28 free CCAO-F sample questions

1. Q1 · Output Evaluation and Validation · 21.0%

   A communications manager is finishing a customer announcement drafted with Claude. The second paragraph states that retention rose 34 percent since the new onboarding flow launched. She does not recognise the figure, and it is not in the brief she supplied. Sign-off is in an hour. What should she do with the number?

   • ASoften it to a significant rise in retention, so the paragraph still reports a trend without committing to a precise figure.
   • BRegenerate the announcement from the same brief and keep the figure if the second draft returns the same number.
   • CTrace it to the retention report it would have come from, and cut the sentence if no report supports it.correct
   • DAsk Claude which retention report the figure came from and add its answer as a source note under the paragraph.

   A specific, well-shaped statistic that nobody on the team recognises is the classic shape of a fabricated detail: it is plausible because the model produced what a sentence in that position usually looks like. The only thing that settles it is finding the figure in the system or report that would hold it. If it is not there, the claim has no basis and cannot go out under the company's name.

2. Q2 · Output Evaluation and Validation · 21.0%

   A grant writer asks Claude to summarise the eligibility rules for a regional development fund. The summary names an application deadline and a maximum award. She is about to build the bid timetable and budget around both figures. What should come first?

   • AAsk Claude to restate the eligibility rules as a table so the deadline and the award cap stand out.
   • BAsk Claude how confident it is in the deadline and proceed with the timetable if the answer is reassuring.
   • COpen the funder's published guidance and confirm the deadline and the award ceiling there.correct
   • DAsk a colleague who applied to the same fund last year whether the two figures look about right.

   Deadlines and funding caps are the two facts that determine whether a bid is even admissible, and both are published by the funder in a document she can open. A summary is a convenience, not a source. Confirming them against the guidance costs minutes and removes the only failure that cannot be recovered from later.

3. Q3 · Output Evaluation and Validation · 21.0%

   A programme manager receives a Claude-drafted summary of a partner organisation's annual report. The summary's headline figure will go into a funding paper this week. Which two actions would actually establish whether that figure is right? Select TWO.

   Select 2 answers

   • AAsk the partner's finance contact to confirm the figure directly.correct
   • BAsk Claude to state how confident it is in the figure.
   • COpen the partner's annual report and find the figure in the statements it comes from.correct
   • DAsk Claude to recalculate the figure and confirm that the two results agree.
   • ERegenerate the summary in a new conversation and compare the headline figures.

   Both actions reach outside the conversation to something that can independently confirm the number: the published report, or the people who produced it. That is what verification means. The other options all consult the same process that generated the figure, which can only tell her whether the answer is stable.

4. Q4 · Output Evaluation and Validation · 21.0%

   An internal auditor is designing a control for reports drafted with Claude, and needs the control to leave something an auditor could inspect afterwards. Which two requirements give it evidence to rest on? Select TWO.

   Select 2 answers

   • ARequire a second reader to confirm that the report reads accurately.
   • BRequire any claim taken from a supplied document to quote the supporting passage.correct
   • CRequire the drafter to record which model produced the report.
   • DRequire the prompts used to be filed alongside the finished report.
   • ERecord the source consulted beside each verified claim.correct

   Both requirements produce an artefact that ties a specific claim to specific evidence, which is what makes a control inspectable months later. One covers external verification, the other covers grounding in supplied material. Together they let a reviewer test any individual claim without reconstructing how the report was written.

5. Q5 · Workflow Integration and Solution Design · 16.0%

   A head of service asks an associate to "use Claude to speed up our complaints process". The process has seven steps. The associate has a week to come back with a proposal and has not yet spoken to the two people who handle complaints day to day.

   • AFind out which steps take the longest and where complaints sit waiting, then propose changes to those.correct
   • BStart with the step that involves the most writing, since drafting is where Claude helps most reliably.
   • CDraft a proposal covering all seven steps, so the head of service can see the full range of what is possible.
   • DPilot the change on the first step of the process, since that is where any improvement compounds through the rest.

   A process is sped up by acting on whatever is actually slowing it down, and that is a question of fact rather than of where Claude looks most useful. Finding the delay before designing anything is what stops the proposal improving a step that was never the constraint.

6. Q6 · Workflow Integration and Solution Design · 16.0%

   A finance team spends two days each month producing a variance report. Investigation shows most of that time is spent chasing four cost-centre managers for their commentary, and about ninety minutes writing up the narrative once the commentary arrives.

   • AUse Claude to draft chasing emails to the four managers, since that is where the time is going.
   • BUse Claude for the ninety-minute write-up, and address the chasing as a separate process problem.correct
   • CUse Claude to draft the whole report including the commentary, so the chasing becomes unnecessary.
   • DLeave the process as it is, since a tool cannot make four managers reply any faster than they currently do.

   The write-up is real work that Claude does well, and it should be taken. The chasing is a problem of other people's priorities, and no drafting tool changes that, so it needs a different remedy rather than being folded into the same solution.

7. Q7 · Workflow Integration and Solution Design · 16.0%

   An associate has been asked to identify where Claude could help in the team's month-end close. Which two characteristics make a step in that process a promising candidate? Select TWO.

   Select 2 answers

   • AThe step feeds a figure directly into the statutory accounts without further review.
   • BThe step produces written explanation from figures that are already agreed.correct
   • CThe step is the one the team dislikes most, so adoption will be easy to encourage.
   • DThe step is currently performed by the most junior member of the team.
   • EThe step is repeated every month with the same inputs and the same required output shape.correct

   Drafting from settled inputs is work Claude does well, and repetition with a stable shape is what makes the effort of setting it up pay back. Together they describe a step where the benefit is real and recurring rather than one-off.

8. Q8 · Workflow Integration and Solution Design · 16.0%

   An associate is presenting a proposed workflow to a group that includes two people who will have to change how they work. Which two things should the presentation make explicit? Select TWO.

   Select 2 answers

   • AThe other tools that were considered and the reasons each was set aside.
   • BA commitment that the change will not affect anyone's role or responsibilities.
   • CThe technical detail of how the output is generated from the inputs supplied.
   • DWhat the workflow is not expected to handle, and what happens in those cases.correct
   • EWhich steps a person still performs, and what they are responsible for checking.correct

   People who must change how they work need to know what their job becomes and where the new process stops. Stating both turns an abstract proposal into something they can picture doing, and it prevents the exceptions being discovered later as failures.

9. Q9 · Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use · 15.0%

   An HR business partner is preparing a redundancy consultation affecting sixty staff. She asks Claude to score each person against the published selection criteria and return a ranked list, which she plans to adopt as the provisional selection. What is the central problem with using the output this way?

   • AThe ranking would rest a decision about people's employment on generated output rather than on assessment the organisation can defend.correct
   • BStaff records would need anonymising before any scoring, since the published criteria can be applied without individual names attached.
   • CThe selection criteria would need rewriting as measurable statements before they could be applied consistently across sixty records.
   • DThe ranked list has to be retained as a consultation record, and generated output is harder to evidence than a completed scoring sheet.

   Redundancy selection determines whether a named person keeps their job, and the organisation has to be able to show how each score was reached and by whom. Generated output can be a starting structure, but adopting it as the provisional selection moves the accountable judgement outside the people who are answerable for it. The work that makes the decision defensible is exactly the work being skipped.

10. Q10 · Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use · 15.0%

    A council communications officer needs to translate a gas safety notice into four community languages before an engineering visit next week. The notice tells residents what to do if they smell gas. Budget for professional translation was not approved. How should she treat a translated draft produced with Claude?

    • ADistribute the English notice alongside each translation so residents have the original wording available to compare against.
    • BDistribute it with a line at the foot of each version inviting residents to report anything that reads oddly in their language.
    • CAsk for a back-translation into English and distribute the version whose back-translation matches the original notice closely.
    • DTreat it as a draft that a competent speaker signs off before distribution, since a wrong instruction here has physical consequences.correct

    The content is safety-critical: a mistranslated instruction about a gas leak could send someone the wrong way. That raises the standard of checking above what a routine leaflet would need, and the only check that meets it is a person who reads the target language confirming the meaning survived. The absent budget explains the pressure but does not lower the bar.

11. Q11 · Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use · 15.0%

    A programme director is reviewing three assisted workflows her teams have built. She wants to identify which ones place a consequential decision on generated output without a person exercising judgement. Which two workflows should she flag? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • ATender submissions are checked against the mandatory compliance list, and any submission missing a listed document is excluded from evaluation.correct
    • BDraft board papers are produced from the programme reports, and the director rewrites the recommendation section before circulating them.
    • CSupplier performance narratives are drafted from the monthly scorecards, and the category manager approves them for the supplier review pack.
    • DIncoming volunteer applications are assessed for suitability, and applicants scored below the threshold receive a decline without further review.correct
    • EMeeting actions are extracted from recordings and circulated to owners, who confirm or amend their own actions before the log is closed.

    Both remove a party from consideration with nobody looking at the case. Excluding a tender for a missing document ends that bidder's participation on the strength of a document check that can misread an attachment or a differently titled file, and a declined volunteer is rejected on a generated score alone. The common feature is a negative outcome delivered without a person seeing the individual case.

12. Q12 · Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use · 15.0%

    A programme office is setting up a shared Project so twelve colleagues can ask questions about the current portfolio. The knowledge files under consideration include board papers, supplier contracts, and a spreadsheet of team members' performance ratings. Which two considerations should shape what goes in? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • AEvery member of the Project can read anything placed in its knowledge, so the files have to suit the widest member of the group.correct
    • BPerformance ratings serve no question the Project exists to answer, so their presence adds exposure without adding usefulness.correct
    • CBoard papers dated before the current portfolio was agreed will pull answers towards decisions the programme has since revised.
    • DSupplier contracts are long, so including them will make answers slower to produce than a Project holding only summaries would.
    • EFiles added to a Project can be replaced as they are superseded, so the initial selection matters less than the review routine.

    Two things decide what belongs: who will be able to read it, and whether the Project needs it to answer its questions. A shared Project makes its knowledge available to every member, so the sensitivity test is against the whole group rather than the person adding the file. Performance ratings fail the second test outright, which makes them the clearest exclusion.

13. Q13 · Prompting and Task Execution · 14.0%

    A grants officer asks Claude to "write something about our youth programme for the newsletter" and gets 600 words of warm, generic copy that could describe any charity. Nothing in it is wrong, but nothing in it is theirs either. They have one more attempt before the newsletter deadline.

    • AAsk Claude to explain why the first draft came out generic before requesting a second version.
    • BReply asking Claude to make the piece more specific and engaging, and keep repeating that until something usable comes back.
    • CName the readers, set the word count, and list the two programme facts from this year that must appear.correct
    • DSend the identical request to a more capable model, since the writing quality is what fell short here.

    Generic output is usually a generic brief. Claude had no reader, no length and no facts to anchor to, so it produced the safest possible piece. Supplying the audience, the constraint and the specific material gives it something only this charity could have written.

14. Q14 · Prompting and Task Execution · 14.0%

    An operations lead uploads a 40-page supplier policy and asks Claude to summarise it. The summary is accurate and evenly weighted across all sections, but the lead actually needs to know what changed for the warehouse team. They are about to try again.

    • AAsk for a summary in half the length, so only the most important points survive the cut.
    • BUpload the previous version of the policy alongside it and ask for a summary of both documents together.
    • CAsk for the summary in bullet points rather than prose, which makes the relevant items easier to spot.
    • DSay the summary is for warehouse supervisors and should cover what they must now do differently.correct

    A summary with no stated purpose defaults to even coverage, because Claude has no basis for deciding what matters. Naming the reader and the decision the summary serves converts it from a recap into a filter.

15. Q15 · Prompting and Task Execution · 14.0%

    An associate is preparing a prompt that will be reused to draft weekly client updates. Their colleagues have different writing habits and the client has complained about inconsistency. Which two elements will do most to make the output repeatable? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • AA fixed section structure the update must follow every week.correct
    • BAn instruction to keep the update as concise as the material allows.
    • CA request that Claude vary the opening each week so the updates do not feel templated.
    • DAn instruction to write in a professional and client-appropriate tone.
    • EAn example of a past update the client responded well to.correct

    Repeatability comes from things that are the same every time and cannot be interpreted differently by different colleagues. A fixed structure settles what goes where, and a worked example settles register and level of detail by demonstration rather than description.

16. Q16 · Prompting and Task Execution · 14.0%

    An associate's request for a client proposal produced a document that is accurate but flat, and misses the client's stated priority on speed of delivery. Which two changes would most improve the next attempt? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • AAsk for the proposal to be written in a more compelling and persuasive style.
    • BAsk Claude to review the flat draft and suggest how it might be improved.
    • CState the client's priority on delivery speed and where it should be reflected in the proposal.correct
    • DAsk for a longer proposal, so there is more room to address what the client cares about.
    • ESupply a past proposal the client responded well to, as a model for structure and register.correct

    Two things are missing, and each needs its own remedy. The client's priority is a fact only the associate holds, and the register is best conveyed by a document that already worked with this client, since both are specific to them rather than general qualities of good writing.

17. Q17 · Configuration and Knowledge Management · 12.0%

    A marketing lead is setting up a Project for forty product descriptions that must all read in the same voice. She has a brand tone guide, a list of banned superlatives, and this week's particular product. She is deciding what goes into the Project's instructions.

    • ANothing yet; instructions are best written after the first few descriptions reveal what is needed.
    • BThe tone guidance and the banned superlatives, since those apply to every description in the set.correct
    • CThis week's product details, so the instructions always reflect what is currently being written.
    • DEverything she has, since instructions are the single place a Project's context is defined.

    Project instructions apply to every chat started in the Project, so they should carry what is constant across the work: the voice, and the words to avoid. This week's product changes with each description and belongs in the individual request, where it can change without anyone editing the Project.

18. Q18 · Configuration and Knowledge Management · 12.0%

    A team member has added the current expenses policy to a shared Project so that answers about claims are grounded in it. A colleague asks what practical difference that makes compared with each person attaching the policy to their own chats.

    • AProject knowledge is checked for accuracy on upload, whereas attached files are taken as given.
    • BProject knowledge is visible to the whole organisation, whereas attachments stay with one person.
    • CAttached files can be read in full, whereas Project knowledge is summarised before it is used.
    • DEvery chat started in the Project can draw on the policy, without anyone attaching it again.correct

    Project knowledge is shared context for the Project's chats: uploaded once, available to every conversation started there. That removes the dependency on each person remembering to attach the right version, which is the practical difference the colleague is asking about.

19. Q19 · Product and Model Selection · 12.0%

    A communications officer writes a weekly stakeholder digest. Each time she opens a fresh chat and pastes in the same style guide, org chart and terminology list before asking for a draft. The pasting now takes longer than reviewing the draft itself. Which part of the product removes that repetition?

    • ACreate a Project, add the three reference files to its knowledge, and start each week's digest as a chat inside it.correct
    • BTurn on research mode for every digest so Claude gathers the style guide and terminology list itself before drafting.
    • CAsk Claude to produce each week's digest as an artifact so the reference material stays attached to that artifact.
    • DKeep one long-running chat open and scroll back each week to the earlier messages that contain the reference files.

    A Project holds knowledge that every chat started inside it can draw on, so the reference files are uploaded once and available to all future digests. The repetition is the symptom of treating a recurring task as a series of unrelated one-off chats; a Project is the surface built for exactly this shape of work.

20. Q20 · Product and Model Selection · 12.0%

    A programme manager asks Claude for a short definition of a term used in her team's charter. The reply comes back inside the chat as two sentences. She had expected it to open in the separate panel she has seen for longer pieces of work, and asks a colleague why it did not.

    • AShort, conversational replies stay in the chat; the panel is used for substantial self-contained content.correct
    • BThe separate panel only opens once a chat has run past its first few exchanges and built up context.
    • CThe panel is a paid-plan feature, so on her plan every reply is returned inline within the conversation.
    • DThe separate panel is reserved for replies that draw on files held in a Project's knowledge base.

    Artifacts open for content that is significant and stands on its own, typically longer material someone would want to edit, keep or reuse outside the conversation. A two-sentence definition fails that test, so it is returned as an ordinary chat reply. The trigger is the nature of the content, not the plan or the age of the chat.

21. Q21 · Configuration and Knowledge Management · 12.0%

    A team lead is deciding which two items belong in a shared Project's instructions rather than being stated in each individual chat. The Project is used for weekly regulatory summaries by five people. Which two belong in the instructions? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • AThe name of the colleague who happens to be covering the summary while a member is away.
    • BThe reading level and structure every weekly summary must follow without exception.correct
    • CThe specific regulator whose announcements this particular week's summary should cover.
    • DThe rule that anything uncertain is flagged for a named reviewer rather than smoothed over.correct
    • EThe deadline by which this week's summary has to reach the distribution list on Friday.

    Instructions carry what holds across every chat in the Project: the standing format and reading level, and the standing rule about how uncertainty is handled. Both would otherwise have to be repeated by five people every week, and any one of them forgetting produces an inconsistent summary.

22. Q22 · Configuration and Knowledge Management · 12.0%

    A team is deciding which two changes will most improve a shared Project whose answers have become unreliable. The Project holds ninety documents spanning four years, its instructions are two years old, and the team's process changed substantially in the spring. Which two changes? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • ARename the Project so its title reflects the current programme rather than the previous one.
    • BAsk every member to start their questions with a summary of what they already know.
    • CGive every member edit access so anyone can correct a problem the moment they notice it.
    • DRetire the documents that describe the process as it stood before the spring change.correct
    • ERewrite the instructions so they describe how the team works now rather than two years ago.correct

    Both halves of a Project have gone stale: the knowledge still describes a superseded process, and the instructions still describe how the team worked two years ago. Bringing each into line with current practice addresses the two things answers are actually built from.

23. Q23 · Product and Model Selection · 12.0%

    A bid manager has been working in one chat for a week and suspects it has become unreliable. She wants to know which observations genuinely indicate the conversation has outgrown its working context rather than pointing to a prompting problem. Which two are the stronger signals? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • AClaude declines to speculate about a competitor's pricing and says so plainly in its reply.
    • BClaude reinstates a requirement she removed several days earlier without being asked to revisit it.correct
    • CClaude asks a clarifying question before drafting a section she considers already well specified.
    • DClaude misattributes an early commitment to the wrong partner organisation in the consortium.correct
    • EClaude produces a section that is longer than she wanted after she asked for a fuller treatment.

    Both signals share one shape: detail established early in a long conversation has become unreliable. Reinstating a removed requirement and misattributing an early commitment are what it looks like when earlier material has been compressed or crowded out as the conversation grew. Restating the current position in a fresh chat is the response.

24. Q24 · Product and Model Selection · 12.0%

    A user wants to reduce how quickly a working session eats into her allowance, without giving up the quality she needs on the two genuinely hard questions in it. The session also contains a dozen small formatting and tidying requests. Which two adjustments target the consumption directly? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • ARename the chat to reflect the session's purpose so the work is easier to find afterwards.
    • BAsk the two hard questions first, so the session's most demanding work happens while fresh.
    • CTurn on research for the whole session so every answer is grounded in gathered sources.
    • DUse a lighter tier for the dozen small formatting and tidying requests in the session.correct
    • EReserve the extended reasoning option for the two hard questions rather than leaving it on.correct

    Consumption is driven by which tier is running and which features are engaged, among other factors. Dropping the tier for a dozen trivial requests and switching the extended reasoning option on only where reasoning is the bottleneck both reduce the work being done on questions that never needed it.

25. Q25 · Troubleshooting and Optimization · 10.0%

    A membership officer is drafting renewal emails. Each attempt comes back stiff and corporate. She has asked three times for something warmer and less formal, and the drafts keep landing in the same register. What is most likely to fix this?

    • AAsk for three versions at different levels of formality and pick whichever one comes closest to the target.
    • BAsk for the draft to be rewritten in a warmer tone, listing the formal phrases that keep appearing in it.
    • CDescribe the reader in more detail, so the register follows from who the email is addressed to.
    • DPaste in a renewal email the team sent last year that had the tone she wants, and ask for that register.correct

    Warm and less formal are words that cover a wide range, and three attempts have shown that her sense of the range and the output's are not the same. An example collapses that ambiguity: it shows the exact register rather than describing it. This is the standard move when repeated instructions in words are not converging.

26. Q26 · Troubleshooting and Optimization · 10.0%

    A programme manager asks for a summary of a forty-page supplier report each month. The summaries are accurate and readable, but every month she has to go back to the report herself to find whether the delivery dates have moved. What should she change?

    • AAsk for a longer summary, so more of the report's detail survives into the version she reads.
    • BSay what the summary is for, so the content is selected against the decision she takes from it.correct
    • CAsk for the summary as a table of sections, so nothing in the report is left out of the overview.
    • DAsk for the delivery dates to be listed at the end, so they appear alongside the existing summary.

    A summary is a selection, and with no stated purpose the selection defaults to what is most prominent in the document rather than what matters to the reader. Telling it that the summary feeds a decision about schedule makes the dates the spine of the output rather than a detail. It also keeps working when next month's report is laid out differently.

27. Q27 · Troubleshooting and Optimization · 10.0%

    A communications assistant needs product descriptions in a fixed shape: a one-line hook, three feature bullets, and a closing sentence. The drafts keep varying the structure between items. Which two changes would most reliably fix this? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • ASupply a filled-in example of the structure, so the shape is shown rather than described.correct
    • BPut the structure in the Project's instructions, so it applies to every description without being restated.correct
    • CAsk for each description to be checked against the required structure before it is returned.
    • DProduce the descriptions one at a time, so each gets the structure applied to it individually.
    • ENumber the structural elements in the request, so the order they must appear in is unambiguous.

    A worked example removes the ambiguity in a described structure, and putting it in the Project's instructions makes it apply to every item rather than to whichever request remembered to include it. Together they fix both halves of the problem: what the shape is, and making sure it is present each time. That combination is what turns a repeated instruction into a consistent format.

28. Q28 · Troubleshooting and Optimization · 10.0%

    An operations manager reviews a five-step assisted workflow. A person checks the output at step five, just before it reaches the customer. Errors found there require redoing steps two to five. Which two changes would most improve this? Select TWO.

    Select 2 answers

    • AAdd a check after step two, where the errors that force the rework originate.correct
    • BRecord what the step-five check catches, so the recurring causes can be addressed at source.correct
    • CMove the step-five check earlier so that the customer-facing output is produced after it.
    • DAdd a second reviewer at step five, so fewer errors reach the customer undetected.
    • ESplit step five into two smaller steps, so a failure requires less of the work to be redone.

    A check placed only at the end finds errors after three further steps have been built on them, which is why the rework is so expensive. Checking where the errors arise cuts the cost of each one, and recording what the final check catches turns repeated failures into fixes rather than repeated corrections. One improves the flow, the other stops the same faults recurring.

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