Claude Certification Program · v1.0 · Effective July 2026 · All four tracks open

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Claude Certified Developer, Foundations (CCDV-F)

An independent community resource - not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. Facts on this page are transcribed from the official exam guide and the Anthropic Partner Academy; the practice questions are written from scratch and none come from a real exam.

Claude Certified Developer, Foundations (exam code CCDV-F) is the build-focused exam in Anthropic's Claude certification program. It is for engineers who write the code that calls Claude. It is the only one of the four exams that publishes a weight for every single skill, not just for each domain, which makes it the easiest of the four to plan for.

Its domain sizes are also the most uneven in the program. One domain is a third of the exam, while two others are worth about one question each. All facts below come from the official exam guide, version 1.0 (July 2026), and from the Anthropic Partner Academy certification FAQ.

Exam at a glance

Exam code
CCDV-F
Questions
53, across eight domains. Multiple choice and multiple response. Each question says how many answers to pick.
Time limit
120 minutes. Plan for about 135 minutes in the seat, including check-in and a short survey.
Passing score
720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000
Valid for
12 months
Retakes
14 days after a first fail, 30 after a second, 90 after a third. Up to 4 attempts per rolling 12 months.
How it is delivered
Proctored. Online with a webcam, or at a Pearson VUE test center.
Prerequisites
None. The guide suggests 1 to 5 years of software engineering plus 6+ months with Claude.
Language
English only. Browser translation tools are not allowed during the exam.
Exam guide
Version 1.0, effective July 2026
Practice questions here
159, free, every answer option explained

53 questions in 120 minutes gives more than two minutes per question, the most time of any of the four exams. The exam is closed book: no notes, no documentation, no AI assistants.

Who it is for

The guide describes AI and machine learning engineers, tech leads, and senior software engineers who ship real applications built on Claude. It suggests 1 to 5 years of software engineering and at least six months of hands-on work with Claude or a similar system. It also expects good Python and/or TypeScript, comfort with REST APIs and command line tools, and a working understanding of how language models, agents, context and MCP fit together.

It rules out non-technical users, people with no hands-on development experience, and jobs that only involve writing prompts without building the wider application. For the non-coding track, see CCAO-F.

What the exam covers

Weights are the official blueprint. The last column is what this site's question bank holds for that domain, so the two can be checked against each other rather than taken on trust.
# Domain Weight ≈ questions In the bank here
2Applications and Integration33.1%~1851
5Model Selection and Optimization16.8%~927
1Agents and Workflows14.7%~824
6Prompt and Context Engineering11.0%~618
8Tools and MCPs10.6%~618
7Security and Safety8.1%~412
3Claude Code3.1%~26
4Eval, Testing, and Debugging2.6%~13
Total100%53159

Read that table twice before planning anything. “Claude Code” is 3.1% and “Eval, Testing and Debugging” is 2.6%. Together that is about three questions out of 53. They look like major subjects because they have their own names in the list. They are not. Applications and Integration on its own is worth about eighteen questions.

Weights for each skill

This is the only one of the four exams that publishes a size for each skill inside each domain. The biggest single skills are:

Skill Domain Weight
Claude Application Design28.6%
Software Engineering Foundations27.4%
Claude API Mechanics26.8%
Technical Fundamentals56.1%
Agent Construction with Claude15.3%
LLM Fundamentals55.2%
Agent Patterns and Frameworks14.9%
Prompt Engineering64.6%
Agent Architecture14.5%
Tool Implementation84.4%

Two of those have nothing to do with Claude. Software Engineering Foundations (7.4%) is REST, JSON, async code, version control, code review and refactoring. Technical Fundamentals (6.1%) is similar: SDKs that wrap REST APIs, and websockets. So close to 14% of this exam is plain software engineering skill.

A few details in the objectives are easy to miss. Agent frameworks are named directly: Strands, LangGraph and PydanticAI. Configuration management includes pinning model versions and versioning prompts. Claude Hooks appear under Security as their own 1.0% skill, described as a way to block destructive actions.

Does it count for your employer?

Yes. Anthropic's certification FAQ lists Developer Foundations as one of the three exams that count toward Claude Partner Network eligibility, together with Architect Foundations and Architect Professional. Claude Certified Associate is the one exam that does not count.

Certification adds to your company's standing in the Claude Partner Network and signals to customers that the team has built a real Claude practice. Companies can see their total number of certifications in the Partner Portal, updated weekly.

One practical rule. You must register with a work email on a domain that is recognized on your company's partner record. A certification earned on an unrecognized domain, including a subsidiary or regional domain, will not be credited to the partner account. Domain changes are made by partner-support@anthropic.com and take 7 to 10 days, so ask before you book.

Preparation checklist

1. Start here

2. Study the 8 exam domains - the sizes are very uneven

3. Hands-on practice

4. Practice tests

159 CCDV-F practice questions, free

Timed practice sets and the full 53-question simulator, weighted to the official blueprint. Every answer option carries its own explanation of why it is - or is not - correct, so a lucky guess reads the same as a wrong answer.

Open the CCDV-F question bank → Try 8 questions without an account →

The question bank is free. It asks for an account only because the quiz engine has to store answers to score them and show which domains are weak. The 8-question sample needs nothing.

Note on official practice material. The practice exam that ran on the old platform was retired when the program moved to Pearson VUE. The exam guide's sample questions are now the only official example of question style. One of the three samples turns on the choice between real-time calls and the Message Batches API, which is worth reading closely.

Registration, retakes and rules

Who can register. Certification is open only to people at Claude Partner Network organizations. Registration needs a partner work email on a recognized company domain. Personal email addresses do not work, and there is no public registration route.

Booking. Register and pay on the Partner Academy first, then use the emailed link to schedule with Pearson VUE, either online or at a test center. A registration stays valid for 5 years, so you can pay now and sit the exam later.

Price and discounts. Discounts follow your company's partner tier. Registered-tier partners pay full price. Select, Preferred and Global Premier partners get 50% off automatically at checkout. Through 31 August 2026, Global Premier partners get 100% off; after that date the standard 50% applies. Discounts also apply to retakes.

Cancelling. You can reschedule or cancel free of charge up to 24 hours before your appointment, with a full refund. Inside 24 hours, or if you do not show up, you lose the fee. Cancelling in Pearson VUE only frees the time slot; it does not issue a refund. To get money back, email certifications-support@anthropic.com.

Retake rules.

On exam day. Bring a valid, unexpired, government-issued photo ID. The name must match your registration exactly. To fix a name, email certifications-support@anthropic.com before you book. Your desk must be clear: no phone, watch, headphones, notes or second screen. Run Pearson's system test on the computer you will use. If a managed work device blocks the exam, take it at a test center instead. Ask for accommodations at least 10 days ahead. Full rules are in the certification policies.

Results and badge. You see your score on screen at the end. If you pass, Credly emails you an invitation to claim the badge, usually within minutes for online exams. Adding a personal email to your Credly profile keeps your badges if you change jobs.

Renewal. The credential lasts 12 months. Renewing on time means a short free assessment on the Partner Academy, with no proctor and no fee. If you let it lapse, you sit the full exam again at full price.

Appeals. You can appeal within 14 days of being told about a decision, or within 14 days of your exam date for a concern about a result. Appeals go to Pearson VUE. Reporting a problem with a question never counts against you, but one disputed question does not by itself change a pass or fail.

References

Help keep this current

Exam guides get reissued, scenarios get swapped, and the people who know what a sitting is actually like are the ones who just had one. This page is meant to keep changing.

Already passed? Send what was worth knowing: a weighting that felt off, a topic the guide underplays, a detail that mattered on the day. Not exam questions - sharing those breaks the agreement you signed at registration, and it would make this page worthless as preparation anyway. Everything else helps whoever sits it next.

Still preparing? What is on this page comes from the official guide and from people who have actually sat the exam, not from a scrape. If something is unclear, or you hit something the guide does not answer, ask - the answer comes back onto the page, so the next reader gets it too.

Either way: admin@termidy.com.

This page is written from the official exam guide (version 1.0, effective July 2026) and the Anthropic Partner Academy FAQ, with input from people who have taken the exam.