How to Pass the Claude Developer Exam (CCDV-F): A 4-Week Study Plan

About 40 hours over four weeks, weighted to the eight domains in Anthropic’s exam guide. The Claude Certified Developer: Foundations exam is 53 questions in 120 minutes, priced at 125 USD, and you need 720 on a 100 to 1,000 scale. The exam guide v1.0 took effect in July 2026.

Eligibility first. Registration is limited to people at organizations in the Claude Partner Network, through Anthropic Partner Academy, and you need a partner email address on a recognized company domain. If your company is not a partner, you cannot book it; a firm can apply at claude.com/partners, and Anthropic says membership is free. The Claude certification hub covers all four exams and the eligibility rules in one place.

The Developer exam has the most lopsided blueprint of the four. One domain is a third of the exam. Two domains together are under 6%. Plan accordingly, because studying all eight evenly wastes about a week.

CCDV-F at a glance

Certification	Claude Certified Developer: Foundations
Exam	CCDV-F: Claude Certified Developer: Foundations
Cost	$125 (USD before partner discounts; Select, Preferred and Global Premier partners get 50% off; Global Premier gets 100% off through Dec 31, 2026)
Exam length	120 minutes
Questions	53
Passing score	720 scaled (100-1,000 scale)
Delivery	Pearson VUE: online proctored (OnVUE) or at a Pearson test center; closed book; partner-only registration
Prerequisites	None beyond Claude Partner Network membership (free to join; register with a work email on a recognized partner domain; age 18+); recommended 1-5 years of software engineering and 6+ months with Claude or similar LLMs
Valid for	12 months
Renewal	Free on-time renewal: pass an open-book, unproctored online assessment on Partner Academy (extends 12 months); a lapsed certification means retaking the full exam
Retakes	Wait 14 days after the 1st fail, 30 after the 2nd, 90 after the 3rd; max 4 attempts per rolling 12 months; full fee each attempt (tier discount applies)

Checked against CCDV-F exam guide (PDF), CCDV-F purchase page, Anthropic Partner Academy: Partner certifications hub on October 8, 2026. Prices are US list prices and can change; confirm before you book.

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Before week one: two things

Download the exam guide PDF from the Partner Academy certification page. Read the six skills under Applications and Integration twice; API mechanics is only one of them, at 6.8%.

Know the weights, because this plan follows them.

Domain	Weight	Plan hours
Applications and Integration	33.1%	12
Model Selection and Optimization	16.8%	6
Agents and Workflows	14.7%	5.5
Prompt and Context Engineering	11.0%	4
Tools and MCPs	10.6%	4
Security and Safety	8.1%	3
Claude Code	3.1%	1
Eval, Testing, and Debugging	2.6%	1

That is 36.5 hours of study plus about 3 hours of practice in week 4.

Week 1: applications and integration (about 12 hours)

A third of the exam in one domain. Spend the whole first week on it, in code.

Build a small application against the Claude API from scratch: messages, system prompts, multi-turn conversation state, streaming, and error handling with retries. Know when the batch API is a better fit than real-time calls.
Add files and images as inputs. Know the request shape for each and the limits that apply.
Handle the operational side: rate limits, timeouts, idempotent retries, and logging enough to debug a bad response without logging customer data.
Cover the other five skills too: Claude application design (how instructions behave across Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai, the API and SDKs), configuration management (CLAUDE.md, settings.json, model version pinning, prompt versioning), software-engineering basics (REST, JSON, async code, version control, code review), requirements gathering, and the systems life cycle. Together they outweigh API mechanics nearly four to one.

By Friday you should be able to sketch the request and response cycle for a production chat feature without looking anything up, including what happens when the API returns an error.

Week 2: model selection and prompt engineering (about 10 hours)

Model Selection and Optimization, 6 hours: LLM fundamentals (tokens, context windows, sampling, non-determinism, extended and adaptive thinking, effort levels), the trade-off between Opus, Sonnet and Haiku on cost, latency and capability, and the levers that reduce cost without changing the model, such as prompt caching, shorter context, and batching. Run the same task across two model tiers and measure cost and latency yourself.
Prompt and Context Engineering, 4 hours: system versus user prompt, structured prompts, few-shot examples, and managing what goes into the context window as a conversation grows.

Week 3: agents, tools and MCP (about 9.5 hours)

Two domains, 25% combined, and both are about letting the model call things.

Agents and Workflows, 5.5 hours: the agentic loop, when a workflow with fixed steps beats an autonomous agent, stopping conditions, and human-in-the-loop points.
Tools and MCPs, 4 hours: define tools with JSON schemas, handle a tool call and return the result, return structured errors so the model can recover, and connect one MCP server to see how tool discovery works. Also know when a built-in tool, a custom tool, a Skill or an MCP server is the right choice; that trade-off is its own skill in the guide, at 4.1%.

Build one agent that uses two tools and stops when it should. Then break it on purpose, with a loop that does not terminate or a tool that fails silently, and work out what you would change.

Week 4: security, the two small domains, and practice (about 8 hours)

Security and Safety is 8.1%: prompt injection through tool results and documents, secrets handling, output filtering, and least privilege for tools. Three hours.

Claude Code and Eval, Testing, and Debugging are 3.1% and 2.6%. An hour each is proportionate. Know the Claude Code basics the guide names (CLAUDE.md hierarchy, settings.json, slash commands, headless mode) and how to trace an error to the integration layer or the model output, and move on.

Then 3 hours of practice: a timed 53-question set in 120 minutes, scored by domain. Anything under 70% in the top three domains is where the last hours go.

Exam day

Pearson VUE, online proctored or at a test center. Begin online check-in 30 minutes before your appointment: system test, government photo ID matching your registration name, and a room scan. Single monitor, no headphones, clear desk.

Formats are multiple choice and multiple response, and the exam is in English only.

If you fail, the waits are 14 days, then 30, then 90, with a maximum of 4 attempts in a rolling 12 months. Each retake is the full 125 USD exam fee, less your partner discount: 50% off for Select and Preferred partners, and free for Global Premier partners through December 31, 2026 (50% off after that). Need to move your slot? Reschedule or cancel with Pearson VUE at least 48 hours ahead. The credential is valid for 12 months; the on-time renewal assessment on Partner Academy is free and non-proctored, and a lapsed credential means a full retake.

Where to put a spare weekend

Applications and Integration. It is 33.1% of the exam, nearly six times the two smallest domains combined (5.7%). Do not let the eight-domain table trick you into studying it as eight equal parts.

Drill it week by week

Free CCDV-F practice questions, weighted to the official blueprint, with a plain-English explanation on every one.

Free practice questions →

Keep reading: CCDV-F study guide · Claude certification cost · All four Claude exams explained · All AI & cloud exam prep

HOW TO // AI is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. CCDV-F, Claude Certified Developer, Claude and Claude Code and Anthropic are trademarks of Anthropic PBC; we reference them descriptively. All content is original. Exam details come from Anthropic’s official CCDV-F exam guide and certification FAQ as of September 2026 and can change; check the official certification page on Anthropic Partner Academy before booking.

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Frequently asked questions

What experience does Anthropic recommend for the Claude Developer exam?

The CCDV-F exam guide recommends one to five years of software engineering, at least six months of hands-on work with Claude or a comparable LLM system, proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript, and fluency with REST APIs and CLI tools. None of it is mandatory; there are no required prerequisites or courses.

How much does the CCDV-F exam cost?

The list price is $125 USD as of September 2026. Registered-tier partners pay full price, while Select, Preferred and Global Premier partners get 50% off. Global Premier partners get 100% off through December 31, 2026, and the partner discount also applies to retakes.

Which CCDV-F domain matters most?

Applications and Integration, at 33.1% of the exam. It covers six skills, and Claude API mechanics is only 6.8% of that; application design, software-engineering foundations and configuration management carry more weight. The two smallest domains, Claude Code and Eval, Testing, and Debugging, total 5.7%.

Is the CCDV-F exam online or at a test center?

Both. Pearson VUE delivers it either online through OnVUE or at a Pearson test center. For online exams, begin check-in 30 minutes early and expect an ID check and a 360-degree room scan; the exam is in English only.