A Vizuara Live Cohort · Batch 01

Become a Claude Certified Architect.

A 4-day live workshop engineered around the official Claude Certified Architect – Foundations (CCAF) exam guide — agentic architecture, MCP tool design, Claude Code workflows, structured output, and context engineering. Taught scenario-first, the way the exam actually tests you.

Jul 27–30, 2026 · Mon–Thu 7:00–9:00 AM IST · Live on Zoom Recordings included Full mock exam Certificate by Vizuara
Enroll now — ₹45,000 View curriculum ↓

Independent exam-prep training by Vizuara AI Labs. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic. Who can take the official exam? →

CCAF PREP · VIZUARA TRAINING · CCAF PREP · VIZUARA TRAINING · FOUNDATIONS Claude Certified Architect 4-Day Exam Prep Workshop · Vizuara AI Labs
Train for the credential that validates production Claude skills
01 · The Certification

Anthropic's first professional certification. Here's exactly what it tests.

The Claude Certified Architect – Foundations exam validates that you can make informed architectural tradeoffs when building production systems with Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, the Claude API, and MCP. Every question is scenario-based — real production contexts, four plausible answers, one correct call.

60
Questions
120
Minutes
720
Pass score /1000
$125
Exam fee
5
Content domains
12mo
Validity
1

Agentic Architecture & Orchestration

Agentic loops, coordinator–subagent patterns, hooks, task decomposition, session state & forking.

27% of exam
2

Tool Design & MCP Integration

Tool descriptions that route correctly, structured errors, tool distribution, .mcp.json scoping, built-in tools.

18% of exam
3

Claude Code Configuration & Workflows

CLAUDE.md hierarchy, rules & skills, slash commands, plan mode vs direct execution, CI/CD integration.

20% of exam
4

Prompt Engineering & Structured Output

Explicit criteria, few-shot design, JSON schemas via tool_use, validation-retry loops, batch strategies.

20% of exam
5

Context Management & Reliability

Long-context strategies, escalation patterns, error propagation, human review, provenance.

15% of exam
Eligibility heads-up: the official CCAF exam is currently available only to members of the Anthropic Partner Network (free for organizations to join; Anthropic has signaled broader general availability). This workshop is open to everyone — you'll be exam-ready the day it opens up for you. Details in the FAQ.
02 · Curriculum

Four mornings. Five domains. One credential.

Every session runs live from 7:00–9:00 AM IST and maps directly onto the official exam guide (v0.2, June 2026) — including its six exam scenarios and all twenty preparation exercises. Recordings go up the same day.

DAY 01Mon, July 27 · 7:00–9:00 AM IST

The Claude Platform, Prompt Engineering & Structured Output

How the exam thinks: scenario anatomy, then Domain 4 end-to-end — the fastest domain to secure points in.

Topics

  • The CCAF landscape: scenarios, scoring, and how distractors are engineered
  • The agentic loop: stop_reason ("tool_use" vs "end_turn"), tool results in context
  • Prompts with explicit criteria — why "be conservative" fails and categorical rules win
  • Few-shot design for ambiguous cases, false-positive reduction, format consistency
  • Guaranteed structured output: tool_use + JSON schemas, tool_choice (auto / any / forced)
  • Nullable fields vs hallucinated values; enum + "other"-detail resilient schemas
  • Validation-retry loops, and the Message Batches API (50% savings, 24-hour window)

Live Lab

Structured Data Extraction Pipeline

Build the exam guide's Exercise 3: extraction tool with resilient schema, validation-retry with error feedback, and a batch-vs-realtime routing decision.

Exam scenarios covered

Structured Data ExtractionDomain 4 · 20%
DAY 02Tue, July 28 · 7:00–9:00 AM IST

Agentic Architecture & Orchestration with the Agent SDK

The heaviest domain on the exam (27%) — coordinator patterns, hooks, and multi-agent systems, taught through failure modes.

Topics

  • Hub-and-spoke coordination: task decomposition, delegation, result aggregation
  • Subagent context isolation — why findings must be passed explicitly in prompts
  • Parallel subagents via multiple Task calls in a single response
  • Hooks (PostToolUse, interception) for deterministic compliance vs prompt-based guidance
  • Prompt chaining vs dynamic decomposition; avoiding narrow-decomposition failures
  • Session management: --resume, fork_session, stale-context tradeoffs
  • Escalation & handoff protocols with structured summaries

Live Lab

Multi-Agent Research Pipeline

Build a coordinator with web-search and analysis subagents: parallel spawning, structured claim–source outputs, error propagation with partial results, and a refinement loop.

Exam scenarios covered

Customer Support AgentMulti-Agent ResearchDomain 1 · 27%
DAY 03Wed, July 29 · 7:00–9:00 AM IST

Tool Design & MCP Integration

Tools are how Claude touches your systems. Descriptions, contracts, errors, and MCP configuration — the 18% that separates architects from prompt-writers.

Topics

  • Tool descriptions as the routing mechanism: inputs, edge cases, boundaries, when-to-use
  • Splitting overloaded tools; renaming to kill functional overlap
  • Structured MCP errors: isError, errorCategory, isRetryable — transient vs business vs permission
  • Tool distribution: why 18 tools per agent fails and scoped access wins
  • MCP scoping: project .mcp.json vs user ~/.claude.json, env-var expansion for secrets
  • MCP resources for content catalogs; community servers vs custom builds
  • Built-in tools mastery: Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob selection criteria

Live Lab

Design & Break MCP Tools

Write tool descriptions that route correctly under ambiguous requests, add structured error responses, then adversarially test selection reliability — Exercise 1 from the guide.

Exam scenarios covered

Developer ProductivityDomain 2 · 18%
DAY 04Thu, July 30 · 7:00–9:00 AM IST

Claude Code, Context Engineering & the Mock Exam

Domains 3 + 5, then we simulate the real thing: a timed mock exam with scenario-by-scenario debrief and your personal readiness map.

Topics

  • CLAUDE.md hierarchy (user / project / directory), @imports, .claude/rules/ with glob scoping
  • Skills & slash commands: context: fork, allowed-tools, argument-hint
  • Plan mode vs direct execution; the Explore subagent for verbose discovery
  • CI/CD: claude -p, --output-format json, --json-schema, independent review instances
  • Context reliability: lost-in-the-middle, case-facts blocks, scratchpads, /compact
  • Escalation calibration, error propagation, confidence scoring & human review routing
  • Exam strategy: time budgeting, distractor elimination, the "proportionate first response" heuristic

Live Lab + Mock Exam

Timed 60-Question Mock Exam

Full 120-minute simulation in real exam format, scored on the 100–1,000 scale, followed by a domain-level gap analysis and a personalized 2-week study plan.

Exam scenarios covered

Claude Code · CIDomain 3 · 20%Domain 5 · 15%
03 · The Resource Stack

We teach on top of the official material — and the best of the community.

Everything below is bundled into the workshop as curated readings and drills, so you never wonder what to study next.

Official · Anthropic Academy

Skilljar Training Courses

Free courses that map to the exam: Claude Platform 101, Building with the Claude API, Intro & Advanced MCP, Claude Code in Action, Subagents, and Agent Skills.

anthropic.skilljar.com → Official · Code

Anthropic Cookbook

Runnable notebooks for tool use, structured output, agent patterns, and RAG — the code behind half the exam's scenarios. We drill selected notebooks in the labs.

github.com/anthropics → Official · Exam Guide

CCAF Exam Guide (v0.2)

The authoritative outline: 5 domains, 33 task statements, 6 scenarios, sample questions, and 20 preparation exercises. Our curriculum is built directly on it.

anthropic.com → Community · Practice

CyberSkill Mock Exam

Free unofficial 60-question mock with 120-minute timer, 1,000-point scaled scoring, per-question explanations, and single-domain drills.

ccaf.cyberskill.world → Community · 3.2k ★

Community Study Guide

The most-starred CCAF repo: study guides in 13 languages (PDF/EPUB), HTML practice scenarios, and links to all 13 free Anthropic Academy courses.

github.com/paullarionov → Community · Field Reports

r/ClaudeAI Pass Postmortems

First-person exam debriefs — what tripped people up, what "scenario-style" really means, and why builders who ship real systems pass at ~80% on the first try.

reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI →
04 · For Enterprises

Certify your whole team. We'll handle the path.

The CCAF exam is currently gated behind the Anthropic Partner Network — which makes it an enterprise play. We run private cohorts for engineering teams and help your organization get exam-eligible.

✳

Private team cohorts

The same 4-day curriculum delivered exclusively for your engineers, scheduled in your timezone, with labs adapted to your production stack and internal use cases.

✳

Partner Network guidance

We walk your org through the Anthropic Partner Network application — the current gateway to CCAF exam eligibility — so seats are ready when your team is.

✳

Readiness benchmarking

Pre- and post-workshop mock scores per engineer, domain-level gap maps, and a manager report on who's exam-ready and who needs another two weeks.

✳

Procurement-friendly

GST invoices, purchase orders, and bulk-seat pricing. NDAs and vendor onboarding handled without drama.

Talk to us about an enterprise cohort →

Enterprise engagements are scoped and priced separately — write to hello@vizuara.com

05 · Pricing

One plan. Everything included.

BATCH 01
4-Day Live Workshop
₹45,000 / seat

July 27–30, 2026 · 7:00–9:00 AM IST · Live on Zoom

  • 4 live sessions (8 hours) mapped to all 5 CCAF exam domains
  • Recordings of every session — lifetime access
  • 4 hands-on labs built from the official preparation exercises
  • Full timed 60-question mock exam with scaled scoring & debrief
  • Curated resource stack: official guides, cookbook drills, community mocks
  • Private cohort community with instructor Q&A
  • Certificate of completion issued by Vizuara
Enroll now — ₹45,000

Note: the certificate is issued by Vizuara AI Labs and is not the official Anthropic CCAF credential. The workshop prepares you to earn that credential.

Enterprise

Teams & partner orgs

Enterprises need to reach out to us separately — private cohorts are scoped and priced per engagement.

  • Private delivery for your engineering org
  • Partner Network application guidance
  • Team readiness reports & gap maps
  • Bulk seats, GST invoicing, PO support
Contact us →
Dr. Raj Dandekar
06 · Your Instructor

Dr. Raj Dandekar

PhD, MIT · Founder, Vizuara AI Labs

Raj builds AI-powered developer tools and agentic systems at Vizuara, and has taught live cohorts on modern software development, LLM inference engineering, and voice agents to thousands of engineers.

This workshop distills months of building production Claude systems — multi-agent pipelines, MCP integrations, and Claude Code CI workflows — into the exact judgment calls the CCAF exam tests: not what the features are, but when and why to reach for each one.

07 · FAQ

Questions, answered straight.

Is this the official Anthropic certification or course?
No. This is an independent exam-preparation workshop created by Vizuara AI Labs. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic. The certificate you receive on completion is issued by Vizuara — it is not the Claude Certified Architect credential. The official credential is earned only by passing Anthropic's proctored exam.
Can anyone take the official CCAF exam? (Important — read this)
Not yet. The certification is not available to everyone: the exam is currently offered through the Anthropic Partner Network, so you (or your employer) generally need to belong to a partner organization to book a seat ($125, online proctored or test center). The Partner Network is free for organizations to apply to, and Anthropic has signaled plans for broader general availability. Our position: get exam-ready now — preparation takes weeks, eligibility can arrive overnight. Enterprise teams can use our Partner Network guidance.
Do I need to be in a partner company to join this workshop?
No — the workshop is open to everyone. You'll leave fully prepared for the exam, with a scored mock and a personal readiness map, so you can book the real exam the moment you're eligible.
What are the timings? What if I miss a session?
Live sessions run 7:00–9:00 AM IST, Monday July 27 to Thursday July 30, 2026. Every session is recorded and uploaded the same day, with lifetime access — miss a morning, catch up by evening.
What are the prerequisites?
Comfort with Python or TypeScript and some exposure to LLM APIs. Anthropic recommends ~6 months of hands-on Claude experience for the exam; the workshop compresses that learning curve with scenario drills, but you should be a working developer. Day 1 starts from the platform fundamentals.
Is there a mock test and a certificate?
Yes to both. Day 4 ends with a full timed 60-question mock exam in the real format (120 minutes, 100–1,000 scaled score, 720 to pass) plus a domain-level debrief. Completing the workshop earns you a Vizuara certificate of completion — clearly branded as Vizuara's, not Anthropic's.
How hard is the real exam?
Community pass reports put experienced builders at roughly an 80% first-attempt pass rate, while people who skipped hands-on building fail far more often. Questions are "your system fails because Y — what's the right fix?" style, not definitions. That's why every workshop day pairs concepts with a live lab.
What's the refund policy?
Full refund up to 7 days before the cohort starts. After the cohort begins, we don't offer refunds — but you keep lifetime access to recordings and materials, and you can transfer your seat to a future batch once, free.
Batch 01 · Limited seats

Four mornings from now, you'll think like a Claude architect.

July 27–30, 2026 · 7:00–9:00 AM IST · Live + recorded · Mock exam + Vizuara certificate included.

Enroll now — ₹45,000