Lesson 4 of 4 · Claude Certified Architect — Foundations
Study Strategy & Domain Weighting
A strategic approach to studying can save you dozens of hours.
Domain Weight Distribution
27%
D1: Agentic Architecture -- highest weight
| Domain | Weight | Questions (~) | Study Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1: Agentic Architecture | 27% | ~16 | Highest |
| D3: Claude Code Config | 20% | ~12 | High |
| D4: Prompt Engineering | 20% | ~12 | High |
| D2: Tool Design & MCP | 18% | ~11 | Medium |
| D5: Context & Reliability | 15% | ~9 | Medium |
The Anti-Pattern Recognition Strategy
The exam heavily tests your ability to identify what's wrong with an approach. More than half the questions present a scenario with a flawed design and ask you to identify the correct alternative.
Common exam anti-patterns to memorize:
Use programmatic gates for critical business logic (hooks, prerequisite checks)
Rely on prompt instructions for safety-critical operations
Pass context explicitly to subagents in the prompt
Assume subagents inherit the coordinator's conversation history
Use tool_use with JSON schemas for structured output
Ask Claude to output JSON as text and then parse it
Study Plan by Time Available
What This Course Covers vs. Doesn't
| Covered | Not Covered |
|---|---|
| All 30 task statements | Anthropic Academy prerequisites |
| 180+ scenario-based practice Qs | General AI/ML theory |
| Anti-pattern recognition | Claude model architecture |
| Decision frameworks | Pricing/billing details |
| Full 60-Q mock exam | Non-technical business use cases |
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