Anthropic offers four Claude certifications. The two most people ask about are CCAR-F (Claude Certified Architect – Foundations) and CCAO-F (Claude Certified Associate – Foundations). They cover the same platform but are built for different people.
| CCAR-F — Architect | CCAO-F — Associate | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it's for | Developers, engineers, solution architects | Business and operations roles, leaders, non-technical teams |
| Coding required | Yes — you design and implement with the API, Claude Code and MCP | No |
| Questions | 60 | 60 |
| Time / pass mark | 120 min · 720/1,000 | 120 min · 720/1,000 |
| Exam fee | US$125 | US$99 |
| Biggest domain | Agentic Architecture & Orchestration (27%) | Output Evaluation & Validation (21%) |
| Study guide | CCAR-F guide | CCAO-F guide |
| Our workshop | 2 days, 6 labs | 2 days, 10 modules |
The other two certifications
There are also CCDV-F (Developer, US$125, 53 questions) for engineers building and shipping applications and agents on Claude, and CCAR-P (Architect – Professional, US$175, 63 questions) for experienced architects leading enterprise deployments. See all four compared.
Still not sure?
A simple rule of thumb: if your day-to-day work involves writing code, integrating APIs or building software, take CCAR-F. If your work is about decisions, communication and getting more from AI as a tool, take CCAO-F. Some companies send technical staff through CCAR-F and leadership through CCAO-F or the invitation-only AI Forward CXO Program.