I know I'm late to the party 🎉 I had some unexpected things 'pop up' as they do this past fortnight but determined to push through. I thought I'd share what the real Claude Certified Architect - Foundations exam was like 💡 A few things surprised me. Sharing in case it helps anyone still preparing. 1. It was harder than the practice exams. The free practice sites are a good start, but they're unofficial. On the real exam, every wrong answer sounded believable. You can't spot the right one by elimination; you need to understand why it's right. 2. There were no "pick two" questions. Every question had one answer. Don't stress about that format. 3. Lots of questions are about choosing the best approach. For example: which setup fits this situation, when to plan first versus just do it, and which Claude Code setting to use for which job. Knowing what things are isn't enough. You need to know when to use each one. What helped me most: - Building real things with Claude, so the ideas made sense in practice - Keeping a list of every practice question I got wrong and going back over them - Practising with questions worded in new ways, so I learnt the idea, not the answer - Taking about two minutes per question and never leaving one blank The ideas that came up again and again: - If a rule must never be broken, enforce it with code (hooks), not instructions - When Claude picks the wrong tool, fix the tool description first - Give each agent only the tools it needs - Helper agents only know what you tell them, so pass everything in - A schema checks the shape of an answer, not whether it's correct - Message Batches are cheap but slow, so only use them when nobody is waiting Good luck, everyone. You've got this! 💪

Welcome to our new members: Carina Gonzalez Olivia Ruiz Rashidat O Barbara Shurtleff Tani Massi Christiaan Gouws Mehboob Khan Osman Mohamed You just joined a room full of people studying for the Claude Certified Architect – Foundations (CCAF) exam, and several who’ve already passed it. Here’s the lay of the land. What you have access to - Community discussion: Ask questions, share what’s working, and learn from members who’ve been through the exam. - Free Classroom pages: Resources and updates open to everyone in the group. We will be adding more. @Alice Bazdikian, @Hsin-chih Lee, and @Anita Ortiz are your guides and moderators. All of us have passed the CCAF. Start here 1. Introduce yourself below: your name, what you do, and where you are in your CCAF prep (just curious, studying, or booking your exam). 2. Ask anything. No question is too basic. Everyone here started somewhere. 3. Save the date for our free webinar (below) to share info on the Bootcamp starting November 1. 📅 Free webinar: Tuesday, October 20 at 5pm ET We will walk through the CCAF, the study framework that’s helped our members prepare, and the new Bootcamp. Register here: https://get720.com. 🚀 Claude Certification Success Bootcamp: launches November 1 We're excited you're joining us. We've had 13 people pass the CCAF in the last 45 days, and we look forward to adding you to that list soon! Glad you’re here. Say hi below! Anita