claude-certification-resources

Claude Certification Resources

This repository accompanies the session “Claude Certification Programme for Partners” by Florian Steiner at the Claude Community House, Barcelona, on 23 September 2026. It collects the public, official facts about Anthropic’s Claude certifications and the Claude Partner Network (CPN), plus links to preparation material, so that Claude Community Ambassadors, partners, and consultancies have one place to start from.

Disclaimer. This is an independent, community-maintained resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by Anthropic. Fees, eligibility rules, exam formats, and program details change; always confirm the current facts on the official pages linked in this README (section 7) before you register, study, or advise a client. Everything here reflects the state of the linked pages as retrieved on 14 September 2026.

The slides from the session are in docs/slides.pdf. The session agenda with timeline is in docs/agenda.html (PDF: docs/agenda.pdf). The facilitator run of show for the live quiz block is in docs/live-quiz.md.

1. Who can take the exams

Eligibility comes first, because it determines whether the rest of this document is relevant to you:

“Certification is available to people at Claude Partner Network organizations.” There is no publicly described path for individuals to register outside of a partner organization.
Registration requires a partner email address on a recognized company domain. A personal email address (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) does not work for registration.

(Source for both points: Anthropic Partner Academy, Certification FAQ, retrieved 14 September 2026: https://anthropic-partners.skilljar.com/page/faq-certifications)

What this means in practice:

If you work at a company that is already a Claude Partner Network member: ask your Academy admin to add you with your company email, then register for an exam through the Anthropic Partner Academy.
If your organization is not yet a CPN member: it needs to join the Claude Partner Network first (membership is free and open to any organization that brings Claude to market), and you then register with its company email domain. Apply here: https://claude.com/form/cpn-partner-application. Existing partners manage their account through the Partner Hub: https://partnerhub.anthropic.com/. (Source: https://claude.com/partners, and https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-partner-network, published 12 March 2026, both retrieved 14 September 2026.)
Solo freelancers: the FAQ above describes no separate path for them. If this applies to you, ask via the CPN application form rather than assuming either way.

2. The four certifications

All four exams are listed as “Version 1.0, Effective July 2026” on their respective exam guides. The Architect: Foundations exam launched around the CPN announcement on 12 March 2026; all four role-based certifications were announced together on 23 July 2026 (source: https://claude.com/blog/four-role-based-claude-certifications).

Code	Audience	Items	Time	Passing score	Fee	Counts toward CPN tier	Official exam guide
CCAO-F (Claude Certified Associate: Foundations)	Consultants, sales, delivery leads	60	120 minutes	720 (on a 100 to 1,000 scale)	99 USD	No. Explicitly stated as not counting toward Claude Partner Network tier eligibility	PDF
CCDV-F (Claude Certified Developer: Foundations)	Engineers building with the Claude API, Claude Code, MCP	53	120 minutes	720	125 USD	Yes	PDF
CCAR-F (Claude Certified Architect: Foundations)	Partners who design end-to-end solutions	60 (drawn from 4 of 6 published scenarios)	120 minutes	720	125 USD	Yes	PDF
CCAR-P (Claude Certified Architect: Professional)	Advanced architects, enterprise engagements	63	120 minutes	720	175 USD	Yes	PDF

Fees, item counts, and the “counts toward CPN tier” column are stated on the Certifications page (https://anthropic-partners.skilljar.com/page/partner-certifications) and confirmed on the Certification FAQ (https://anthropic-partners.skilljar.com/page/faq-certifications), both retrieved 14 September 2026. Passing score and time are stated identically in each exam guide linked above. The 720 passing score for CCAO-F is stated against a 100 to 1,000 scale in its exam guide; the other three guides state 720 as the passing score without repeating the scale, but use the same numbering.

The landing page for CCAR-F is https://anthropic-partners.skilljar.com/claude-certified-architect-foundations-certification (the corresponding anthropic.skilljar.com address redirects there via HTTP 302).

3. Exam logistics

Delivery: Pearson VUE, either OnVUE online proctored or an in-person test center. (Source: FAQ; https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/anthropic.html)
Format: multiple choice and multiple response; each item states how many answers it requires. (Source: all four exam guides above)
Session length: 120 minutes of exam time, roughly 135 minutes total seated time including instructions and the agreement. (Source: FAQ)
Language: English only; using a browser translation tool during the exam is not allowed. (Source: FAQ)
Retakes: up to 4 attempts within a rolling 12-month period. Waiting periods are 14 days after a 1st attempt, 30 days after a 2nd, and 90 days after a 3rd. Every retake is charged the full exam fee again. (Source: FAQ; Pearson VUE page above)
Validity and renewal: a certification is valid for 12 months from the date it is earned. Renew before it lapses through a free, non-proctored renewal assessment; after it lapses, the full paid exam is required again. (Source: FAQ; exam guide, Policies and Logistics section)
Rescheduling: reschedule or cancel at least 48 hours before your appointment; a no-show forfeits the fee. (Source: FAQ)
Discounts: Registered-tier partners pay the full fee. Select, Preferred and Global Premier partners get 50% off, applied at checkout; through 31 December 2026 Global Premier partners get 100% off. (Source: FAQ)
Credential: issued digitally through Credly by Pearson. (Source: https://claude.com/blog/four-role-based-claude-certifications)
Practice exam: the practice exam that was available on the previous platform was retired in the move to Pearson. There is no official standalone practice exam right now; the exam guides linked above include official sample questions instead. (Source: FAQ)
Excluded locations: OnVUE online proctoring is not available in Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and restricted regions of Ukraine; candidates with an ID from these places take the exam at a Pearson test center instead. Iran has its own, separate policy, described in the FAQ. (Source: FAQ)

4. The Claude Partner Network in short

How to join: apply at https://claude.com/form/cpn-partner-application. Existing partners use the Partner Hub at https://partnerhub.anthropic.com/. Membership is free, and any organization that brings Claude to market is eligible to participate. (Source: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-partner-network, published 12 March 2026)
Entry tier: “new applicants start at Registered, the program’s entry level, with a minimum commitment to 10 certified practitioners.” (Source: https://www.anthropic.com/news/services-track-partner-hub, published 3 June 2026)

Tiers (certified practitioners, joint customers in production trailing 12 months, public customer stories):

Tier	Certified practitioners	Joint customers in production	Public customer stories
Registered	minimum commitment of 10	not specified	not specified
Select	10 or more	2 or more	1 or more
Preferred	100 or more	15 or more	3 or more
Global Premier	1,000 or more	100 or more, across 3 or more regions	15 or more, plus a joint business plan with executive sponsors

(Source: https://www.anthropic.com/news/services-track-partner-hub)

Tier review: the next tier review is scheduled for 1 October 2026. (Source: https://claude.com/blog/four-role-based-claude-certifications, published 23 July 2026)
What counts toward tier progress: three metrics, updated daily in the Partner Hub: people actively certified who have used Claude in the last 90 days, joint customers in production over the trailing 12 months, and published customer stories. (Source: https://www.anthropic.com/news/services-track-partner-hub)
Which certifications count: Developer Foundations, Architect Foundations, and Architect Professional count toward partner-tier certified-practitioner standing; Associate does not. (Source: FAQ and Certifications page above)
What membership brings: direct financial support for training, sales enablement, and market development, with an initial commitment of 100 million USD for 2026; a partner portal with training and sales playbooks; listing in the Services Partner Directory for qualified partners; access to Applied AI Engineers for live deals, technical architects, local go-to-market support, and a Code Modernization Starter Kit; the exam discounts listed in section 3; and priority access to new certifications. (Source: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-partner-network; https://www.anthropic.com/news/services-track-partner-hub)

5. How to prepare

Start with the official material, it is free and it is what the exam is actually written against.

Anthropic Partner Academy learning path (Skilljar), described as “an introductory foundation to the Claude Partner Network and the first step toward unlocking certification”: https://anthropic.skilljar.com/page/claude-partner-network-learning-path
- Introduction to agent skills
- Building with the Claude API
- Introduction to Model Context Protocol
- Claude Code in Action
Further free courses are available in the general Anthropic Academy catalog: https://anthropic.skilljar.com/
Exam guides and their official sample questions. Each guide linked in section 2 lists the exam domains and their weighting, task statements, in-scope and out-of-scope topics, and a handful of official sample questions with explanations. Read the guide, especially the out-of-scope list, before you study anything else. We deliberately do not reproduce any sample questions here; open the PDF for the exam you are taking.

Third-party Udemy courses (not official, not reviewed by Anthropic). Ratings and enrollment change constantly; the numbers below were read directly from the course pages on 14 September 2026 and will already be out of date by the time you look.

Course	Target exam	Rating	Ratings	Enrolled	Course last updated	URL
Claude Certified Architect (CCA-F, CCAR-F) - 2026 Exam Prep	CCAR-F	4.4	2,702	26,469	08/2026	https://www.udemy.com/course/certified-claude-architect-masterclass-2026/
Claude Certified Architect Foundations: Complete Course	CCAR-F	4.6	515	5,351	09/2026	https://www.udemy.com/course/claude-certified-architect-foundations-complete-course/
Claude Certified Architect - Foundations (CCAR-F) Full Prep	CCAR-F	4.4	434	6,276	09/2026	https://www.udemy.com/course/claude-certified/
CLAUDE Certified Architect Foundations CCA-F/CCAR-F EXAMS v2	CCAR-F	4.3	260	3,755	09/2026	https://www.udemy.com/course/new-claude-certified-architect-foundations-cca-f-exams/
Claude Certified Architect Exams - 6 Complete Practice Tests	CCAR-F	4.1	61	1,239	05/2026 (predates exam guide v1.0)	https://www.udemy.com/course/claude-certified-architect-practice-tests/
Claude Certified Architect - Professional (CCAR-P) Exam Prep	CCAR-P	4.6	250	3,223	08/2026	https://www.udemy.com/course/ccar-p-exam-prep/
Claude Certified Developer Foundations (CCDV-F) Exam Guide	CCDV-F	4.5	126	1,522	09/2026	https://www.udemy.com/course/claude-certified-developer-foundations-ccdv-f-exam-guide/

No CCAO-F-specific Udemy courses were evaluated for this list. Avoid any site that advertises “real exam questions” or “exam dumps”; using leaked exam content violates the exam’s confidentiality terms and puts your certification at risk.

Community practice sets (unofficial, links only). These are third-party, not written or reviewed by Anthropic, and not verified for accuracy against the current exam guides. Use them as extra practice only, after the official guide.
- CCA Foundations practice exam by GitHub user OlivierAlter (no license stated; last updated March 2026, before exam guide v1.0): https://github.com/OlivierAlter/Claude-Certified-Architect-Foundations-Certification-Exam

6. Practice trainer

This repository also includes a small, self-contained practice trainer in the trainer/ folder (index.html plus questions.json with 170 practice questions for Architect: Foundations). It was written by Florian Steiner as a study aid and is not official Anthropic material and does not contain real exam questions. Use it online at https://produktentdecker.github.io/claude-certification-resources/trainer/, or download the repository and open trainer/index.html in any browser, which also works offline; treat every question in it as a practice item only, not a preview of what will be on your actual exam.

7. Sources

All web sources below were retrieved on 14 September 2026 unless a different retrieval date is noted.

Source	URL
Certification FAQ	https://anthropic-partners.skilljar.com/page/faq-certifications
Partner Certifications page	https://anthropic-partners.skilljar.com/page/partner-certifications
CCAR-F certification landing page	https://anthropic-partners.skilljar.com/claude-certified-architect-foundations-certification
Exam Guide, Claude Certified Architect: Foundations (CCAR-F)	https://everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542750%2FClaude+Certified+Architect+%E2%80%93+Foundations+Exam+Guide.pdf
Exam Guide, Claude Certified Architect: Professional (CCAR-P)	https://everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542810%2FClaude+Certified+Architect+%E2%80%93+Professional+Exam+Guide.pdf
Exam Guide, Claude Certified Developer: Foundations (CCDV-F)	https://everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542875%2FClaude+Certified+Developer+%E2%80%93+Foundations+Exam+Guide.pdf
Exam Guide, Claude Certified Associate: Foundations (CCAO-F)	https://everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542847%2FClaude+Certified+Associate+%E2%80%93+Foundations+Exam+Guide.pdf
Anthropic Certification Exam Policy (document dated 25 June 2026)	https://everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/instructor%2F34hhd92iyp94a0gtbr15cy5jk%2Fpublic%2F1782870704%2FAnthropic+Certification+Exam+Policy.pdf
Certification Terms and Conditions	https://everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/instructor%2F34hhd92iyp94a0gtbr15cy5jk%2Fpublic%2F1782870634%2FCertification+Terms+and+Conditions.pdf
Pearson VUE, Anthropic exam delivery page	https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/anthropic.html
“Four new role-based Claude certifications” (published 23 July 2026)	https://claude.com/blog/four-role-based-claude-certifications
“Claude Partner Network” announcement (published 12 March 2026)	https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-partner-network
“Services track and Partner Hub” (published 3 June 2026)	https://www.anthropic.com/news/services-track-partner-hub
Claude Partners overview	https://claude.com/partners
CPN application form	https://claude.com/form/cpn-partner-application
Partner Hub (existing partners)	https://partnerhub.anthropic.com/
Claude Partner Network learning path	https://anthropic.skilljar.com/page/claude-partner-network-learning-path
Anthropic Academy catalog	https://anthropic.skilljar.com/
Udemy course pages (7 courses, table in section 5)	see individual URLs in section 5
CCA Foundations practice exam by GitHub user OlivierAlter	https://github.com/OlivierAlter/Claude-Certified-Architect-Foundations-Certification-Exam

If any fact above looks wrong or out of date, check it against the linked page first; this README is a snapshot, not a live feed.