Volume I Chapter CCA-F foundational tier

Claude Certified Architect

Editor's note — A study companion for the Claude Certified Architect exam — every domain rebuilt from scratch, with worked practice questions and an exam-grade timed simulation.

60 questions 120 minutes threshold 720/1000 5 domains official guide

begin — Practice Twenty questions, untimed, with full explanations after every answer. begin — Mock Examination 60 questions in 120:00, timed, scored.

5 domains · 30 topics

I. Agentic Architecture And Orchestration 27% weight

Agentic Loops for Autonomous Task Execution Multi-Agent Orchestration with Coordinator-Subagent Patterns Subagent Invocation, Context Passing, and Spawning Multi-Step Workflows with Enforcement and Handoff Patterns Agent SDK Hooks for Tool Call Interception and Data Normalization Task Decomposition Strategies for Complex Workflows Session State, Resumption, and Forking

II. Tool Design And Mcp Integration 18% weight

Effective Tool Interface Design with Clear Descriptions and Boundaries Structured Error Responses for MCP Tools Tool Distribution Across Agents and Tool Choice Configuration MCP Server Integration into Claude Code and Agent Workflows Selecting and Applying Built-In Tools Effectively

III. Claude Code Configuration And Workflows 20% weight

CLAUDE.md Files — Hierarchy, Scoping, and Modular Organization Custom Slash Commands and Skills Path-Specific Rules for Conditional Convention Loading Plan Mode vs Direct Execution Iterative Refinement Techniques for Progressive Improvement Integrating Claude Code into CI/CD Pipelines

IV. Prompt Engineering And Structured Output 20% weight

Prompt Design with Explicit Criteria for Precision Few-Shot Prompting for Output Consistency and Quality Structured Output via Tool Use and JSON Schemas Validation, Retry, and Feedback Loops for Extraction Quality Efficient Batch Processing Strategies Multi-Instance and Multi-Pass Review Architectures

V. Context Management And Reliability 15% weight

Managing Conversation Context Across Long Interactions Effective Escalation and Ambiguity Resolution Patterns Error Propagation Strategies Across Multi-Agent Systems Context Management in Large Codebase Exploration Human Review Workflows and Confidence Calibration Information Provenance and Uncertainty in Multi-Source Synthesis