Claude Certified Architect Foundations Practice Exam Questions and Answers – Part 15/16

Answer: B. Have the search subagent retry transient failures locally, then return attempted queries, unresolved error context, and any partial sources.

Local retries keep transient recovery inside the worker while returning partial sources and errors gives the coordinator enough context to proceed. Avoid having the parent inspect intermediate tool calls, because that breaks subagent isolation and defeats the purpose of delegation.

Answer: B. Generate a schema-validated escalation packet with Structured outputs as the final reviewer handoff.

Structured outputs generate schema-validated JSON as the final response, satisfying the queue requirements without relying on hidden tool history. Option A fails because a tool call yields arguments rather than the required final text response.

Answer: B. Use Grep to search repository file contents for the exact insured_party reference.

Use Grep to search file contents when you know the target string but not the specific files. Glob fails here because it only matches file paths and names, while Bash is less efficient than dedicated built-in tools.

Answer: D. Send a new Messages API request with XML-tagged sections for the original document, rejected JSON, validator errors, and instructions to return only corrected structured data.

Because the API is stateless, a retry must include the original document, rejected output, and exact errors so Claude can repair against concrete evidence. Using XML tags separates these mixed content types, which is much more reliable than simply asking the model to be more careful.

Answer: C. Have the investigation agent maintain a concise investigation-notes.md file of confirmed dependencies and read it before follow-up questions.

Writing a durable notes file gives Claude a stable place to store confirmed findings outside the active context window. Reading this file before follow-up questions reliably restores specific state after long sessions or compaction, whereas plan mode does not preserve tool outputs.

Answer: D. Move the patent landscape procedure into a SKILL.md-based skill and keep only universal research conventions in CLAUDE.md.

Move specialized procedures into a skill file so the context loads only when that specific workflow is triggered. Keep universal project rules in your root memory file to prevent bloating unrelated sessions with unnecessary tokens.

Answer: C. Define a client tool in the tools array with input_schema, set strict: true, and force that tool with tool_choice.

Forcing a strict tool call guarantees the output exactly matches your schema and prevents the model from returning standard text. Relying on prompt instructions or prefills still leaves room for formatting errors and hallucinated commentary.

Answer: C. Use POST /v1/messages for the merge gate, and submit the weekly audit through the Message Batches API with custom_id values.

The merge gate needs low latency, so use a synchronous message call. The massive weekly audit is asynchronous, making the batches API with custom tracking IDs the correct choice to handle high volume without timing out.

Answer: D. Have Claude explore the existing invoice extraction flow, then propose a migration plan for changing how ambiguous totals are represented.

Plan mode is ideal when a change might impact multiple parts of a system, like altering data representation across parsing logic and schemas. Skip plan mode for trivial single-line edits like fixing typos or adding a basic log statement.

Answer: D. Route explicit human requests directly to review, and offer automated repair for straightforward correction requests.

Always route explicit human requests to review immediately to respect user intent. Offer automated repair for straightforward corrections when escalation is not demanded, rather than relying strictly on confidence or sentiment scores.

Answer: D. Run /memory in the new developer's session and inspect the loaded instruction files.

The /memory command reveals exactly which CLAUDE.md files are loaded in a session, making it the ideal tool for this diagnosis. Use /status only when troubleshooting settings files rather than memory files.

Answer: D. Commit a repository-root CLAUDE.md containing the testing standards, fixture conventions, and review criteria.

Committing a repository root memory file ensures that both local developers and automated CI runs automatically load the shared project rules. Workflow prompt inputs are better suited for transient instructions rather than durable team standards.

Answer: C. Replace the broad keyword rule with a narrower instruction to use search tools only when repository or MCP data must be inspected.

Replacing the broad keyword rule directly fixes the system prompt instruction that is incorrectly forcing tool use. Broad keyword triggers can easily override clear tool descriptions, so narrowing the instruction to actual data lookup ensures tools are only called when needed.

Answer: A. Persist previous PR findings and pass them into each rerun, instructing Claude to report only new or still-unaddressed issues.

Persisting previous findings gives each review run the context needed to distinguish resolved, still-open, and newly introduced issues. Matching only by line number or ignoring files is too brittle and can easily hide newly introduced defects in previously reviewed code.

Answer: D. Put shared conventions in root CLAUDE.md or .claude/CLAUDE.md, put report-agent guidance in that directory's CLAUDE.md, and keep personal preferences in ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md.

This correctly uses the documented Claude Code memory hierarchy by placing team conventions in the root file and personal preferences in the user file. Lower-level files do not replace parent files but are combined, so relying on overrides or shared user files fails.