Exam logistics

Applies to all 4 Claude certification exams. Per-credential figures are read from the transcribed blueprints, v1.0, effective 2026-07. Most policy figures below are stated in those guides in prose. Two are not from the guides at all — the domain-linking window and the tier discount are Claude Partner Network facts, marked where they appear. Subject to change without notice — re-verify each exam cycle.

Link the company email domain to the partner record before anyone registers. It takes 7–10 days.

A certification earned on an unrecognized domain does not credit toward the Services Track count of active certified individuals — the whole point of sitting the exam. Certification access requires a partner email on a recognized company domain; personal addresses are rejected outright. This is a week-one action, not a week-four one: start it, then register 10 days later.

Source: Claude Partner Network material (docs/partner-status.md). Not stated in any of the four exam guides — no guide mentions domain linking, so treat the 7–10 day window as our operational estimate rather than a published figure.

Registering

  1. Open the credential’s page on the Anthropic Partner Academy.
  2. Download the exam guide; read the Certification Terms and Conditions and the Exam Policy.
  3. Register and pay. Checkout reflects any partner-tier discount — the 50% discount starts at Select, so at Registered we pay full price.
  4. Follow the confirmation email to create a Pearson VUE account and schedule.
  5. Choose online proctoring or a Pearson VUE test center.
  6. Cancel or reschedule up to 24 hours before the appointment. Inside 24 hours the fee is forfeit.

At Select the 50% discount would put CCAR-F at $63 instead of $125 — but the seats that earn Select are all bought before the discount exists.

Source: Claude Partner Network material (docs/partner-status.md). The guides never name a tier or a percentage — they say only that "the fee shown at checkout reflects any discount that applies to your partner tier", so the Select/50% specifics come from elsewhere.

Exam day — CCAR-F

Time limit 120 minutes for 60 items, plus roughly 15 minutes for check-in and the post-exam survey
Format multiple-choice and multiple-response; each item states how many responses to select
Passing score 720 on a scaled range of 100–1,000
Reporting Pass/fail with scaled score, plus percent-correct by domain
Delivery Proctored — online proctored and/or Pearson VUE test center
ID Valid, unexpired, government-issued photo ID; the name must match registration exactly
Prerequisites unstated

Phones, smart watches, headphones, secondary monitors, notes, books, and study materials are all prohibited. Stay in view of the proctor and webcam if testing online, communicate with nobody, and capture or reproduce nothing. You accept a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement before the exam begins — decline it and the session ends with no refund.

The cut score

720 is not 72%.

720 is a point on a scaled range that runs from 100 to 1,000 — it does not start at zero, so reading it as a percentage of 1,000 is arithmetic on the wrong scale. The cut was set by a formal standard-setting study and is criterion-referenced: you are measured against a fixed standard, not against other candidates and not against a percentage of items.

No practice tool can convert a percentage into a scaled score, and this one does not try. Practice runs here report percent-correct per domain and per task statement, which is a study signal — where to spend the next hour — and nothing more. Anyone who tells you “72% means you pass” is guessing.

On the real exam, section-level percentages are informational; pass/fail with scaled score, plus percent-correct by domain is what you receive, and pass/fail is decided on the scaled score alone.

If you don’t pass

Waiting periods escalate per failed attempt, and the full fee applies to every attempt.
After Wait before retry Next attempt Cumulative wait Cumulative fee
the 1st failure 14 days #2 14 days $250
the 2nd 30 days #3 44 days $375
the 3rd 90 days #4 134 days $500
  • Maximum 4 attempts per exam per rolling 12 months. The limit is per exam, so failing one does not block registering for another.
  • The full fee applies to every attempt: 4 attempts at CCAR-F’s $125 is $500.
  • Failing 3 times means at least 134 days of enforced waiting before attempt #4, on top of scheduling — which is why a booked date, not a hoped-for one, is the thing to plan around.
  • A no-show, or arriving after the late-arrival window, forfeits the fee and requires re-registration.
  • Appeals within 14 days. Standard-setting outcomes and individual item content are not appealable.

Staying certified

Credentials are valid 12 months from the award date. Renewing on time means reviewing what changed and completing a free, non-proctored assessment on the Partner Academy. Miss the window and the credential lapses — regaining it is a full proctored exam at full price ($125 for CCAR-F). If content changes significantly, Anthropic may require a full retake instead of the renewal assessment.

Tier credit needs a current credential and Claude usage in the past 90 days. Renewal is therefore not paperwork: an expired credential silently drops the count, and so does someone who moved off Claude work.

Per-credential figures, straight from the blueprints. Validity and the 720 cut score are the same across all 4.
Credential Code Items Minutes Fee Cut / scale Valid Tier credit
Architect – Foundations CCAR-F 60 120 $125 720 / 1,000 12 mo yes
Developer – Foundations CCDV-F 53 120 $125 720 / 1,000 12 mo yes
Architect – Professional CCAR-P 63 120 $175 720 / 1,000 12 mo yes
Associate – Foundations CCAO-F 60 120 $99 720 / 1,000 12 mo no

Support

All credentials CCAR-F prep