CCAO-F Exam Update: Which Guide Should You Use?

If you sit the Claude Certified Associate – Foundations (CCAO-F) exam through December 6, 2026, use the July 2026 exam guide, Version 1.0. If you sit on December 7, 2026 or later, use the updated guide. Pearson VUE's Claude certification notice says the updated guide is due November 17, 2026, ahead of the exam change. Use the date you actually sit the exam to pick your guide, even if you paid or booked earlier.

As of November 12, 2026, Anthropic Partner Academy still links the July v1.0 CCAO-F guide. The date notice does not list the revised objectives, weights, or question format. If you are testing in December, you can keep practicing now and use the comparison below once the guide for your date is posted.

Which CCAO-F guide applies to your appointment?

Here is how the cutoff works in practice:

• You book a December 4 exam on November 18. The new PDF is scheduled to be available by the day you book, but your December 4 appointment still calls for v1.0.
• You move your December 4 exam to December 9. Check the new date in Pearson VUE and switch your prep to the updated guide. Your original booking date does not carry the old blueprint forward.
• You fail a first attempt on November 27. Under Pearson's standard 14-day first-retake wait, your next attempt would fall after the cutoff. Prepare with the updated guide for that sitting and confirm the first date you can actually book in Pearson. The content notice does not announce a change to retake rules.

If you move an appointment, allow at least 48 hours before the scheduled start. Both Pearson VUE's program FAQ and Anthropic's certification FAQ say changes are unavailable less than 48 hours before the appointment. Section 10 of the July PDF says 24 hours; use the current scheduling pages for the appointment rule. After making a change, check for the confirmation email and verify the new date in your Pearson account if the email does not arrive. When booking, confirm the exam code before you finalize the appointment: CCAO-F is Associate – Foundations; CCAR-F is Architect – Foundations and is not named in this update notice.

What the July guide confirms, and what the notice leaves open

The July guide lists 60 items in 120 minutes, with single-answer and multiple-response questions. It gives a passing scaled score of 720 on a 100–1,000 scale. The blueprint lists seven domains. Output Evaluation and Validation has the largest July weight at 21%; Workflow Integration and Solution Design follows at 16%. Those figures describe v1.0. The December notice confirms the date of the content change; it does not say that those figures will change or stay the same.

The official PDFs do two different jobs. The exam details tell you how to set up a timed session. The blueprint tells you what decisions to practice. A revised task statement can change the skill a question tests even if the domain heading stays the same. Conversely, a renamed domain does not automatically make a good exercise obsolete. To decide whether to keep an exercise, compare what it makes you do with what the new guide asks you to demonstrate.

Turn the new exam guide into a study list

Start at the Partner Academy certification catalog and choose the Exam guide link on the Associate – Foundations row. Check the exam code, version and effective date on the cover. Keep the July PDF separately if you have been using it. If the scheduled posting date has passed and the linked file still shows v1.0, recheck the catalog and the Pearson notice or ask the program for the guide that applies to your sitting. A filename by itself does not establish the version.

Compare the exam details first: check time, item count, response types, and the scoring description before setting up a new timed mock. Then make a short worksheet from your old prep and the new task statements. A row should describe a skill you can demonstrate in a workplace decision, such as checking which policy applies, rather than just naming a chapter.

These rows illustrate how to compare; they do not describe confirmed December changes. Start with five exercises you already use. For each, write down the old objective and the new one it maps to. Check the task statements across domains before calling something removed, since a skill could have moved. Give first review time to tasks that the applicable guide weights heavily and that you cannot yet explain or perform. Keep lighter domains in your rotation so a priority list does not turn into an omission list.

Use the same test when someone labels a practice bank “December updated.” Look for the exam code, the effective guide it follows, and an example explanation that matches a task in that guide. A recently edited page date does not establish coverage. An old question can still be a useful drill if the relevant skill carries over, even when the set as a whole cannot stand in for the updated exam.

Try a source-checking drill while you wait

Here is an original exercise for July's output evaluation domain. It practices a workplace skill you can check against the updated guide later. Use these fictional inputs; there is no need to upload anything from work.

• Current policy, effective November 1: Staff may pilot the new intake form for internal requests only. External requests stay on the existing form until the service lead gives written approval. No approval is included in the exercise.
• October project notes: The team hoped to switch all requests to the new form after a successful pilot. The notes record a proposal and give no approval.
• Claude draft: “The pilot was approved for all requests. Starting next week, staff should send every customer the new intake form.”

Write a two-sentence staff update. Before writing, mark what the draft says was approved, which group it affects, and when the change supposedly starts. For each claim, identify a source that actually supports it. Separate an unsupported date from an explicit conflict with policy.

A defensible update is: “During the pilot, staff may use the new intake form for internal requests. Keep external requests on the existing form until the service lead gives written approval.” The draft extended the approval beyond internal requests, promoted a proposal to a decision, and supplied a start date with no evidence. The appropriate fix is to correct the scope and leave the date open. Asking Claude to make the message sound more confident would leave all three problems in place.

To make a second attempt harder, add a fictional approval for one external team only. Your response should reflect the named team's exception without extending it to all customers. Then close your notes and explain why each source supports or limits your wording. If you can produce the update but cannot explain the scope decision, revisit the evidence before moving on.

Choose your next practice session

Testing through December 6: Use the free CCAO-F practice questions to find weak areas. If you miss source or scope questions, read the relevant section in the CCAO-F study guide and try a fresh scenario. The worked practice questions by domain show how to explain why plausible answers fail under the July blueprint.

Testing December 7 or later: Start at the official catalog and confirm the updated guide before using any bank as a full blueprint match. Use the free practice selectively for skills you can map to that guide. Build new drills for any objectives your old resources do not cover. Only set your timed mock length once you have checked the applicable exam details.

Still picking a date: Choose a date based on how much time you need to practice the applicable objectives and which appointments Pearson offers. If you move across the cutoff, update your guide, your practice list and your timing plan together.