✓ Instead: Include isError, errorCategory, isRetryable, and context
Silently suppressing errors (empty results as success)
✓ Instead: Distinguish access failures from genuinely empty results
Too many tools per agent (18+)
✓ Instead: Keep to 4-5 tools per agent for optimal selection
Same-session self-review
✓ Instead: Use separate sessions to avoid reasoning context bias
Aggregate accuracy metrics only
✓ Instead: Track accuracy per document type to catch masked failures
Official Resources
Official Exam Guide (PDF)
Anthropic's complete exam guide with domain breakdowns and sample questions
Register for the Exam
Request access through the Anthropic Skilljar portal
Anthropic Courses (GitHub)
Open-source educational courses covering Claude API, prompt engineering, and more
Claude Documentation
Official Claude API documentation and developer guides
Ready to Start Studying?
Follow our structured 12-week plan or dive into individual domains.