1 The CCDV-F exam at a glance · CCDV-F

What the exam tests: whether you can independently build, integrate, and ship productiongrade Claude applications, agents, and workflows at a foundational level.

Format and scoring

You get 53 items in 120 minutes, which is about 2 minutes 15 seconds per item. Items are multiple choice (one answer) or multiple response (several answers); every item tells you how many to select. There is no partial-credit guidance in the guide, so treat each multiple-response item as all-or-nothing.

The exam is criterion-referenced. You are measured against a fixed standard set by subject-matter experts, not against other candidates. Scores are scaled from 100 to 1,000 and the cut score is 720. Your report shows pass or fail, the scaled score, and percent correct per domain. Domain percentages are for feedback only; pass or fail depends on the total.

The eight domains

The blueprint weights tell you where the points are. Two domains, Applications and Integration plus Model Selection and Optimization, make up half the exam. Claude Code and Eval together are under 6%, so expect only one to three items on each.

Figure 1. The eight CCDV-F domains by exam weight

# Domain Weight Approx. items of 53 Chapter
2 Applications and Integration 33.1% 17 to 18 3
5 Model Selection and Optimization 16.8% 9 6
1 Agents and Workflows 14.7% 8 2
6 Prompt and Context Engineering 11.0% 6 7
8 Tools and MCPs 10.6% 5 to 6 9
7 Security and Safety 8.1% 4 8
3 Claude Code 3.1% 1 to 2 4
4 Eval, Testing, and Debugging 2.6% 1 to 2 5

Item counts are estimates from the weights; the guide only says weights are "approximate proportions of scored items." Source: Exam Guide v1.0.

Skills measured, by weight

Domain Skill Weight
1 Agents and Workflows Agent Architecture 4.5%
1 Agent Construction with Claude 5.3%
1 Agent Patterns and Frameworks 4.9%
2 Applications and Integration Understanding Requirements 3.4%
2 Systems Life Cycle 2.8%
2 Claude API Mechanics 6.8%
2 Software Engineering Foundations 7.4%
2 Claude Application Design 8.6%
2 Configuration Management 4.1%
Applications and Integration33.1%
Model Selection and Optimization16.8%
Agents and Workflows14.7%
Prompt and Context Engineering11%
Tools and MCPs10.6%
Security and Safety8.1%
Claude Code3.1%
Eval, Testing, and Debugging2.6%

Applications and Integration is a third of the exam; the top three domains are almost two thirds.

The ccdv-f exam at a glance

Domain Skill Weight

3 Claude Code Claude Code Operation 3.1%

4 Eval, Testing, and Debugging Debugging and Error Handling 2.6% 5 Model Selection and Optimization LLM Fundamentals 5.2%

5 Technical Fundamentals 6.1%
5 Model Selection and Tradeoffs 2.7%
5 Cost and Token Management 2.8%
6 Prompt and Context Engineering Context Engineering 3.8%
6 Prompt Engineering 4.6%
6 Output Handling 2.6%
7 Security and Safety AI Application Security 3.2%
7 Guardrails and Safe Deployment 2.3%
7 Claude Hooks 1.0%
7 Identity, Secrets, and Key Management 1.6%
8 Tools and MCPs Tool Implementation 4.4%
8 MCP Server Development 2.1%
8 Agentic Customization 4.1%

The single heaviest skill is Claude Application Design (8.6%), followed by Software Engineering Foundations (7.4%) and Claude API Mechanics (6.8%).

Eligibility and registration

The exam is open only to people at organizations in the Claude Partner Network. Membership is free for firms, which register practitioners at claude.com/partners. You must register with a work email on a recognized company domain; personal email addresses are rejected. You must be 18 or older and bring a government-issued photo ID whose name matches your registration exactly.

Registration steps:

Open the CCDV-F page on the Anthropic Partner Academy and download the Exam Guide. Register and pay. The checkout price reflects your partner tier: Select, Preferred, and Global Premier partners get 50% off; Global Premier partners get 100% off through 31 December 2026.

Create your Pearson VUE account from the confirmation email and schedule.

Choose OnVUE (online, webcam proctored) or a Pearson test center.

Exam-day rules

Closed book. No notes, phones, smart watches, headphones, second monitors, or browser translation tools.

Online candidates must stay in webcam view for the whole session.

You accept a confidentiality agreement before starting; refusing ends the session with no refund. Arriving late or not showing up forfeits the fee.

Pacing strategy

First pass: answer everything you know in under 90 seconds and flag the rest. This should take about 70 minutes.

Second pass: work flagged items using elimination. Most distractors fail on one of four tells: they ignore the stated constraint (cost, latency, security), they rely on a "polite request" in a prompt instead of an enforceable control, they over-engineer (an agent where a workflow fits), or they misuse a feature (temperature to fix injection).

Final 10 minutes: make sure every item has an answer. There is no stated penalty for guessing.

After the exam

Passing earns a Credly digital badge, valid for 12 months. To renew on time you review what changed and take a free, non-proctored assessment on the Partner Academy. A lapsed credential means retaking the full exam at full price. If you fail, the score report's domain percentages tell you where to focus before your retake window opens (14 days after a first attempt).

Check yourself

How many items are on the CCDV-F exam, and how long do you have?

Which two domains together make up about half the exam?

A candidate scores 62% on Security and Safety but passes overall. Does the low domain score matter for the result?

Can a freelance developer with a personal Gmail address register?

Answers: 53 items in 120 minutes. Applications and Integration (33.1%) plus Model Selection and Optimization (16.8%). No, only the total scaled score decides pass or fail. No, registration requires a Claude Partner Network company email.

The ccdv-f exam at a glance