Frequently asked questions
About the Claude Certified Architect exams, CCAR-F and CCAR-P, and about practising for them on ClaudeArena.
What is the Claude Certified Architect exam (CCAR-F and CCAR-P)?
Claude Certified Architect is Anthropic's certification for people who design and build solutions with Claude. Foundations (CCAR-F) covers agentic architecture, tool design and MCP, Claude Code, prompt engineering and context management. Professional (CCAR-P) is the advanced credential, covering solution design, integration, evaluation, governance and operations at enterprise scale. Both exams last 120 minutes: Foundations has 60 questions and Professional 63.
Is the CCAR-P exam changing?
Yes. Anthropic updates the Professional exam (CCAR-P) on 7 December 2026 and publishes its new exam guide on 17 November 2026; if you sit it on 7 December or later, prepare with the new guide. The Foundations exam (CCAR-F) isn't in the update. ClaudeArena's Professional questions and study guide follow the current guide, version 1.0, and will be brought in line with the new one after 17 November.
Is ClaudeArena free?
Yes, everything you need to study. Practice works without an account, with 120 free practice questions a day on each browser, about 4 hours at exam pace. Full mock exams need a callname, because their scores go on the leaderboard. A callname is free: a name and a password, no email address. It also gives you XP and badges, and practice beyond the free questions. Every study and learning feature is free, forever.
How many practice questions are there?
950+ practice questions across both exams, in three modes: Normal, Hard and Expert. Questions are added as the exams and Anthropic's documentation change, and each one is checked against the sources it cites before it goes in.
What do the exams cost, and can I retake them?
Their exam guides set the fee at $125 USD for Foundations (CCAR-F) and $175 USD for Professional (CCAR-P), for each attempt, less any partner-tier discount at checkout. Pearson VUE delivers both, online proctored or at a test centre. If you don't pass, you can retake the exam after a wait that grows with each fail, 14, 30 and 90 days, with at most 4 attempts in any 12 months. A pass is valid for 12 months, and renewing on time is a free, non-proctored assessment. Professional's new exam guide, due on 17 November 2026, may change its terms; ClaudeArena will follow it.
Does a practice score predict the real exam result?
No. The real exams report a scaled score from 100 to 1,000, and you pass at 720. ClaudeArena uses 72% as its practice target and shows your score per domain, so you can see where to focus, but a practice score doesn't predict your real result.
How often is the content checked?
Against Anthropic's releases every two to three weeks: the release notes since the last check are read, and the questions and study guide pages a change touches are checked again. In full every quarter, when every question goes through an independent review, and against each new exam guide when Anthropic publishes one. Every question records what its answer rests on: Anthropic's documentation, the exam guide, or established practice. The dates of each check are on Sources and checks, in About.
What's the difference between Practice and a full exam?
Practice is for focused study: you choose the domains or objectives and the length, the timer is optional, and you can see each answer straight after giving it. It needs no account. A full exam is a mock of the real one: every domain, the full 60- or 63-question sitting balanced to the official domain weights, always timed, answers at the end, and you can go back and flag questions. It needs a free callname, and its score goes on the leaderboard. The full comparison is in How it works, in About.
What's the difference between Normal, Hard and Expert?
Each mode has its own questions, and they get harder from Normal to Expert. The mode also sets the points for a correct answer: 100 in Normal, 150 in Hard and 200 in Expert. Every exam and mode has its own leaderboard.
Do I need an account?
No. Practice and the 8-question demo work without one. Full mock exams and the leaderboard need a free callname, which is a name and a password. No email address is asked for.
Is ClaudeArena affiliated with Anthropic?
No. ClaudeArena is an independent study aid. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic, and it contains no content from the real exams.
Ready to practise? Start practising free, or read the study guide first. More about ClaudeArena: About.