Just took Anthropic's Architect Foundations exam

So I just finished the Architect Foundations exam and figured I'd drop some notes here since I couldn't find much when I was prepping.

TL;DR: don't go in thinking this is a "read the docs for an hour" cert. It's dense as hell, tons of reading, and it actually tests whether you understand how agentic systems work, not just whether you've used Claude Code a few times.

Stuff that showed up (from memory, no guarantees lol):

Agents/tools

• structured outputs (nullable vs optional, formatting rules)
• writing tool descriptions + few-shot examples that actually help tool selection
• chaining tool calls (using the ID/output from one call as input for the next)
• when to retry a failed tool call vs just surfacing the error
• MCP structured messages / structured error responses
• where MCP context actually gets loaded in a session

Orchestration

• subagents, context flooding, resuming sessions
• forking a session
• plan → execute → review vs direct execution vs "interview" style, and which tasks actually benefit from planning first
• the tool loop itself (tool_use, tool_result, end_turn, how a turn resolves)

Config/control

• CLAUDE.md vs PreToolUse hooks vs settings.json permissions - when to use which
• managing context window over long sessions
• prompt-based guardrails vs deterministic/hardcoded safety
• grep vs glob vs read
• resuming a session with a proper "here's what changed" summary

Basically expect a LOT of text as your "source material," it's not just watching a few videos and calling it a day.

Stuff that helped me study:

• My Anki deck (spaced repetition): https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1419215955
• This X/Twitter thread breaking down exam concepts: https://x.com/GenAI_Now/status/2033419976003232175
• Clouding Academy has practice exams for it: https://clouding.academy/

Anyway if you're building agentic stuff with Claude regularly it's actually a decent exam, forces you to think about how this stuff really works under the hood instead of just prompt-engineering vibes. Good luck to anyone else grinding for it .