claude-architect-exam-guide

 Community study guide for the Claude Certified Architect 。

Claude Certified Architect - Foundations: Exam Preparation Guide

A comprehensive study guide for developers and solution architects preparing for the Claude Certified Architect - Foundations certification exam.

Who Is This For?

This guide is designed for developers and solution architects who are new to the LLM space and want to build a solid foundation for the certification. If you have experience building LLM applications, it also serves as a focused review of the nuances the exam emphasizes.

What Does It Cover?

The guide covers interconnected knowledge areas:

1. API fundamentals and output control - stateless requests, tool choice, structured outputs, response prefill
2. Designing tool interfaces for LLM agents - parameter design, structured output, tool composition, confirmation flows
3. Error handling in agent tools - transient vs. permanent errors, structured error responses, uncertain state, MCP error patterns
4. Structured data extraction and validation - schemas, nullability, semantic validation, provenance, human review
5. Conversation context management - progressive summarization, state objects, retrieval, stale data handling
6. System prompt engineering - structure, principles vs. conditionals, dilution, few-shot examples
7. Model Context Protocol (MCP) - tools, resources, prompts, trust model, tool descriptions, configuration scopes
8. Agentic patterns and multi-agent workflows - prompt chaining, routing, orchestrator-workers, subagents, provenance
9. Customer service workflow design - escalation, compliance enforcement, graceful degradation, handoff design
10. Claude Code and Agent SDK workflows - built-in tools, plan mode, sessions, memory, slash commands, hooks
11. Evaluation, feedback loops, and batch processing - validation, false-positive reduction, Message Batches, cost/latency trade-offs

Each section includes:

• What to Know - core concepts explained as teaching material
• Common Pitfalls - misconceptions and subtle distinctions

Plus a Study Strategy, Quick Reference Cheat Sheet, and Recommended Reading & Resources with links to official documentation.

Read the Guide

exam-preparation-guide.md

Downloads

PDF and EPUB versions are published from tagged releases. See the repository's GitHub Releases for downloadable study booklet formats.

Building the Booklet

Release assets are generated from exam-preparation-guide.md with Pandoc. The Markdown file remains the source of truth, while the files in publishing/ provide booklet metadata, front matter, PDF styling, EPUB styling, and the cover image.

To build locally:

./scripts/build-release-assets.sh

The script writes generated files to dist/. EPUB generation requires Pandoc. PDF generation also requires xelatex. If rsvg-convert is available, the EPUB cover is converted to PNG for broader reader compatibility.

For local test builds, the generated title pages use Version: dev. Tagged releases use the tag name automatically. You can override the displayed version with:

RELEASE_VERSION=v1.0.0 ./scripts/build-release-assets.sh

from https://github.com/daronyondem/claude-architect-exam-guide