Exam-day strategy

You have 63 items in 120 minutes, about 1 minute 54 seconds each. Pace for 90 seconds per item and keep 20 minutes for flagged questions.

A method for every item

Read the last line first. Is it asking for the best design, the first step, the root cause, or the most proportionate control?

Underline the constraint. Latency budget, regulated data, cost ceiling, "without reducing quality," "minimal change."

Name the domain. It tells you which principle decides: least privilege (Integration), root cause (Evaluation), proportionate oversight (Governance), discovery first (Lifecycle). Eliminate the four distractor families from Chapter 1: bigger hammer, detect instead of prevent, lose the requirement, wrong order.

Choose between the last two by asking which one a reviewer could not reasonably object to.

Multiple-response items

The item states how many to select. Judge each option on its own as true or false for the scenario, then pick the required number. Assume there is no partial credit; the exam guide does not say.

Tiebreakers when two answers both look right

Preventive beats detective.

Root-cause fix beats workaround.

Simpler pattern beats more autonomy.

Evidence (an eval or A/B result) beats opinion.

Clarifying requirements beats building, when requirements are unclear.

Human decides, when the action is irreversible or regulated.

Logistics

For online proctoring, run the system check days before, clear your desk, and have your ID ready. Arrive or log in 30 minutes early. The score report shows percent correct by domain; if you need a retake, use it to target your weakest domains and respect the waiting periods (14, then 30, then 90 days, as reported in Anthropic's partner FAQ).

Exam-day strategy