Claude Certified Architect
Claude Certified Architect
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12-week study plan

A week-by-week plan to go from zero to exam-ready.

A focused 12-week path from zero to exam-ready for the Claude Certified Architect — Foundations (CCA-F) exam. Each week pairs a course module with deliberate practice. Aim for ~4–6 hours/week.

Weeks 1–2 — Platform foundations

  • Course: Claude Platform Foundations (Module 1 The Claude API, Module 2 Capabilities & Limits).
  • Learn the Messages API, tool_use blocks, streaming, prompt caching, and the Message Batches API.
  • Practice: take the free diagnostic to find your weak domains.

Weeks 3–5 — Agentic Architecture (Domain 1, 27%)

  • Course: Agentic Architecture & Orchestration (all four modules).
  • Master the agentic loop and stop_reason, hub-and-spoke multi-agent topologies, subagent isolation, the Agent SDK, sessions, and decomposition.
  • Practice: the Domain 1 quiz; review every explanation.

Week 6 — Tools & MCP (Domain 2, 18%)

  • Course: Tool Design & MCP Integration.
  • Tool descriptions as the selection mechanism, tool_choice, structured errors, MCP fundamentals, config, and transports.
  • Practice: the Domain 2 quiz.

Weeks 7–8 — Claude Code Workflows (Domain 3, 20%)

  • Course: Claude Code Configuration & Workflows.
  • CLAUDE.md hierarchy, slash commands vs Skills, permission models, headless CI/CD.
  • Practice: the Domain 3 quiz.

Weeks 9–10 — Prompt Engineering (Domain 4, 20%)

  • Course: Prompt Engineering & Structured Output.
  • Few-shot, chain-of-thought, JSON-Schema tool use, validation-retry loops, review patterns, Message Batches.
  • Practice: the Domain 4 quiz.

Week 11 — Context & Reliability (Domain 5, 15%)

  • Course: Context Management & Reliability.
  • Lost-in-the-middle, provenance, scratchpads, token budgets, prompt caching.
  • Practice: the Domain 5 quiz.

Week 12 — Full mock exams & review

  • Read all eight scenario walkthroughs.
  • Take a full-length mock exam under timed conditions. Review the per-domain breakdown.
  • Re-take quizzes for any domain below ~70%. Skim the anti-patterns cheatsheet and flashcards the day before.

Exam day: 60 scenario questions, 120 minutes, scaled 100–1000, pass at 720. Flag-and-review; don't leave questions blank (no guessing penalty).