Claude Certified Associate – Foundations (CCAO-F): exam, passing score and practice test
Claude Certified Associate – Foundations, exam code CCAO-F, is Anthropic’s certification for everyday, practical use of Claude. Anthropic’s exam guide states 60 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions in 120 minutes, a passing score of 720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000, a $99 fee, no prerequisites, and a credential valid for 12 months.
- Exam code
- CCAO-FAnthropic exam guide v1.0, effective July 2026, checked 6 October 2026
- Questions
- 60, multiple-choice and multiple-responseEach item states how many responses to select — Anthropic exam guide
- Duration
- 120 minutesAnthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026
- Passing score
- 720 on a scale of 100–1,000Scaled score — Anthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026
- Fee
- $99 USDAnthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026
- Prerequisites
- None — no software development or API experience neededAnthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026
- Validity
- 12 months from the date the credential is awardedAnthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026
- Delivery
- Proctored, identity-verified, via Pearson Professional AssessmentsClaude Blog, 23 July 2026; exam guide: online proctored and/or test center
- Who can sit it
- Members of the Claude Partner NetworkClaude Blog: “Exams are available to members of the Claude Partner Network”
- Domains
- Output Evaluation 21% · Workflow Integration 16% · Governance & Risk 15% · Prompting 14% · Product & Model Selection 12% · Configuration & Knowledge 12% · Troubleshooting 10%Anthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026
- Practice questions here
- 1,200 across the 7 domainsCertsqill question bank
Know if you're ready for Claude Certified Associate – Foundations (CCAO-F) — before you book.
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Why you can trust these Claude Certified Associate – Foundations (CCAO-F) questions
What is the Claude Certified Associate certification?
Claude Certified Associate – Foundations, exam code CCAO-F, is the Anthropic certification that, in Anthropic’s words, validates practical, everyday use of Claude for anyone working on Claude-related projects. It is one of four Claude certifications Anthropic announced on 23 July 2026, next to Claude Certified Developer: Foundations, Claude Certified Architect: Foundations and Claude Certified Architect: Professional.
Anthropic’s exam guide writes it for people in operations, marketing, project management, education and communications who use Claude as a productivity tool, with limited to moderate technical expertise. No software development or API experience is needed. If you build on the Claude API, the Developer or Architect exams are the ones to look at.
This page covers the Associate exam only, not the Developer or Architect exams. Free Anthropic Academy courses such as Claude 101 are courses, not this proctored certification.
Source: Claude Blog — Four role-based Claude certifications (23 July 2026). Checked 6 October 2026.
Who can take the CCAO-F exam?
Anthropic states that the exams are available to members of the Claude Partner Network. That is the first thing to check before you plan: the exam is offered through the Partner Network.
Exams are proctored and identity-verified, delivered through Pearson Professional Assessments, and a pass is recorded as a digital badge through Credly by Pearson. The exam guide adds that delivery is online proctored and/or at a test center, per program policy.
Source: Claude Blog — Four role-based Claude certifications (23 July 2026). Checked 6 October 2026.
Claude certification exam: format, passing score and cost
The Associate exam has 60 questions in 120 minutes — two minutes per question. Items are multiple-choice or multiple-response, and each item states how many responses to select, so a multiple-response question tells you whether it wants two or three answers.
The passing score is 720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000. It is a scaled score, not a percentage of questions answered correctly, so 720 does not convert into a fixed number of right answers.
The exam costs $99 USD per the exam guide. The credential is valid for 12 months from the date it is awarded.
Source: Anthropic — Claude Certified Associate – Foundations Exam Guide (v1.0, PDF). Checked 6 October 2026.
CCAO-F exam domains and weighting
Anthropic’s exam guide splits the Associate content into seven weighted domains. Read the weights before you plan: output evaluation and validation carries the most at 21 per cent — checking what Claude produced matters more on this exam than writing the prompt, which carries 14.
- Output Evaluation and Validation — 21%
- Workflow Integration and Solution Design — 16%
- Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use — 15%
- Prompting and Task Execution — 14%
- Product and Model Selection — 12%
- Configuration and Knowledge Management — 12%
- Troubleshooting and Optimization — 10%
Source: Anthropic — Claude Certified Associate – Foundations Exam Guide (v1.0, PDF). Checked 6 October 2026.
Claude Certified Associate practice test
This site holds 1,200 Claude Certified Associate practice questions for CCAO-F, split across the seven domains in exactly the exam guide’s proportions — 252 on output evaluation, 120 on troubleshooting. Every question shows all options, which one is correct, and why each of the others is wrong, and the bank uses both single-answer and multiple-response items, like the exam.
You can start free: the first 20 questions here need no signup. Because 720 sits on a scaled range, no practice percentage converts into an Anthropic score — what practice shows is which of the seven domains still costs you points.
A Claude certification course from Anthropic teaches how to use Claude; practice questions show whether you can pick the right answer under exam conditions. Most candidates need both.
CCAO-F questions people ask
What is the CCAO-F exam?
CCAO-F is the exam code for Claude Certified Associate – Foundations, Anthropic’s certification for practical, everyday use of Claude. Source: Anthropic exam guide v1.0, checked 6 October 2026.
How many questions are on the Claude Certified Associate exam?
60 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions in 120 minutes. Source: Anthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026.
What is the passing score?
720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000 — a scaled score, not a percentage. Source: Anthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026.
How much does the Claude certification cost?
$99 USD for the Associate – Foundations exam. Source: Anthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026.
Who can take the exam?
Anthropic states that the exams are available to members of the Claude Partner Network. Source: Claude Blog, 23 July 2026.
How long is the certification valid?
12 months from the date the credential is awarded. Source: Anthropic exam guide, checked 6 October 2026.
Do I need coding experience?
No. The exam guide states there are no mandatory prerequisites and no software development or API experience is needed.
How many CCAO-F practice questions does Certsqill have?
1,200 across the seven exam domains, each with an explanation for every option. The first 20 are free with no signup.
Anthropic certification courses vs the certification exam
Two things are easy to mix up when you search for a Claude Anthropic certification. Anthropic Academy offers free online courses — some of which end with a certificate of completion — and Anthropic separately runs four proctored, identity-verified certification exams, of which Claude Certified Associate – Foundations is one.
A certificate of completion shows that you finished a course. The Claude Certified Associate credential shows that you passed a proctored exam of 60 questions with a scaled score of at least 720. Employers and partners will treat the two differently, so it is worth being precise about which one you hold.
Source: Anthropic Academy — course catalogue. Checked 9 October 2026.
Is there a free Claude certification course?
Yes — Anthropic Academy courses are offered free of charge. Claude 101, for example, is listed with a “Register | FREE” button: it teaches how to use Claude for everyday work tasks, covers core features, and its curriculum ends with a certificate of completion. That makes Claude 101 a good free Claude certification course to start with, and its subject matter overlaps with the everyday-use focus of the Associate exam.
What is not free is the proctored Anthropic certification exam itself: the exam guide lists the Associate – Foundations exam at $99 USD. So when you see “Anthropic certification free” or “Anthropic Claude certification free”, it describes the courses and their completion certificates, not the CCAO-F credential.
Source: Anthropic Academy — Claude 101. Checked 9 October 2026.
Claude 101 and the Anthropic certification
The Claude 101 Anthropic certification people search for is the certificate of completion at the end of that course. It is a useful first step, especially if you are new to Claude, but it is not the same as the Claude Certified Associate. After Claude 101, use the exam guide’s seven domains to see what else the exam expects — output evaluation alone is 21% of the exam.
Source: Anthropic Academy — Claude 101. Checked 9 October 2026.
Claude Code in Action: a course for developers
Claude Code in Action is another free Anthropic Academy course, aimed at developers who already use Claude Code for single prompts and want to move to longer, less supervised, team-wide workflows. If you are looking for a Claude Code in Action Anthropic certification, note that the course page does not state that it awards a certificate of completion, and it is not a proctored exam.
It also targets a different audience from CCAO-F. The Associate exam guide states that no software development or API experience is needed; if your work is building with Claude Code or the API, the Developer and Architect certifications are the closer fit.
Source: Anthropic Academy — Claude Code in Action. Checked 9 October 2026.
Using the Claude certification guide to prepare
The official Claude certification guide for this exam is Anthropic’s exam guide, version 1.0, effective July 2026. It defines the audience, the format and the seven weighted domains. Work through it domain by domain: combine a free Anthropic Academy course for the basics with practice questions that explain every option, and check your readiness score per domain before you book.
Source: Anthropic — Claude Certified Associate – Foundations Exam Guide (v1.0, PDF). Checked 6 October 2026.
More CCAO-F questions
Where can I find a Claude certification course free of charge?
Anthropic Academy offers its courses free, for example Claude 101, which ends with a certificate of completion. The proctored CCAO-F exam itself costs $99 USD.
Is the Claude Certified Associate certification free?
No. The exam guide lists the CCAO-F exam at $99 USD. Anthropic Academy courses such as Claude 101 are free.
Does Claude 101 give me a certificate?
Yes, a certificate of completion is the final item in the Claude 101 curriculum. It is not the proctored Claude Certified Associate credential. Source: Anthropic Academy, checked 9 October 2026.
Which Anthropic certification courses are there?
Anthropic Academy lists courses including Claude 101, Claude Code 101, Claude Platform 101, Claude Code in Action, Building with the Claude API, Introduction to Model Context Protocol and a series of AI Fluency courses. Source: Anthropic Academy, checked 9 October 2026.
