The Certification Track
The Foundry wants its builders to be able to earn the Claude Certified Developer, Foundations credential. The preparation courses are free, and they are on the sprint menu as Learn items. The exam is optional.
The exam is not yet available through the Foundry. Registering through the Foundry depends on Anthropic, and it is not yet arranged. Nothing in your grade depends on the exam. The courses count as Learn items whether or not you ever sit it.
Client work is unpredictable and does not exercise every skill on schedule. These courses do.
Why this certification
The Foundry is a member of the Claude Partner Network. Three of Anthropic’s four certifications count toward the network’s tier requirements, and Developer, Foundations is the one written for the work our builders actually do: engineers who build with the Claude API, Claude Code, and Model Context Protocol, from first integration to production agents.
It is also the most efficient of the three. Same price as Architect, Foundations, same value toward the Foundry’s standing, and four courses of preparation instead of seven.
| Exam | Claude Certified Developer, Foundations |
| Cost | $125. The Foundry intends to cover the exam fee; arrangements are confirmed before you register |
| Format | Multiple choice and scenario-based multiple response, 120 minutes |
| Delivery | Online proctored, or a Pearson test center |
| Validity | 12 months, renewable free with an open-book assessment |
| Retakes | 14 days after a first failure, 30 after a second, 90 after a third |
| Preparation | Four courses, all free on the Anthropic Partner Academy |
Registration requires a Foundry email address. Personal addresses will not work. Sitting the exam requires a valid, unexpired government-issued ID whose name matches your registration.
The four courses
All four are free. Take them in this order.
| # | Course | Level | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Building with the Claude API | 100 to 200 | Authentication, prompt engineering, evaluations, tool use, RAG, agents, production patterns |
| 2 | Claude Code in Action | 200 | Context management, hooks, custom commands, the Agent SDK |
| 3 | Introduction to Model Context Protocol | 200 | Building MCP servers and clients in Python. Tools, resources, and prompts |
| 4 | Claude Certified Developer, Foundations Prep Course | n/a | The exam-specific review, built for this certification |
Courses 1 and 3 also appear on the Architect tracks, so nothing here is wasted if you later sit a different exam.
Every course ships something
Each course carries a deliverable that goes into the work you are already doing, client engagement or studio project. Studio reviews the deliverable.
| Course | What you ship |
|---|---|
| Building with the Claude API | An evaluation harness for your project. Real test cases, a scoring method, and a documented baseline you can regress against |
| Claude Code in Action | A Skill or custom command your team actually uses, committed to the project repo, plus configured hooks |
| Introduction to MCP | An MCP server against a real system: your client’s, or your studio project’s data layer |
| Prep Course | A written answer to the mock exam’s weakest domain for you, with the code to back it up |
Start with the evaluation harness. Evals are the skill the cohort rated itself lowest on, and building one is the fastest way to raise your AI Systems axis.
The calendar
Studio blocks are Fridays, 8:00 to 11:50 AM. Course work happens between sessions. Studio time is for the deliverable and the review, not for watching lectures together.
Fall
The courses are Learn items on the sprint menu. Take them in any sprint, in the order above, and build each one’s deliverable into your real work. A cohort mock exam runs in Sprint 3 for anyone planning to sit the exam in winter.
Winter
| Weeks | What runs |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | First sitting. A studio block is reserved. Seat time is about 135 minutes, so it fits |
| 4 to 5 | Second sitting, for anyone retaking after the 14-day wait |
| 9 to 10 | Third sitting, after the 30-day wait |
Three windows inside winter is deliberate. The retake schedule means a first-attempt failure in January still leaves room for two more attempts before the year ends. Anyone who wants the credential has time for three attempts.
Exact dates are confirmed against the university calendar at kick-off and posted in Canvas.
How it is graded
The courses are graded as sprint work. In fall they are Learn items on the sprint menu: the certificate plus the deliverable, used in your real work, is the sprint’s proof.
Sitting the exam, once it is available through the Foundry, is extra credit. Passing earns extra credit. Failing does not cost you points. Fee arrangements are confirmed with you before you register.
The split is deliberate. The learning is inside our control, so it is required. The exam depends on a third party’s scheduling, proctoring, and pricing, none of which the Foundry controls, so it does not gate your grade.
What the exam does not cover
Anthropic’s own description of the Developer certification stops at building. It does not test engagement economics, client communication, responsible deployment, or how to decide whether a thing is worth building at all.
That is the part of the curriculum the Foundry teaches. The certification shows you can build on Claude. It does not test judgment about what to build. List it on a résumé as a building credential.
For the Foundry
The Foundry needs ten active certified builders to reach Select tier in the Claude Partner Network, alongside two client engagements deployed to production and one published customer story. Select is the first tier that appears in Anthropic’s public partner directory.
Certifications expire after 12 months, so this is a standing annual target rather than a one-time push. The target is ten passes each year.