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CCAO-F One-Pager: Claude Certified Associate – Foundations

Unofficial summary. Every exam fact on this page comes from 16-certification-tracks/registry.yaml (verified 2026-10-24 against the official exam guide v1.0, effective July 2026) and is summarised in exam-facts.md. The official guide on the Anthropic Partner Academy is the source of truth. Pearson VUE has announced updated guides for 2026-11-17 and updated exam content from 2026-12-07, so re-check before you book. Full track: 16 · CCAO-F.

Exam format

Item Value (from the registry)
Audience Business and knowledge workers using Claude as a productivity tool; not aimed at API developers
Items 60, multiple-choice and multiple-response
Time 120 minutes
Passing Scaled score 720 on a 100–1,000 scale
Fee USD 99 (list price)
Validity 12 months
Delivery Pearson VUE, online proctored or test centre
Eligibility Organisations in the Claude Partner Network

Domains, weights and what to know

D1 · Prompting and Task Execution — 14%

  • Clear goal, context, constraints and format; say who the output is for (CCAO-F-1.1).
  • Break big requests into steps; chain outputs (CCAO-F-1.2).
  • Iterate: change one thing, compare results (CCAO-F-1.3).
  • Match the approach to the task: analysis, research, drafting, brainstorming (CCAO-F-1.4).
  • Study: 03 · Clear, direct instructions, 03 · Task decomposition.

D2 · Output Evaluation and Validation — 21% (largest domain)

  • Check accuracy and completeness against sources; never accept figures unverified (CCAO-F-2.1).
  • Recognise hallucinations: confident specifics with no source, invented citations, internal contradictions (CCAO-F-2.2).
  • Fact-check: ask for quotes, cross-check against the original, use research mode with cited sources (CCAO-F-2.3).
  • Escalate to human review for high-stakes, regulated or external-facing content (CCAO-F-2.4).
  • Edit for audience and compare alternative drafts (CCAO-F-2.5).
  • Choose the format: inline text, artifacts, tables or structured data (CCAO-F-2.6).
  • Study: 01 · Hallucinations, 05 · Artifacts and output formats.

D3 · Product and Model Selection — 12%

  • Pick the feature: chat for quick tasks, Projects for repeated work with shared knowledge, research for sourced investigation, artifacts for standalone deliverables (CCAO-F-3.1).
  • Model families: Haiku (fast, low cost), Sonnet (balanced), Opus (most capable in everyday use) (CCAO-F-3.2, 3.3).
  • Context limits: when a chat gets long, summarise and restart, or persist key facts in a Project (CCAO-F-3.4).
  • Study: 05 · Product ecosystem, cheat sheet: model selection.

D4 · Workflow Integration and Solution Design — 16%

  • Use Claude to analyse requirements and use cases (CCAO-F-4.1) and for research and planning (CCAO-F-4.2).
  • Support solution design with options and trade-offs (CCAO-F-4.3).
  • Augment or redesign a workflow; keep humans at decision points (CCAO-F-4.4).
  • Explain value and limitations honestly to stakeholders (CCAO-F-4.5).
  • Study: 13 · Business value and ROI.

D5 · Configuration and Knowledge Management — 12%

  • Projects: custom instructions plus curated knowledge files (CCAO-F-5.1).
  • Connectors (for example Google Drive, Gmail): connect only what the work needs, respect permissions (CCAO-F-5.2).
  • Write system-level instructions that are specific, stable and testable (CCAO-F-5.3).
  • Maintain: remove stale files, version instructions, review periodically (CCAO-F-5.4).
  • Study: 05 · Projects and knowledge, 05 · Connectors.

D6 · Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use — 15%

  • Appropriate vs inappropriate uses; no fully automated high-impact decisions about people without oversight (CCAO-F-6.1).
  • Data sensitivity: personal, confidential and regulated data; minimise and follow policy (CCAO-F-6.2).
  • Follow your organisation's AI policy and approved tools (CCAO-F-6.3).
  • Ethics: bias, transparency, disclosure of AI assistance (CCAO-F-6.4).
  • Study: 02 · Responsible use, 12 · AI governance.

D7 · Troubleshooting and Optimization — 10%

  • Diagnose weak outputs: missing context, vague task, wrong format, too-long conversation (CCAO-F-7.1).
  • Adjust from feedback: add examples, constraints, a rubric (CCAO-F-7.2).
  • Optimise workflows: reusable Projects, templates, smaller models for simple steps (CCAO-F-7.3).
  • Study: 24 · Prompts and outputs.

Last-week checklist

  • Can you explain when to use a Project instead of a single chat?
  • Can you list three signs of a hallucination and how to check each?
  • Can you choose between Haiku, Sonnet and Opus for a described task and justify it?
  • Can you name data you should not paste into an AI tool without approval?
  • Can you rewrite a vague prompt into goal, context, constraints and format?

Practice: 17 · CCAO-F questions, 18 · Mock exams, 23 · Flashcards.