Track 8 — Certification (CCA-F)
The capstone. Tracks 1–7 taught the skills; this track consolidates them and points everything at the Claude Certified Architect — Foundations (CCA-F) exam. You'll build a capstone that exercises the whole stack, drill the six exam scenarios until pattern-matching is reflexive, and study with a dedicated exam-coach prompt. Nothing new is introduced — this is integration, drilling, and proof.
Audience: exam candidates who've finished Tracks 1–7. · Est. time: ~30–80 hours depending on how much hands-on you already have (the exam expects 6+ months of real Claude work). · Prereq: all of Tracks 1–7. · Outcome: ready to sit and pass the CCA-F.
Know the target first
- Read cca-f-exam-overview — format (120 min, 60 multiple-choice, 4 of 6 scenarios sampled, proctored on Skilljar), the five weighted domains, and how trade-off questions are written.
- Skim cheatsheet — your daily quick-reference.
How the five CCA-F domains map to your tracks
Every domain is already covered by tracks you've done. Use this to target revision: weak on a domain? re-run its track's projects.
| # | CCA-F domain | Weight | Where you learned it | Drill with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agentic Architecture & Orchestration | 27% | track-6-agents-skills-subagents (subagents, orchestration) + track-3-building-with-the-api (tool-use loop) | cca-domain-1-agents, p14, p15 |
| 2 | Tool Design & MCP Integration | 18% | track-5-mcp-and-tools + tool use in track-3-building-with-the-api | cca-domain-2-tools-mcp, p06, p12 |
| 3 | Claude Code Configuration & Workflows | 20% | track-4-claude-code (CLAUDE.md, slash commands, hooks, CI) | cca-domain-3-claude-code, p10, p11 |
| 4 | Prompt Engineering & Structured Output | 20% | track-2-effective-prompting + structured output in track-3-building-with-the-api | cca-domain-4-prompting, p02, p07, p09 |
| 5 | Context Management & Reliability | 15% | track-3-building-with-the-api (caching/RAG) + track-7-deployment-and-scale (governance) | cca-domain-5-context-reliability, p08 |
Domain 1 is the biggest slice (27%) — give Track 6's material the most revision time.
Sequence
1. Build the capstone · ⏱ ~10–20 h
- Project: p16-capstone-support-agent — a customer-support resolution agent that ties the whole stack together: routing, tool use, MCP-backed actions, escalation, structured output, context management, and reliability. This is exam scenario #1 made real, and it touches all five domains.
2. Follow the phased study plan · ⏱ ~ ongoing
- Work study-plan end to end (Orient → Foundations → Specialize → Drill → Test). It maps each Academy course to vault notes and hands-on tasks and gives a concrete time budget.
3. Drill the six scenarios until reflexive · ⏱ ~6–12 h
- Walk every scenario in cca-scenarios. For each: sketch the canonical architecture in your own words, list the trade-offs, and name three pitfalls (the distractor answers). The six:
- Customer Support Resolution Agent — routing + tool use + escalation (your p16)
- Code Generation with Claude Code — plan mode + CLAUDE.md + slash commands
- Multi-Agent Research System — orchestrator-workers + subagents
- Developer Productivity Tools — MCP + tool design + context awareness
- Claude Code in CI/CD — permissions + hooks + non-interactive mode
- Structured Data Extraction — tool-forced output + batch + validation
4. Study with the exam coach · ⏱ ~ ongoing
- Paste the cca-f-exam-coach tutor system prompt into claude.ai or Claude Code and have it quiz you, generate scenario questions, and explain why distractors are wrong. Track which domains you miss and loop back to their track.
5. Sit the exam
- Schedule the proctored exam on Skilljar. Day-of: read each question twice; the "obvious" answer is usually wrong by a single trade-off. Flag-and-review is allowed.
You're ready to sit the exam when…
- You can recite the five domains and their weights, and the six scenarios.
- You've shipped p16-capstone-support-agent and can explain every architectural choice in it.
- For each scenario you can sketch the canonical architecture, its trade-offs, and three pitfalls from memory.
- Your practice-test scores sit comfortably above the ~70–75% community-reported pass mark, with no domain consistently below.
- You can teach any cheatsheet line to a rubber duck without looking.
See also
- certification-roadmap — the big-picture roadmap from zero to certified.
- cca-f-exam-overview · study-plan · cca-scenarios · cheatsheet — the 301 exam notes.
- cca-f-exam-coach — the exam-coach tutor prompt.
- README — the full track map.
- progress — tick these off.