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Anthropic · Professional · CCAR-P

Claude Certified Architect - Professional

Independent practice, not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. Study from the official exam guide.

The real exam

Questions
63
Duration
120 min
Passing score
720 (100–1000)
Practice bank
145 questions

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Exam simulations, quick practice, and block-by-block study of the full bank.

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Exam domains

  • Integration
  • Solution Design & Architecture
  • Evaluation, Testing & Optimization
  • Governance, Safety & Risk Management
  • Stakeholder Communication & Lifecycle Management
  • Claude Models, Prompting & Context Engineering
  • Developer Productivity & Operational Enablement

Claude Certified Architect practice exam

The Claude Certified Architect – Professional (CCAR-P) exam is Anthropic's certification for people who design and govern Claude solutions at enterprise scale. Its questions are scenarios: a customer's requirements, constraints and risks, and a choice of approaches that could all work in a demo but not all of them in production.

Exam Ascent gives you a timed CCAR-P exam simulator and a bank of practice questions on the areas the exam covers, with an explanation for every answer option.

Try 20 questions free, no sign-up needed.

What the CCAR-P exam covers

The Professional exam is about architecture and judgment more than syntax. Expect scenarios on:

  • Solution design: choosing between prompting, retrieval, tool use and agents for a requirement, and designing for reliability, cost and latency.
  • Models, prompting and context: picking a model for the job, structuring prompts and context windows, and managing long or changing context.
  • Integration: connecting Claude to tools, data sources and existing systems, and the trade-offs between integration patterns.
  • Evaluation and optimization: building evaluations, testing changes before rollout, and improving quality and cost over time.
  • Governance, safety and risk: guardrails, data handling, access control, human oversight, and meeting an organization's risk requirements.
  • Stakeholders and lifecycle: explaining trade-offs to stakeholders, rolling solutions out, and keeping them healthy after launch.

Anthropic's exam guide is the authoritative description of the exam's scope. Check it before you book.

Exam format at a glance

  • Time: 120 minutes (plan for about 135 minutes in the seat, with check-in and a short survey)
  • Question types: multiple choice and scenario-based multiple response
  • Passing score: 720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000
  • Delivery: online proctored or at a Pearson VUE test center; closed book; English only
  • Who can take it: people at Claude Partner Network organizations, registering with their company email

How practice works here

Exam simulation. A full set of questions drawn at random from the bank and timed, with mark-for-review and a question navigator. Your score and every explanation appear once you submit.

Study mode. No timer. Check each answer as you go and read the explanation straight away. Study sessions are kept out of your exam scores.

Quick practice and blocks. A short random set of 10 or 20 questions, or the whole bank in 50-question blocks.

Explanations for every option. Each explanation says why the right answer fits the scenario and why each of the others falls short. Many wrong options here are reasonable techniques used in the wrong situation, and the explanations show the difference.

All-or-nothing scoring. A multiple-response question only counts when you pick every correct option and nothing else.

Your progress. Every attempt is kept with your best, last and average scores, and progress charts show your score and time per question across tests, so you can see whether you're getting more accurate and faster.

Keep going if your connection drops. Answers are kept on your device and saved as soon as you're back online, even if you close the tab.

Tips for CCAR-P questions

  1. Start from the requirement, not the technology. The best answer is often the simplest design that meets the stated need, not the most capable one.
  2. Look for the production concern. Questions often hinge on what happens at scale: cost, latency, failure handling, or how you'd know quality has dropped.
  3. Take governance seriously. When a scenario mentions regulated data, approvals or audit, the answer usually has to address it directly.
  4. Measure before you optimize. Answers that add an evaluation step before a change are often preferred over ones that change things blind.
  5. Practice under time. Scenario questions are long; a timed simulation shows whether your reading pace holds up for two hours.

Exam details checked against Anthropic's certification FAQ on 2026-10-19.

Frequently asked questions

How long is the Claude Certified Architect – Professional exam?

120 minutes of exam time. Anthropic suggests planning for about 135 minutes in total, including check-in and a short survey.

What's the CCAR-P passing score?

720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000. Your score report shows your scaled score, whether you passed, and your percentage correct in each section.

Who can take the CCAR-P exam?

It's open to people at Claude Partner Network organizations, who register with their company email. There's no required prerequisite: you can take Professional without the Foundations exam.

What kind of questions are on the exam?

Multiple choice and scenario-based multiple response. The exam is closed book and in English only.

How long does the certification last?

12 months from the date you earn it. Anthropic describes renewal as a free, non-proctored assessment if you renew on time.

Can I practice for free?

Yes. Try 20 questions without creating an account. Your answers are scored in your browser, and you see an explanation for each question at the end.

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