Claude Certified Associate Foundations (CCAO-F) Practice Test
Find your weakest domain in 25 questions. Then train on 10 full-length, 120-minute exams built objective by objective from Anthropic's official exam guide.
- Questions
- 60
- Time
- 120 min
- Pass mark
- 720/ 1,000
- Exam fee
- $99
By PrepClubs Editorial Team, updated September 25, 2026. Exam facts from Anthropic's official exam guide, v1.0.
A procurement specialist wants a quick summary of the termination terms in a 40-page supplier contract before a renewal call with the supplier. Her prompt reads:
Summarize the termination clauses in the attached supplier contract. Where the contract is silent or unclear, use your knowledge of standard commercial contracts to fill the gaps. Present the result as a short bulleted list.
Which change most improves her ability to validate the summary?
- Prompting and Task Execution8
- Output Evaluation and Validation13
- Product and Model Selection7
- Workflow Integration and Solution Design10
- Configuration and Knowledge Management7
- Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use9
- Troubleshooting and Optimization6
CCAO-F at a glance
Exam facts here come from Anthropic's own exam guide, version 1.0, effective July 2026, and its Partner Academy certification FAQ. The exam is for professionals who use Claude as a daily productivity tool: prompting, checking output, choosing features and models, building Projects, and using Claude responsibly.
Who it is for
- Operations, marketing, project management, HR, education and communications professionals who use Claude at work
- Consultants who help clients find use cases and redesign processes with Claude
- People who build and maintain Claude Projects for their team
Who it is not for
- Developers who build on the Claude API, Claude Code or MCP: the Developer exam (CCDV-F) covers that work
- Specialists in machine learning or enterprise AI architecture: that scope belongs to the Architect credentials
- Credential
- Claude Certified Associate - Foundations
- Exam code
- CCAO-F
- Questions
- 60 items
- Question types
- Multiple choice and multiple response. Each multiple-response item tells you how many options to select.
- Time limit
- 120 minutes, about 2 minutes per item
- Passing score
- Scaled 720 on a 100 to 1,000 scale
- Delivery
- Proctored by Pearson VUE, online or at a test center
- Exam fee
- $99 USD per attempt. The checkout fee reflects any partner-tier discount.
- Validity
- 12 months. On-time renewal is a free, non-proctored assessment on the Anthropic Partner Academy.
- Score report
- Pass or fail, the scaled score, and percent correct by domain
- Prerequisites
- None, and no coding or API experience is needed. Anthropic recommends regular, hands-on use of Claude at work and a practical grasp of AI limits such as hallucinations, context limits and data sensitivity.
- Eligibility
- Currently open only to people at Claude Partner Network organizations. You register with a company email address and must be 18 or older.
- Language
- English only
- Register
- Pay on the Anthropic Partner Academy, then schedule with Pearson VUE
Seven domains, turned into the questions you will actually face
Anthropic publishes a weight for each domain. On a 60-item exam that means about 13 questions on Output Evaluation and Validation and about 6 on Troubleshooting and Optimization. Every PrepClubs exam is built to these counts, give or take one. Below the grid are the 30 objectives the exam items are written against.
60 squares, one per question. Tap a domain to light up its share.
What each domain asks you to do
Prompting and Task Execution
- Create effective prompts for business and technical tasks
- Apply task decomposition techniques to structure complex requests
- Iterate prompts to improve output quality
- Adapt prompting strategies to the task type: analysis, research, drafting, brainstorming
Output Evaluation and Validation
- Evaluate Claude-generated outputs for accuracy and completeness
- Identify hallucinations, inconsistencies and biases in responses
- Apply fact-checking and validation techniques
- Determine when human review or additional verification is required
- Edit, adapt, refine and compare outputs for the intended audience
- Organize and curate information and select output formats: artifacts, inline, structured data
Product and Model Selection
- Select the right Claude product features: Projects, research mode, chat, artifacts
- Differentiate between Claude model types: Haiku, Sonnet, Opus
- Align model selection with task requirements: cost, speed, quality
- Manage context limits and memory: when to restart, summarize or persist
Workflow Integration and Solution Design
- Apply Claude to analyze requirements and use cases
- Use Claude for research, planning and process optimization
- Use Claude to support solution design, development and iteration
- Integrate Claude into existing workflows to augment or redesign them
- Communicate Claude's value and limitations to stakeholders
Configuration and Knowledge Management
- Configure Claude Projects with instructions and knowledge sources
- Manage uploaded knowledge and connectors such as Google Drive and Gmail
- Create effective system-level instructions
- Maintain and update Claude configurations, knowledge sources and instructions
Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use
- Identify appropriate and inappropriate use cases
- Apply data sensitivity, regulatory and privacy considerations
- Follow organizational AI policies and governance standards
- Understand the ethical implications of AI usage
Troubleshooting and Optimization
- Identify, diagnose and resolve underperforming prompts or poor outputs
- Adjust the approach based on feedback and results
- Optimize workflows for efficiency and effectiveness
Three CCAO-F style practice questions
One single-answer scenario, one Select TWO item and one excerpt to judge, the shapes the exam uses. Answer, then check: each explanation names the Anthropic page it relies on.
A policy analyst is reviewing a batch of 40 Claude answers about regional housing data before they go into a briefing for the housing minister. She has time to fact-check only about ten statements and wants to start with the riskiest. Which TWO features of a statement are the strongest signals that it may be hallucinated?
A sales operations analyst added this line to her weekly pipeline-report prompt after an earlier report contained invented numbers: "If the data does not support a figure, write Not found in provided data." The next report includes:
Win rate, Enterprise segment: 31% Average deal cycle, Mid-market: Not found in provided data Quarter-to-date bookings, EMEA: Not found in provided data
Her manager wants a report without gaps. The missing figures are in a CRM export she saved to her laptop this morning but did not attach. What is the best adjustment?
A finance director at a manufacturing firm on the Team plan asks why the team should not simply use the most capable Claude model for everything, including high-volume invoice categorization and short internal email drafts. Budget is under review, and the firm also uses Claude for complex contract analysis. What is the best explanation?
Six Claude facts that are easy to get wrong
The exam rewards knowing how Claude actually behaves, not how it seems to. Each of these is from Anthropic's own Help Center or exam guide.
- 1
Claude cannot see a project's name or description.
Only the project's instructions and knowledge reach every chat, so a rule written in the title or description does nothing.
- 2
Turning on a connector for the organization gives nobody access by itself.
Each person still authenticates with their own account, and Claude never sees more than that person can already see in the source.
Source: Help Center: Use connectors to extend Claude's capabilities
- 3
Telling Claude "do not retain this" is not a data control.
If policy restricts personal or regulated data, remove or anonymize it before you upload. This is the reasoning behind a sample item in Anthropic's own exam guide.
- 4
Incognito chats are still retained.
They stay out of your history and memory and are not used for training, but they are kept for at least 30 days, and on Team and Enterprise plans they are included in organization exports.
Source: Help Center: Use incognito chats
- 5
Organization instructions win over your own.
When an Owner's organization instructions conflict with a user's instructions, the organization's apply; user instructions only fill the gaps.
- 6
A confident answer is not a checked answer.
Claude can state a precise-looking citation or figure that is not grounded in any source. Asking it how sure it is does not verify anything; checking the original does.
Source: Help Center: Claude is providing incorrect or misleading responses
What you get
60 questions and a 120-minute timer each, the real exam's length and pace.
600 across the paid exams plus the 25-question free diagnostic. No dumps, no recycled items.
Every exam lands within one question of the official weight for each domain.
Percent correct by domain, the same breakdown Anthropic's score report gives you.
- Select TWO items with five options, each stating how many to pick, as the real exam states the count
- Workplace scenarios and quoted excerpts: prompts, Project instructions and Claude replies to judge
- An explanation for every answer that says why each wrong option is wrong
- Every explanation ends with the Anthropic docs or Help Center page it rests on
- One-time payment, 30-day access, Money-back Guarantee*
10 exams, 600 questions, 30 days of access. No subscription, no auto-renew. Backed by our Money-back Guarantee*.
Built to fix what practice banks usually get wrong
Before writing a single question we measured the practice banks candidates already use against Anthropic's blueprint and the sample items in its guide. These are the problems we designed out.
Before release, a second reviewer answered all 625 questions blind, without our answer key, and matched every one. We also hid the questions and showed a model only the answer options: it still picked the right answer on 157 of 160 items from the two best-selling CCAO-F practice banks. We rewrote our wrong answers until the same test fell to 121 of 160, so the scenario, not the wording, decides.
Wrong options that sound right
In a weak bank the key is simply the responsible-sounding option, so you can pass it without knowing Claude. Here every wrong option is a sensible practice or a real Claude feature that fails because of one detail in the scenario: the audience, the data, the plan, or how the feature really behaves.
No answer-shape tells
Options are written to a similar length and form, words like "always" and "never" are not a giveaway, and answer positions are balanced across every exam, so the longest option is not a shortcut to the key.
Select TWO, with five options
Multiple-response items give you five options and ask for two, and say so on the item, as the real exam states the count. We score them all or nothing.
Weighted to the blueprint
Output Evaluation and Validation gets about 13 of every 60 questions; Troubleshooting and Optimization gets about 6. Your practice time goes where the points are.
Checked against current Help Center pages
Claude's features change fast. Every key was checked against Anthropic's docs and Help Center in September 2026, and a second reviewer answered every question blind before it shipped.
Excerpts you have to judge
Some items put a prompt, a Project instruction or a Claude reply in front of you and ask what is wrong, what to change or what to verify first, the skills Domain 2 tests.
How CCAO-F scoring works
The exam is criterion referenced: you are measured against a fixed standard, not against other candidates. Anthropic set the cut score of 720 on a 100 to 1,000 scale through a formal standard-setting study, so a scaled 720 is not the same thing as 72 percent correct, and Anthropic does not publish a raw-score conversion.
Your score report shows pass or fail, the scaled score, and your percent correct in each of the seven domains. Those domain percentages are there to guide your study; the pass decision rests only on the total scaled score. That is also why the weighting matters: Output Evaluation and Validation alone is about a fifth of the exam.
Multiple-response items tell you how many options to pick. Anthropic does not say whether they give partial credit, so our practice exams score them all or nothing, the stricter assumption. If you clear our exams comfortably under that rule, partial credit can only help you.
Every exam ends with a domain breakdown
- +Prompting and Task Execution88%
- -Output Evaluation and Validation62%
- -Product and Model Selection71%
- +Workflow Integration and Solution Design80%
- -Configuration and Knowledge Management57%
- +Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use89%
- +Troubleshooting and Optimization83%
Percent correct per domain, like Anthropic's own score report, plus the explanation and docs reference for each miss.
Which Claude certification is right for you?
Anthropic runs four role-based credentials. Figures are from each exam's official guide and the Partner Academy certification FAQ.
Associate
You use Claude every day for business work: drafting, research, analysis, Projects and connectors. You do not write code. This page prepares you for this exam.
Developer
You build with the Claude API, Claude Code and MCP, and ship apps and agents. The Associate guide hands this technical work to Developers and Architects.
Architect
You design production Claude systems and own the tradeoffs across teams, or lead enterprise deployments at the Professional level. PrepClubs does not offer practice for these exams.
| Associate | Developer | Architect | Architect Professional | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exam code | CCAO-F | CCDV-F | CCAR-F | CCAR-P |
| Built for | Business professionals using Claude day to day, no coding needed | Engineers shipping apps and agents on the API, Claude Code and MCP | Solution architects designing production Claude systems | Experienced architects leading enterprise deployments |
| Questions | 60 | 53 | 60 | 63 |
| Time | 120 min | 120 min | 120 min | 120 min |
| Pass mark | 720 / 1,000 | 720 / 1,000 | 720 / 1,000 | 720 / 1,000 |
| Fee | $99 | $125 | $125 | $175 |
All four are proctored by Pearson VUE and valid for 12 months. Associate tests how you use Claude; Developer and Architect test how you build with it.
How to prepare for the Claude Certified Associate Foundations exam
4-week plan
About 4 hours a week, for people who use Claude at work but not across every feature.
- Week 1
Take the free diagnostic. Read the blueprint in the exam guide and mark each of the 30 objectives you could not do today. Then practise the prompting basics: full context, a clear format, examples, and iterating on a draft.
- Week 2
Output evaluation, the biggest domain: spotting hallucinations, checking cited sources, deciding when a person must review, and choosing between inline answers, artifacts and structured data. Sit exams 1 to 3 under the timer and log every miss by domain.
- Week 3
Build a real Project with instructions and knowledge files, try a connector, and compare models on the same task. Read Anthropic's Usage Policy and the Help Center pages on data use for your plan. Sit exams 4 to 6.
- Week 4
Workflow design, troubleshooting and governance scenarios. Sit exams 7 to 10, re-read the explanation for every miss, and book your slot once two exams in a row clear 80 percent.
2-week sprint
About 8 hours a week, for daily Claude users who already work with Projects and connectors.
- Days 1 to 3
Free diagnostic, then your two weakest domains. If Output Evaluation and Validation is one of them, start there: it is about a fifth of the exam.
- Days 4 to 8
One timed exam a day (exams 1 to 5). Review every miss the same evening and open the Help Center page it points to.
- Days 9 to 12
Exams 6 to 9, then a focused pass on Select TWO items, where one wrong pick costs the whole item on our scoring.
- Days 13 to 14
Exam 10 as a dress rehearsal at your real exam time of day. Check ID, room and system requirements for online proctoring.
Pearson VUE exam-day checklist
The rules below are from sections 10 to 13 of Anthropic's exam guide. Read them before you book: a wrong ID or a phone on the desk costs you the $99 fee.
What ID do I need?
A valid, unexpired, government-issued photo ID. The name must match your registration exactly; to correct it, contact [email protected] before you schedule.
What can be on my desk?
Nothing. No notes, books, phones, smart watches, headphones, second monitors or recording devices. If testing online you must stay in view of the webcam for the whole session. Any permitted scratch paper is specified by Pearson VUE.
Can I reschedule?
Yes, up to 48 hours before your appointment, per Anthropic's current certification FAQ (the exam guide still says 24). Changes inside 48 hours forfeit the fee, and a no-show or late arrival past the permitted window also forfeits it.
What if I do not pass?
You can retake after a waiting period: 14 days after the first attempt, 30 after the second, 90 after the third. You can sit the exam up to four times in a rolling 12 months, and each attempt costs the full fee.
What do I agree to before starting?
A confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement: all exam content is Anthropic's confidential property. Disclosing it can void your result, revoke the credential and ban you from future exams. This is also why no honest prep provider sells real exam questions.
Can I get accommodations?
Yes, for documented needs. Request them through Pearson VUE and wait for approval before you schedule.
Claude Certified Associate FAQs
Can I take the Claude Certified Associate exam as an individual?
Not on your own at the moment. Anthropic's certification FAQ says certification is currently available only to organizations in the Claude Partner Network, and registration needs a partner email address on a recognized company domain; personal email addresses do not work. The usual route is through your employer.
What is the Claude Certified Associate Foundations certification?
Claude Certified Associate - Foundations (exam code CCAO-F) is Anthropic's proctored credential for professionals who use Claude as a productivity tool, in roles such as operations, marketing, project management, education and communications. It shows you can apply Claude to business tasks with minimal guidance, check its output, pick the right features and models, use it responsibly, and recognize when to hand technical work to Claude Developers and Architects.
How many questions are on the CCAO-F exam, and how long is it?
60 questions in 120 minutes, about 2 minutes per question, a mix of multiple choice and multiple response. Each multiple-response item states how many options to select.
What is the passing score for CCAO-F?
A scaled score of 720 on a 100 to 1,000 scale. The scale is set by a standard-setting study, so 720 is not the same as 72 percent correct.
How much does the Claude Certified Associate exam cost?
The exam fee is $99 USD per attempt, paid through the Anthropic Partner Academy. The fee shown at checkout reflects any discount your partner tier qualifies for, and each retake costs the full fee again.
Is the Claude certification free?
The list fee is $99 per attempt, but partner tier changes it: Anthropic's FAQ lists 50 percent off for Select, Preferred and Global Premier partners, and 100 percent off for Global Premier partners until December 31, 2026. Renewing on time is free, through a non-proctored assessment. Our 25-question diagnostic is free.
Is the Claude Certified Associate worth it?
It depends on your role. It is the one Claude credential written for people who use Claude rather than build with it, the fee is $99 or less with a partner discount, and on-time renewal is free. It is most useful if you work at a Claude Partner Network organization, help clients adopt Claude, or want to show you can use it responsibly with real business data. If you write code against the Claude API, the Developer exam is the stronger signal. The credential lasts 12 months, so plan to renew it.
How difficult is the Claude Certified Associate Foundations exam?
It needs no coding, but it is not a vocabulary test. Items describe a workplace situation with one deciding detail, such as the audience, the data involved or the plan, and ask for the best approach. Output Evaluation and Validation is the largest domain at 21 percent, so spotting hallucinations and knowing when a person must check the work matter most. Select TWO items add difficulty because you need both picks right.
How long should I study for CCAO-F?
Most regular Claude users need 2 to 4 weeks. Take the free diagnostic first: if you score well across domains, the 2-week sprint above is enough; if two or more domains are weak, use the 4-week plan.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Anthropic says no software-development or API experience is needed, and the exam is not meant for developers who build against APIs. Technical integration work is Developer and Architect territory, and recognizing when to hand work to them is part of what the exam tests.
Which Claude features should I know for the exam?
The blueprint names Projects with instructions and knowledge, research mode, chat, artifacts, connectors such as Google Drive and Gmail, and the Haiku, Sonnet and Opus model types. The guide's preparation advice adds Memory, Skills and Code Execution. Learn how each one behaves, not just what it is called.
How long is the certification valid?
12 months from the date it is awarded. On-time renewal is a free, non-proctored assessment; if it lapses you retake the full exam at the full fee.
Are these real CCAO-F exam questions?
No. Every candidate signs a non-disclosure agreement and real items are Anthropic's confidential property. Our questions are original, written from Anthropic's published blueprint, documentation and Help Center, and we never use dumps or recalled items.
What do I get if I buy the full bank?
Ten full-length timed exams of 60 questions (600 questions), each weighted to the official blueprint, with an explanation and an Anthropic docs or Help Center reference for every answer and a domain scorecard after every exam. It is $69 one time, not a subscription, with 30 days of access and our Money-back Guarantee*.
Is PrepClubs affiliated with Anthropic?
No. PrepClubs is an independent practice-test provider. Claude and Anthropic are trademarks of Anthropic, PBC, used here only to describe the exam.
* See the Money-back Guarantee terms. PrepClubs is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. Claude and Anthropic are trademarks of Anthropic, PBC.
Find your weakest domain before the exam does
25 questions across all seven domains, timed at the real exam's pace, scored by domain.