How to use this

This page is hours, not weeks. Every course below carries the Academy's own time estimate, every track carries its total, and how you spread those hours across a calendar is your business - an evening a week and a free Saturday reach the same place, just not on the same date.

The order matters more than the pace. Pick the credential, read its guide, learn the products properly, drill the bundle for that one exam, then sit it. Skipping the first two is what produces someone who has finished nine courses and still picked the wrong exam.

If you arrived from Learn Claude, you already have the catalog - this page turns it into a plan for one exam. Buying, booking, and the exam itself come after, on the certification page.

Check eligibility before you spend an hour on anything. The four exams are open only to organizations in the Claude Partner Network, and registration expects a company email tied to a member organization. Joining is free through Anthropic Partners - free, but not instant. The study half has no gate at all, so nothing here is wasted either way.

The route 01 · Learn Claude 02 · Prepare - this page 03 · Get certified →

The five steps

Four phases - read, learn, practice, certify - with the five steps folded in. One row per step, in order.

Step 01Phase · Read

Pick the credential, then read its guide

Everything below depends on which exam. Associate or Developer is not a seniority call - it is whether you write code against the API.

  1. Claude certification - the four exams and who each is for
  2. Its exam guide - the domains and weights; score yourself per domain
Step 02Phase · Learn

Work your track, collect badges

17 courses in four Academy groups, ~54 hours end to end. You do not need all of it - take the stack for your exam in Pick your track.

  1. Learn Claude - what each course teaches, and where to start
  2. Claude Academy - the courses themselves, free, badge on completion
Step 03Phase · Learn

Become AI fluent, then fill the gaps

The one collection worth finishing end to end - product features age, reasoning habits do not. Then the context the syllabi assume but the courses do not teach: the model family, the tools, and the protocol.

  1. AI Fluency collection - 3 core courses, 12 hr, then one of the 8 audience tracks for your own line of work
  2. The AI path - read it through, starting with What is Claude? and What is Claude Code?
Step 04Phase · Practice

Drill the syllabus you booked

Prep bundles are assembled per exam, so the mapping from study to syllabus is already done. Read the exam guide before the path, never after.

  1. Exam prep courses - one bundle per exam
  2. The exam guides - domains and weights, on the exams page
  3. Practice exam - Architect Foundations, unofficial
Step 05Phase · Certify

Book it and sit it

Clear the eligibility gate first, then buy. Book the slot before you feel ready.

  1. Partner certifications - buy and book, one page per exam
  2. How the exams work and exam day - on the certification page

Pick your track

One stack per credential. These groupings are ours, not Anthropic's - nothing in the Academy is a prerequisite for any exam, and the credential is awarded on exam performance alone. The hours are the Academy's own estimates, added up.

Take one track, not four. The choice between Associate and Developer is not seniority, it is whether you write code against the API.

Associate · CCAO-F12.5 hr + prep path

Claude at work, no code

Consultants, project leads, ops, marketing. The chat window, Cowork, and documents.

  1. Claude 101 (2.5 hr)
  2. Introduction to Claude Cowork (2.5 hr)
  3. AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations (4 hr)
  4. AI Capabilities and Limitations (3.5 hr)
  5. Then the Associate prep path (8 courses)
Developer · CCDV-F13.75 hr + prep path

Building on the API

Prompting in code, tool use, agents. The API course is the long one - budget for it.

  1. Claude Code 101 (1.5 hr)
  2. Claude Platform 101 (1.5 hr)
  3. Building with the Claude API (9 hr)
  4. Introduction to MCP (1 hr) and subagents (45 min)
  5. Then the Developer prep path (5 courses)
Architect · CCAR-F15 hr + prep page

Production systems end to end

Claude Code, the Agent SDK, the API, and MCP. Add Bedrock or Vertex only if your deployment uses it.

  1. Claude Code 101 (1.5 hr) and Claude Code in Action (1 hr)
  2. Introduction to MCP (1 hr) and MCP: Advanced Topics (1.5 hr)
  3. Building with the Claude API (9 hr)
  4. Introduction to agent skills (1 hr)
  5. Then the Architect prep page
Professional · CCAR-P22.5 hr + prep path

Design it, then defend it

The Architect stack plus the governance and rollout half - the part you present to the people who fund it.

  1. Everything in the Architect track (15 hr)
  2. Deploying Claude Enterprise with Confidence (2.5 hr)
  3. The AI-Native SDLC Playbook (1 hr)
  4. AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations (4 hr)
  5. Then the Professional prep path (5 courses)

Whichever track you take, the hours above are the subject. The prep bundle for your exam is the score - do it last, when the credential is booked.

The catalog, by hours

All 17 main courses with their real weight, in the Academy's own four groups. The eight short "AI Fluency, for your world" audience variants are not counted here. Use this as the checklist: ~54.25 hours and 14 badges if you take everything, which almost nobody should.

Course Group Weight Badge
Claude 101 Start your journey 13L · 1Q · 2.5 hr Yes
Claude Code 101 Start your journey 12L · 1Q · 1.5 hr Yes
Introduction to Claude Cowork Start your journey 14L · 1Q · 2.5 hr Yes
Claude Platform 101 Start your journey 13L · 1Q · 1.5 hr Yes
Claude Code in Action Learn the products 9L · 1Q · 1 hr Yes
Introduction to Model Context Protocol Learn the products 10L · 1Q · 1 hr Yes
MCP: Advanced Topics Learn the products 11L · 1Q · 1.5 hr Yes
Introduction to subagents Learn the products 4L · 45 min No
Introduction to agent skills Learn the products 6L · 1 hr No
The AI-Native SDLC Playbook Learn the products 14L · 1 hr No
Deploying Claude Enterprise with Confidence Learn the products 14L · 1Q · 2.5 hr Yes
AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations Become AI fluent 14L · 1Q · 4 hr Yes
AI Capabilities and Limitations Become AI fluent 13L · 1Q · 3.5 hr Yes
Teaching AI Fluency Become AI fluent 7L · 1Q · 4.5 hr Yes
Building with the Claude API Build with the API 67L · 8Q · 9 hr Yes
Claude with Amazon Bedrock Build with the API 65L · 8Q · 8 hr Yes
Claude with Google Cloud's Vertex AI Build with the API 66L · 9Q · 8.5 hr Yes

Bedrock and Vertex cover the same ground as Building with the Claude API for teams reaching Claude through AWS or Google Cloud. Take the one your deployment uses, not all three - that alone is 17 hours you do not owe anyone.

Anthropic intends to expand the Academy over time, so treat this list as a snapshot and browse the catalog for the current set. Learn Claude carries the same table with a description of what each course actually teaches.

Prep courses

Beside the general catalog sit the Claude Certification Exam Prep Courses - free bundles assembled per exam rather than per topic, so the mapping from study to syllabus is already done for you. Anthropic's own instruction is exactly that order: choose your role, then prepare with the free courses.

One bundle per credential. Read your exam guide first - it is the only document that defines the domains and their weights - then work the bundle for that one exam.

Exam Prep path What it drills
Associate - Foundations Associate prep path
8 courses		 Operating Claude with professional discipline - turning everyday business problems into workflows you can stand behind.
Developer - Foundations Developer prep path
5 courses		 Building production-grade applications, agents, and workflows, and the engineering calls that decide whether code holds up under real users.
Architect - Foundations Architect prep page
a page, not a path		 Claude Code, the Agent SDK, the API, and MCP - the API course plus its Bedrock and Vertex variants, gathered for the Architect syllabus.
Architect - Professional Professional prep path
5 courses		 Designing, integrating, and governing Claude systems end to end - and defending those decisions to the people who fund and approve them.

These sit behind the same Partner Academy sign-in as the exams, so they are free but not open the way Claude Academy is. Take the prep path for the exam you booked; take an Academy course when you want the subject rather than the score.

PRACTICE EXAM

Sit one before you pay

ACCP Practice Exam - a free practice run for Claude Certified Architect - Foundations, in the shape of the real thing: timed, multiple-choice and multiple-response.

It is not an Anthropic product and its questions are not the exam's. Use it to find the two domains you are weakest in, then study those - not as a score to trust.

THE ORDER

Guide, path, practice

Read the exam guide, work the prep path for that one exam, then sit a practice run late enough that the result still leaves you time to act on it.

Book the slot before you feel ready. A date on the calendar does more for preparation than another course does.

When you are ready

Preparation ends here. The next step is to buy and book at Partner certifications - one page per exam, with the current guide, the terms, and checkout. What each credential is, what it costs, how scoring and renewal work, and what happens on the day are all on the Claude certification page.

Two things worth doing before you leave this page. Clear the eligibility gate if you have not already - see how to use this for what it involves. And score yourself against your exam guide per domain, then spend your remaining hours on the two lowest rather than the two you enjoy.

Then book. Not when the hours are all behind you - when the next date that suits you is still far enough out to be useful.

Next Buy and book → The exams, in full → Exam day → Back to the catalog →

Course weights, lesson counts, and hour estimates are the Academy's own, read from the catalog. Track groupings and hour totals are ours - Anthropic publishes no required course list, and none of the catalog is a prerequisite for any exam. Prep bundle contents and the exam guides change without notice; check the vendor pages cited below before you rely on either.

References