Foundations (CCAR-F): format, domain weights and exam technique
What is particular to the Foundations exam: its format, how much each domain counts, and its own exam technique. What the exams share is on the study guide's overview.
The Foundations exam at a glance
In short. CCAR-F, Claude Certified Architect: Foundations, is Anthropic's exam for solution architects who design and build agent systems with Claude. It has 60 questions in 120 minutes, built around 4 scenarios drawn from a bank of 6, and a scaled score of 720 on a 100 to 1,000 scale passes. It covers 5 domains, listed with their weights on the Foundations page.
| Official name | Claude Certified Architect – Foundations |
|---|---|
| Code | CCAR-F (you may see "CCA-F" on third-party sites; the official code is CCAR-F) |
| Format | 60 questions in 120 minutes; multiple choice and multiple response ("choose two") |
| Scenarios | Questions are built around 4 scenarios drawn from a bank of 6. ClaudeArena's practice sittings also add stand-alone questions, which the exam guide doesn't mention |
| Passing | A scaled score of 720 on a 100 to 1,000 scale |
| Who it's for | Solution architects who design and build agent systems with Claude |
| Fee | $125 USD for each attempt; the fee at checkout reflects any partner-tier discount |
| Delivery | By Pearson VUE, online proctored or at a test centre; cancel or reschedule up to 24 hours before |
| Retakes | After a wait of 14 days, then 30, then 90; at most 4 attempts in any 12 months |
| Valid for | 12 months; renew on time with a free, non-proctored assessment, or retake the full exam once it lapses |
| Score report | Pass or fail with the scaled score, plus the percentage correct in each domain |
| Out of scope | Among others: prompt caching details beyond knowing it exists, rate limiting, streaming, computer use and vision |
Official: Certification pageAnnouncement
Foundations domain weightings
These are the weights ClaudeArena uses to balance every Foundations full exam, so a practice sitting has the same mix as the real one.
| # | Foundations (CCAR-F) domain | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agentic Architecture & Orchestration | 27% |
| 2 | Tool Design & MCP Integration | 18% |
| 3 | Claude Code Configuration & Workflows | 20% |
| 4 | Prompt Engineering & Structured Output | 20% |
| 5 | Context Management & Reliability | 15% |
Foundations exam technique
Most questions take an ordinary engineering situation with an obvious answer and add one clause that makes the obvious answer wrong. That clause is the question.
- Read the stem before the options. Ask: which phrase, if I deleted it, would change my answer? Until you've found it, you haven't found the question.
- Watch the clause types. A single word ("prevents" rules out detect-afterwards options; "architectural" sets the level of the answer). A structure the stem hands you (risk tiers, a named process) that the answer should use. Two symptoms, so an option explaining only one is out. A planted negative ("the context window is not full", "a prompt instruction has already failed") that removes a whole family of options.
- Check what a mechanism actually acts on. Some wrong options describe a real, respectable technique aimed at the wrong thing. A confidence score measures the model's certainty, not the risk of the decision.
- Least privilege beats compensating controls, and a bigger model is almost never the answer.
- Prefer the minimal correct change. The option that adjusts, reorders, scopes or removes something usually beats the one that bolts on a new system.
- Unlimited is a red flag. Documented systems have documented limits.
See also: Study guide · Exam technique for every exam.