CCAO-F is the entry point of Anthropic's certification program, and it is written for people who use Claude to get work done rather than people who build on the API. The guide is explicit that no coding and no API experience is expected, and that anything more technical belongs to the developer and architect credentials.
The weighting tells you where the paper sits. Output Evaluation and Validation is the largest domain at 21%, ahead of Prompting at 14%. The exam cares more about whether you can catch a fabricated citation than whether you can write a clever prompt.
Most items are a short scenario with a decision in it. Several options would work. One meets the constraint the scenario stated, whether that constraint is cost, speed, a data policy, or a reviewer waiting downstream.
The product surface moves fast, which is what older material gets wrong. These tests are written against the exam guide dated July 2026 and the Claude product as it stands, including the current model lineup and which features each plan tier reaches.
What the tests cover
- Prompting and task execution: structure prompts, decompose complex requests, and iterate on what comes back
- Output evaluation and validation: catch hallucinations, inconsistencies and bias, and decide when human review is required
- Product and model selection: choose between Projects, research mode, chat and artifacts, and match a model to cost, speed and quality
- Workflow integration and solution design: apply Claude to real processes and explain its value and limits to stakeholders
- Configuration and knowledge management: set up Projects with instructions, knowledge sources and connectors, and keep them current
- Governance, risk and responsible use: data sensitivity, organizational AI policy, and where the appropriate-use line sits
- Troubleshooting and optimization: diagnose a prompt or workflow that is underperforming and fix it
What learners say
4.3
★★★★★47 reviews
The explanations name why each wrong option is wrong, which is the part I actually learned from.
The governance items are the closest to the real thing. Data sensitivity questions where the policy is stated in the scenario and three of the four options quietly ignore it. That is how the exam frames them.
Good prep.
Two hours for sixty questions is generous once you have practised at that pace here.
Asked before buying
How many questions are on the CCAO-F exam?
Around 60. The exact number moves between sittings, because the vendor does not publish a fixed count and mixes the formats differently from one form to the next.
How long is the CCAO-F exam?
2 hours. Book more than that: the seat time includes the agreement, the instructions and the survey at the end.
Who is CCAO-F for, and how is it different from the developer and architect exams?
CCAO-F is the non-technical entry point. It covers using Claude well in everyday business work: prompting, judging what came back, picking features and models, configuring Projects, and applying policy. The developer credential covers building against the API, and the architect credentials cover designing agent systems at scale. The guide says outright that nothing on this exam asks you to write code, and that more technical work is escalated to those roles.
Are these the real CCAO-F exam questions?
No. Every candidate accepts a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement before the exam starts, so anywhere selling real items is selling something that can void a credential. Every question here is written from scratch against the published blueprint, in the formats the real exam uses.
What question formats should I expect?
Single answer and multiple response only. The exam guide states that items are multiple-choice and multiple-response and that each item tells you how many answers to select. There are no hotspots, drag and drop sequences or simulations on this paper, so these tests do not invent any.
How long does the credential last, and what happens if it lapses?
Twelve months from the date it is awarded. To renew on time you review what has changed and complete a free, non-proctored assessment on the Anthropic Partner Academy. If it lapses you retake the full exam at the full fee. Anthropic can also require a full retake instead of the renewal assessment when exam content has changed a lot.