Claude Certified Developer Foundations: Free Course Guide

The Claude Certified Developer Foundations course is a free, hands-on course for developers preparing for the Claude Certified Developer - Foundations credential. It is for programmers who want to build real applications on Claude: calling the Messages API, designing the application, adding tools, writing MCP servers, building agents, and then testing, securing and shipping the result.

The playlist has 34 videos and about 6.9 hours of content. It is made of two parts: the 13-lesson Developer Foundations course and a 19-lesson Claude AI Agent Engineering Masterclass: Beginner to Advanced that follows it. This guide explains both and gives you a study plan. The full list is on the Claude Certified Developer Foundations course page.

Who this course is for

The course is marked Foundational for the certification, but it is a developer course. It suits you if:

• You can write code and are comfortable calling a web API.
• You want to go from simple Claude calls to applications that use tools, MCP and agents.
• You care about cost, prompt caching, security and testing, not only getting an answer back.
• You are preparing for the Claude Certified Developer - Foundations exam.

If you mostly use Claude through its apps rather than code, the Claude Certified Associate Foundations course is the better starting point.

What you will learn

The lessons group into six themes.

1. API and application basics. Messages API Mechanics and Claude Application Design explain how a request and response work and how to structure an application around them. Getting this right first makes every later feature easier.

2. Tools and MCP. Tool Use End to End and MCP Server Development show how Claude calls your functions and how to expose capabilities through an MCP server. This is how Claude moves from talking to doing.

3. Agents and workflows. Agents and Workflows explains the difference between a fixed workflow and an agent that decides its own steps, and when each one fits.

4. Features, cost and performance. Streaming, Vision and Batch, Model Selection and Cost, Prompt Caching and Optimisation Order and Prompt and Context Engineering cover how to choose a model, control spend and make responses faster and more reliable.

5. Safety, quality and Claude Code. Security and Safety, Eval, Testing and Debugging and Claude Code Operation make sure what you build is safe, testable and easy to work on. Capstone - Ship a Production Claude Application brings the first part together.

6. The Agent Engineering Masterclass. The second part starts again from Environment Setup and First AI Agent, then works through Claude Code Fundamentals, Working with Large Projects, Sessions Conversation, Tools, Custom Tools, MCP, Skills, Subagents, Multi Agent, Streaming, Permissions, Enterprise Design, Deployment, Enterprise Projects and Best Practices, ending with Capstone: Release Assistant.

How the course is organised

There are 34 videos in one playlist:

• Video 1: a 3-minute overview of the Developer Foundations course.
• Videos 2 to 14: lessons 01 to 13, mostly 11 to 17 minutes each, ending with the production capstone.
• Video 15: a 4-minute overview of the Agent Engineering Masterclass.
• Videos 16 to 34: masterclass lessons 01 to 19, from a 23-minute environment setup to the release assistant capstone.

The first part is your certification core. The second part is practical agent building that deepens the same skills.

How to study it step by step

1. Watch the overview and set up a code editor and an API key so you can try the examples as you go.
2. Take lessons 01 to 03 slowly. Type out the Messages API and tool use examples yourself rather than only watching.
3. Build a tiny MCP server after lesson 04. Even a single tool helps the idea stick.
4. Use lessons 05 to 09 to improve one small app. Add streaming, compare models, try prompt caching and refine your prompts, noting the effect of each change.
5. Apply lessons 10 and 11 to the same app: add basic safety checks and a few tests or evals.
6. Do the lesson 13 capstone before moving on, then review any lesson where you got stuck.
7. Start the masterclass at its environment setup and work through it in order, a few videos per session. Treat its capstone, the release assistant, as your final project.

The course is also on YouTube as a playlist. After this, the MCP Server Engineering Masterclass goes deeper into MCP.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Claude Certified Developer Foundations course free?

Yes. All 34 videos are free on YouTube. You can follow them in order from the course page or the playlist.

How long does the course take?

The videos total about 6.9 hours. Because this is a coding course, plan extra time to type and run the examples yourself; most learners spread it over a few weeks.

Do I need to know how to program?

Yes, some programming experience helps a lot. The lessons cover the Messages API, tool use, MCP servers, agents, testing and deployment, so you should be comfortable writing and running code.

Is there a mock exam for this course?

Not yet. Skills Pragati does not currently offer a mock exam or practice simulation for this course. The two capstones, Ship a Production Claude Application and the Release Assistant, are the best checks of what you have learned.