Claude Code Certification: Anthropic’s Courses, Badges and Exams Explained

If you are searching for a Claude Code certification, here is the short answer. Anthropic offers two different things: free courses that end in a completion badge, open to everyone, and paid Claude Certified exams that are only open to people at Anthropic partner companies. There is no public exam called “Claude Code certification” that anyone can book today.

That gap causes a lot of confusion, because both things come from Anthropic and both give you something to post on LinkedIn. This guide explains what each one is, what it costs, who can get it and which free Claude Code courses are worth your time first.

Browse all our Claude Code tutorials for more guides like this one.

Checked against Anthropic’s official pages on November 14, 2026. We read the public course, FAQ and certification pages without signing in, so the quiz, badge and exam steps below follow Anthropic’s own description of them.

Claude Code Certification: Quick Summary

Is There an Official Claude Code Certification?

Yes and no. Anthropic runs a real certification program with proctored exams, and two of those exams cover Claude Code. But the program is built for partner organizations, so most developers cannot register for it.

What everyone can do is take Anthropic’s free courses on Claude Academy. Several of them end with a quiz, and passing it earns a completion badge with a public link that proves it is real. Anthropic’s own FAQ is clear that this badge and the certification exams are “two different things.”

A completion badge shows you finished a course. A Claude Certified credential shows you passed a proctored exam. Do not mix the two up on a resume.

So the right question is not “where do I take the exam?” It is “which of the two am I able to get, and is it worth it for me?” The rest of this guide answers that.

Claude Academy: Where the Free Claude Code Courses Live

Anthropic’s learning page at anthropic.com/learn now forwards to a site called Claude Academy. The front page describes it in one line: free courses on Claude and AI, from Anthropic. The Developers card is the one that leads to the Claude Code material.

According to the Academy FAQ, you can browse the whole catalog without signing in. Signing in with a free Claude account is what saves your progress and lets you earn badges. You do not need a paid plan or a work account for the courses themselves.

One detail is easy to miss. The courses are free, but practicing in Claude Code is a separate matter. The Claude Code 101 page lists a Claude account on a Pro, Max, Ultra, Team or Enterprise plan, or an API key, as a recommended prerequisite, because you need one of those to run Claude Code.

The Claude Code page on the Academy

Claude Code has its own page inside the Academy. It puts one course under a “Start here” heading, then links out to the official docs for install, memory and troubleshooting. If you are brand new, our Claude Code primer gives you the background in a few minutes.

The Free Claude Code Courses, One by One

Filter the Academy catalog by product and it shows seven courses and twelve short tutorials tagged Claude Code. The courses are the part that matters for badges, so here is the full list as it stood on the day we checked.

Four of the seven show a badge on the course list. The other three are lessons only, with no quiz and no badge shown. That matters if your goal is something to share, not just the knowledge.

Claude Code 101

This is the beginner course. Its page says it covers what a coding agent is, how to install Claude Code in the terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, the desktop app or on the web, and a daily workflow of explore, plan, code and commit. It also covers context commands such as /compact, /clear and /context.

The last section is about customizing: a CLAUDE.md file, subagents, skills, MCP servers and hooks. We have hands-on guides for most of these, including plan mode, the CLAUDE.md file and Claude Code hooks, if you want a second explanation while you study.

Claude Code in action

This is the follow-up for people who already use Claude Code for single prompts. The course page lists four themes: steering long sessions, configuring Claude with CLAUDE.md, skills, permission modes and hooks, automating work with scheduled tasks, headless mode and GitHub, and verifying runs you did not watch.

Skills, subagents and MCP

The two short courses on agent skills and subagents have no quiz. They are still useful, and they pair well with building something real, such as the examples in our skills walkthrough and our subagents guide.

The two Model Context Protocol courses are more technical. The intro course builds MCP servers and clients with the Python SDK, and the advanced one covers sampling, notifications and roots. Both list a quiz and a badge.

How Completion Badges Work

The badge rules are spelled out in the Academy FAQ, and a few of them surprise people. The main one: finishing every lesson does not earn the badge. Passing the quizzes does.

Here is what the FAQ says, in plain terms:

• You must be signed in. Quizzes are graded on your Claude account and the badge is issued to it.
• The badge is issued right away when you pass the final required quiz.
• There is no retake limit, and a failed attempt never counts against you.
• There is a daily limit on completion badges. If you hit it, quizzes open again at midnight US Pacific time.
• Badges do not expire, and you do not need to redo them when new Claude versions ship.
• Listed course times are estimates. Finishing faster still counts.

Downloading and sharing a badge

Every badge you earn is listed on a page called Your learning. From there the FAQ describes three options: Download PDF to save a copy, Add to LinkedIn to put it on your profile, and a public verification link that anyone can open to confirm the badge is genuine.

You can also edit the name on a badge. The FAQ says a rename keeps the same verification link, so places where you already shared it keep working.

What happened to the old certificates?

Anthropic’s courses used to live on a Skilljar site, which handed out certificates of completion. That site shows a notice that it closes in early December 2026. The FAQ says you can import your history into Claude Academy with a Claude account that uses the same email, and old certificates then appear as completion badges with their original dates.

If you earned certificates there, save any PDFs you want before the old site closes. The FAQ warns that you will not be able to download them from it afterward.

Claude Certified Exams: The Partner-Only Certification

Now for the real exams. Anthropic announced its first technical certification, Claude Certified Architect, Foundations, on March 12, 2026, as part of the Claude Partner Network launch. The program has since grown to four exams across three roles: Associate, Developer and Architect.

Who can take a Claude certification exam?

This is the part that stops most people. The certification FAQ says registration requires a partner email address on a recognized company domain, and that personal email addresses will not work. It also says certification is currently available only to organizations in the Claude Partner Network.

Candidates must also be at least 18, and exams are only offered in countries and regions Anthropic supports. If your company sells or delivers Claude services, the announcement says any organization bringing Claude to market can apply to the network, and membership is free. The partners page has the application link.

Exam format, scoring and retakes

The certification FAQ gives the same format for all four exams. These are the numbers worth knowing:

• Format: multiple choice and scenario-based multiple response questions.
• Time: 120 minutes, with about 135 minutes of total seat time.
• Delivery: through Pearson, either online proctoring or a test center.
• Scoring: a scaled score from 100 to 1,000, with 720 as the minimum pass for every exam.
• Retakes: a wait of 14 days after the first failed attempt, 30 after the second and 90 after the third, up to 4 attempts in a rolling 12 months.
• Validity: 12 months from the date you earn it, with a free renewal assessment if you renew on time.
• Credential: a digital badge through Credly, plus a certificate PDF from your Credly account.

Partner tiers change the price. The FAQ says Registered-tier partners pay full price, while Select, Preferred and Global Premier partners get 50% off at checkout. A retake costs the full exam fee, with the tier discount applied.

The certification page also carries a dated notice: the Associate, Developer – Foundations and Architect – Professional exams get updated content on December 7, 2026, with updated exam guides due on November 17, 2026. If you plan to test after that date, prepare from the new guide.

The Claude Code partner badge

There is one more item, and it is the closest thing to a credential with Claude Code in its name. The Partner Academy lists a “Claude Partner Badge: Claude Code” path. It is eight courses on deploying Claude Code for clients, followed by a capstone and a 34-question scenario-based assessment, with an estimated 10 to 15 hours of practice work.

The path page shows registration as free, but it lives on the partner training site, which is meant for companies in Anthropic’s partner program. Treat it as a partner credential, not a public one.

Which One Should You Go For?

For most readers the choice makes itself. Use this short guide to match your situation.

If your employer is not an Anthropic partner, the free badge is the only official credential you can earn today, and it costs nothing but a few hours.

Try It Yourself: Practice What Claude Code 101 Teaches

A badge means more when you can do the work. After the first two sections of Claude Code 101, open any small project of your own and practice the explore, plan, code and commit rhythm the course describes. If you have not set it up yet, follow our install guide first.

Start a session in the project folder and paste a prompt like this one:

Read this project and explain how it is organized. Do not change any files yet.
Then suggest one small improvement, write a short plan for it,
and wait for my approval before you edit anything.

Read the plan, approve it only if it makes sense, then review the change before you commit. That loop is the core habit the course is built around.

Common Mistakes With Claude Code Certification

• Calling a completion badge a certification. Anthropic treats them as separate, and so will a careful hiring manager.
• Paying a third-party site for a “Claude Code certificate.” The official courses are free, and the official exams are only sold through the Partner Academy and Pearson.
• Finishing the lessons and skipping the quiz. No quiz pass, no badge.
• Picking a course with no quiz when you want something to share. Check the course list for the badge label first.
• Signing in with the wrong account. The FAQ says learning attaches to the Claude account that was active when you authorized, and it cannot be merged across different emails later.
• Leaving old certificates on the Skilljar site. Import them or save the PDFs before it closes in early December 2026.

Pro Tips

• Use a personal Claude account for learning you want to keep. The FAQ notes that history on a company-managed account cannot be moved if you leave.
• Share the public verification link, not just a screenshot. Anyone can open it and confirm the badge.
• Watch the free webinars too. The Academy lists recurring Claude Code: Foundations and Claude Code: Advanced sessions.
• Pair each course with practice. Our commands cheat sheet is a handy desk reference while you work through the lessons.
• Planning the MCP courses? Try a couple of real servers first, such as the ones in our MCP servers roundup.
• For a related read on learning with Claude, see our Academy skills test.

Claude Code Certification Cheat Sheet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Claude Code certification free?

The courses and completion badges on Claude Academy are free, and a free Claude account is enough to earn them. The Claude Certified exams are paid, from $99 to $175, and only open to Claude Partner Network organizations.

Can I get Claude certified if I am not at a partner company?

Not at the moment. The certification FAQ says the exams are currently available only to organizations in the Claude Partner Network, and registration needs a partner company email. Completion badges are the option open to everyone.

Does a Claude Academy completion badge expire?

No. The Academy FAQ says completion badges do not expire and there is no required re-certification when new Claude versions come out. The badge records the course as it existed on the issue date.

How long does Claude Code 101 take?

Claude Academy lists it at 12 lessons, one quiz and about 1.5 hours. That figure is an estimate, and the FAQ confirms that finishing faster still earns the badge as long as you pass the quiz.

Which exam covers Claude Code?

Two of them. Developer – Foundations is described as being for engineers who build with the Claude API, Claude Code and Model Context Protocol. Architect – Foundations tests foundational knowledge across Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, the Claude API and MCP.

Conclusion

A Claude Code certification means one of two things today. For everyone, it is a free completion badge from Claude Academy, earned by passing the quiz in courses like Claude Code 101 and Claude Code in action, with a public link to prove it. For staff at Anthropic partner companies, it is a paid, proctored Claude Certified exam that lasts 12 months. Start with the free courses, practice in a real project with Claude, and look at the partner exams only if your employer is in the network.