CCA-F Study Plan

A structured, week-by-week guide to prepare for the Claude Certified Architect Foundations exam.

Unofficial study plan

This site's exam content has not been reviewed by Anthropic. Use official materials as final authority.

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Study Tips

  • Read the official exam guide first to understand the scope and structure
  • Focus heavily on anti-patterns, the exam tests what NOT to do
  • Build real projects alongside studying to cement concepts
  • Review wrong answers deeply; understand the 'why' not just the 'what'
  • Simulate real exam conditions for practice tests, 120 minutes, no interruptions
  • Focus study time proportional to domain weight (Claude Code 20%, Agentic 15%, etc.)

Week 1: Agentic Loops & Core API

  • Study stop_reason as the sole termination signal in the agentic loop
  • Build a minimal agentic loop from scratch using the Messages API
  • Identify and understand anti-patterns: missing stop_reason checks, blocking tool_use, hardcoded turn limits
  • Configure sampling parameters (temperature, max_tokens, top_p) correctly

Week 2: Multi-Agent Orchestration

  • Learn hub-and-spoke architecture for delegating subtasks to specialized agents
  • Master the Task tool for agent-to-agent handoffs and parallel subtask execution
  • Understand fork_session for spawning parallel sub-agents and merging results
  • Study orchestration patterns: sequential, parallel, supervisor, and swarm

Week 3: Hooks, Workflows & Sessions

  • Implement PostToolUse and PreToolUse hooks to intercept and modify tool calls
  • Use programmatic enforcement hooks to validate tool inputs and outputs
  • Master session management with --resume flag and session ID persistence
  • Design workflow state machines with transitions, guards, and error handlers

Week 4: Tool Design & MCP

  • Write clear, unambiguous tool descriptions that guide Claude's tool selection
  • Design structured error responses for tools (typed errors with machine-readable codes)
  • Follow the 4-5 tools per agent guideline, avoid tool overload and underspecification
  • Configure .mcp.json for local and remote MCP server connections
Related Resources
98 Structured LessonsCovering all 5 official CCA-F exam domains803 Practice Questions12 domain + unlimited weighted mock examsExam BlueprintDomain weights, question types, strategy25 Video TutorialsCurated Claude AI learning videos

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