Certification study map
Claude certification exam topics: study architecture decisions, not isolated facts.
A useful preparation plan connects each topic to the production decision it changes. This map helps you organise original practice around prompts, context, tools, safety, cost, agents, and developer workflows.
The seven decision areas to practise
For every scenario, first name the constraint. Then compare designs by risk, evidence, reversibility, and user impact. That transfers better than memorising a single product setting.
Prompt design
Turn vague goals into instructions, examples, output contracts, and checks that another engineer can evaluate.
Practise prompt decisions →Context management
Choose what to retain, retrieve, summarise, or discard so a long-running workflow remains accurate and recoverable.
Practise context decisions →Tools and MCP
Design narrow tool contracts, validate inputs, isolate side effects, and give users a clear recovery path.
Practise tool-use decisions →Safety boundaries
Recognise untrusted input, prompt-injection risks, permission boundaries, approval steps, and safe escalation routes.
Practise safety decisions →Cost and quality
Balance token use, latency, routing, caching, and evaluation without silently reducing a user-critical outcome.
Practise cost decisions →Agentic systems
Decide when a deterministic workflow is enough, where state belongs, and how autonomous work stops safely.
Practise agent decisions →Claude Code workflows
Treat repository guidance, permissions, automation limits, evidence, and review as one engineering system.
Practise workflow decisions →A simple study loop
- Take a short mixed baseline and record the decision pattern behind each miss.
- Read the relevant primary documentation, then write down the trade-off in your own words.
- Return to fresh scenarios. Explain why the best answer fits the constraint and why the alternatives do not.
- Revisit the topic later in a mixed set so recognition does not become memorisation.
Turn the map into a focused plan.
Build a baseline, target one weak decision area at a time, and follow a repeatable 30-day rhythm.
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