Claude Certified Architect (CCA-F): The Complete 2026 Guide
Anthropic's CCA-F exam explained: 60 questions, 120 minutes, 720/1000 to pass, $99. What the Claude architect certification covers and how to prepare for it.
Builder of SecuSpark. 24 shipped projects across healthcare, defense, and education. Built this platform because textbooks never worked for my ADHD brain — so I turned exam prep into an RPG. @PawelBuilds
Table of Contents
The Claude Certified Architect – Foundations exam (CCA-F) is Anthropic's first professional certification, launched March 12, 2026. It validates that you can design, deploy, and maintain production applications across the Claude ecosystem — the Claude API, the Agent SDK, Claude Code, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP). At $99 it is one of the cheapest credentials in AI, and demand for it is moving faster than prep material is being written. Here is the complete picture.
CCA-F Exam Facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam | Claude Certified Architect – Foundations (CCA-F) |
| Launched | March 12, 2026 |
| Format | 60 multiple-choice questions |
| Time limit | 120 minutes |
| Passing score | 720 on a 100–1,000 scale |
| Price | $99 (waived for early Claude Partner Network cohorts) |
| Recommended experience | ~6 months hands-on with the Claude API and Claude Code in production |
Details verified July 2026. The exam rolled out through Anthropic's partner network first — check Anthropic's current page for public scheduling in your region before planning a date.
What the Exam Covers
CCA-F spans five domains. The three most heavily weighted, per the published breakdown:
- Agentic architecture and orchestration (27%) — multi-agent design, task decomposition, orchestration patterns, agentic loops, and reliability engineering for autonomous systems.
- Claude Code configuration and workflows (20%) — CLAUDE.md hierarchy, custom slash commands, CI/CD integration, and AI-first development workflows.
- Tool design and MCP integration (18%) — designing MCP servers and clients, tool boundaries, transports, authentication, and reliable tool schemas.
The remaining domains cover deploying and operating Claude applications in production — cost, evaluation, and safety practices included. If you work with Claude daily, the blueprint will read like your job description; if you don't, that experience gap is exactly what the exam is designed to detect.
Who Should Take CCA-F?
Developers and architects building on Claude — especially at organizations standardizing on it — and consultants who want a portable proof of Claude fluency. It pairs naturally with a security credential: teams shipping agentic systems increasingly want both the builder view (CCA-F) and the security view (CompTIA SecAI+) in the room.
How to Prepare
- Build first: the recommended ~6 months of hands-on Claude API + Claude Code time is real advice — the agentic-architecture domain rewards scars, not summaries.
- Read the primary docs: Anthropic's API, Agent SDK, Claude Code, and MCP documentation are the source of truth the exam is written against.
- Drill exam-style questions: SecuSpark's Claude Architect path has 550 questions across 25 practice exams spanning all five domains, with 3 full exams free — start on the free CCA-F practice test and find your weak domain before exam day.
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