Anthropic's Claude Certified Architect - Foundations (CCAR-F) and Claude Certified Developer - Foundations (CCDV-F) share a fee, a passing score and a validity period. They differ in audience, item count and blueprint: five domains for CCAR-F, eight for CCDV-F.
The short answer
Take the CCAR-F if your work is designing Claude-based systems and weighing tradeoffs across Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, the Claude API and the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Take the CCDV-F if your work is building, integrating and shipping Claude applications, agents and workflows in code. Anthropic's guides describe the first audience as solution architects and the second as AI and machine learning engineers, technical leads and senior software engineers.
The CCDV-F guide states that there are no mandatory prerequisites or courses and that the credential is awarded on exam performance alone.
Exam details side by side
| Item | CCAR-F | CCDV-F |
|---|---|---|
| Number of items | 60 | 53 |
| Item format | Multiple-choice and multiple-response; each item states how many responses to select | Multiple-choice and multiple-response; each item states how many responses to select |
| Structure | 4 scenarios, drawn from a bank of 6 | Domain-based blueprint, 8 domains |
| Time limit | 120 minutes | 120 minutes |
| Passing score | Scaled score of 720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000 | Scaled score of 720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000 |
| Exam fee | $125 USD | $125 USD |
| Delivery | Proctored, online or at a Pearson VUE test center | Proctored, online and/or at a test center |
| Validity | 12 months from the date the credential is awarded | 12 months from the date the credential is awarded |
| Score report | Pass or fail, scaled score, percent correct by domain | Pass or fail, scaled score, percent correct by domain |
Source: the CCAR-F and CCDV-F exam guides, both version 1.0, effective July 2026. Anthropic notes that the guides are subject to change without notice.
Who each exam is for
CCAR-F. The guide describes the ideal candidate as a solution architect who designs and implements production applications with Claude. The experience it lists includes building agentic applications with the Claude Agent SDK, configuring Claude Code for team workflows, designing MCP tool and resource interfaces, engineering prompts that produce reliable structured output, managing context windows, integrating Claude into CI/CD pipelines and making escalation and reliability decisions. It describes typical candidates as having six or more months of practical experience with the Claude API, Agent SDK, Claude Code and MCP.
CCDV-F. The guide describes technical professionals who build, integrate and ship production-grade AI solutions: AI and machine learning engineers, technical leads and senior software engineers. It recommends one to five years of software engineering experience, at least six months of hands-on experience with Claude or comparable LLM systems, proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript, and fluency with REST APIs and CLI tools. The guide states that the certification is not intended for non-technical or casual users, for people without hands-on software development experience, or for roles limited to prompt writing.
Blueprint comparison
The two blueprints are organized differently, so the domains do not line up one to one.
| CCAR-F domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Agentic Architecture & Orchestration | 27% |
| Tool Design & MCP Integration | 18% |
| Claude Code Configuration & Workflows | 20% |
| Prompt Engineering & Structured Output | 20% |
| Context Management & Reliability | 15% |
| CCDV-F domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Agents and Workflows | 14.7% |
| Applications and Integration | 33.1% |
| Claude Code | 3.1% |
| Eval, Testing, and Debugging | 2.6% |
| Model Selection and Optimization | 16.8% |
| Prompt and Context Engineering | 11.0% |
| Security and Safety | 8.1% |
| Tools and MCPs | 10.6% |
Where they overlap
Both blueprints cover agents and orchestration, tools and MCP, Claude Code and prompt engineering. CCAR-F gives Claude Code configuration and workflows 20% of the exam, while CCDV-F gives Claude Code 3.1%. CCAR-F puts 27% on agentic architecture and orchestration, where CCDV-F puts 14.7% on agents and workflows.
Where they differ
- CCDV-F only: model selection and optimization (16.8%), evals, testing and debugging (2.6%), and security and safety (8.1%) are separate domains. The CCDV-F guide lists selecting model tiers, managing tokens, caching and batch processing, designing and running evals, and implementing guardrails through hooks.
- CCAR-F only: context management and reliability is its own domain (15%), and every question sits inside one of six production scenarios: a customer support resolution agent, code generation with Claude Code, a multi-agent research system, developer productivity with Claude, Claude Code for continuous integration and structured data extraction. Each sitting presents four of the six at random.
- Largest domain: Applications and Integration is the largest CCDV-F domain at 33.1%. Agentic Architecture & Orchestration is the largest CCAR-F domain at 27%.
Fees, retakes and renewal
The two exams follow the same policies in the guides:
- Fee: $125 USD per attempt.
- Retakes: a 14-day wait after the first failed attempt, 30 days after the second and 90 days after the third, with up to four attempts in a rolling twelve-month period. The fee applies to each attempt, and limits apply per exam.
- Renewal: on-time renewal is a free, non-proctored assessment on the Anthropic Partner Academy. If a credential lapses, you retake the full exam at the full fee. If exam content changes significantly, Anthropic may require holders to retake the full exam instead.
- Scheduling: registration runs through the Anthropic Partner Academy and Pearson VUE, and you can cancel or reschedule up to 24 hours before your appointment.
Which exam first?
Use the audience descriptions and the blueprints:
- Choose CCAR-F when the work in front of you is architecture: orchestration patterns, tool and MCP interface design, Claude Code configuration for a team, structured output and context management.
- Choose CCDV-F when the work is application code: API integration, streaming and error handling, evals, model tiers and cost controls, and guardrails.
- Choose both when your role covers both. Because the credentials are valid for 12 months, plan renewal for each one separately.
Practice both exams
CertCompanion has a full question bank for each exam, with explanations for every answer:
- CCAR-F practice exam and the CCAR-F free practice test post
- CCDV-F practice exam and the CCDV-F free practice test post
Browse every Anthropic certification practice exam to compare the other tracks.
Start with the CCAR-F or CCDV-F practice questions, matching the exam to your role.