Professional Certification · Est. MMXXV

The credential that proves elite AI engineering skill.

Adaptive Institute examines and certifies practitioners across three disciplines of applied artificial intelligence. Every credential is earned under proctored practical examination — never by attendance alone.

Explore Programs
  • Issued with verifiable serial numbers
  • Proctored practical examination
  • Industry-recognized credential

The Certifications

Three disciplines. One standard of proof.

Each program terminates in a proctored practical examination and a defended project. Candidates who pass receive a serial-numbered credential valid for three years.

Track I · AI-CC

Claude Code Certification

For developers who drive Claude Code as an agentic engineering tool, not an autocomplete.

  • Command-line fluency: sessions, context control, permission modes and headless runs
  • IDE and editor integration across real repositories and review workflows
  • Automation design: hooks, custom slash commands, subagents and MCP servers
  • Safe delegation — scoping, verification and rollback of agent-authored changes
Examination format
Proctored practical exam (4 hours) on a live repository, followed by a 30-minute project defense.
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Track II · AI-RG

RAG Certification

For engineers who ship retrieval-augmented systems that hold up under production load.

  • Embedding model selection, chunking strategy and corpus preparation
  • Vector database design: indexing, filtering, sharding and cost control
  • Retrieval strategy — hybrid search, re-ranking, query rewriting, context assembly
  • Evaluation harnesses: groundedness, recall, latency budgets and regression gates
Examination format
Proctored practical exam (5 hours) building and tuning a pipeline against a held-out corpus, plus project defense.
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Track III · AI-MA

Multi-Agent AI Systems

For architects who orchestrate fleets of agents and remain accountable for the outcome.

  • Agent communication protocols, shared memory and message contracts
  • Task decomposition and delegation across specialised worker agents
  • Tool use, sandboxing and least-privilege boundaries for autonomous actors
  • Coordination patterns — supervisor, blackboard, contract-net — and failure recovery
Examination format
Proctored practical exam (5 hours) architecting an orchestrated system, plus a 45-minute defense before two examiners.
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Why Certify

A credential is only worth the rigour behind it.

The Institute exists to make skill legible — to separate demonstrated competence from claimed experience, in a field where the difference is expensive.

Industry Recognition

An industry-recognized standard hiring managers and engineering leaders can read at a glance, with a published examination rubric behind it.

Hands-On Rigour

No multiple choice. Candidates build, debug and defend real systems under observation and time pressure.

Verifiable Certificate

Every certificate carries a unique serial number that any employer can confirm against the Institute register in seconds.

Career Advancement

Certified members join the alumni register, gain a public credential badge, and are listed in the Institute directory.

How It Works

From enrolment to conferral.

Four stages. Typically eight to fourteen weeks, self-paced or by cohort.

  1. Enrol

    Choose a track and a study mode. Registration opens the curriculum and the candidate handbook immediately.

  2. Study the Curriculum

    Work the modules, labs and reference implementations. Cohort candidates also attend weekly examiner-led sessions.

  3. Sit the Practical Exam

    Book a proctored slot. Build under observation, then defend your design decisions to an examiner.

  4. Receive the Credential

    Passing candidates are entered on the register and issued a serial-numbered certificate within ten working days.

Adaptive Institute

This is to certify that

Your Name Here

has satisfied the examiners of the Institute in both practical examination and project defense, and is admitted to the register as a certified practitioner of

Multi-Agent AI Systems

Registrar

AI-MA-2026-0863

Chief Examiner

The Credential

Signed, sealed, and independently verifiable.

Certificates are issued in print and as a signed digital record. The serial number is the credential — anyone holding it can confirm the holder, the track and the validity window without contacting you.

  • Unique serial number in the form AI-<track>-<year>-<index>
  • Confirmable on the Institute verification page by any third party
  • Valid for three years from the date of conferral
View a Sample Certificate

From the Register

What certified members say.

The practical exam was harder than any interview loop I have sat. That is precisely why the certificate means something on my profile.
M. Aldridge Staff Engineer, Northgate Systems
We now ask for the RAG credential on retrieval roles. It saves us two screening rounds, and the signal has held up across every hire.
P. Okonjo Director of Engineering, Kestrel Labs
Defending my architecture to two examiners exposed three assumptions I had never tested. I rebuilt the orchestrator the following week.
S. Varga Principal Architect, Meridian Group

Candidates sponsored by teams at

Northgate
Kestrel Labs
Meridian
Halcyon Data
Vantage
Orin Analytics

Fees

Programs and fees.

One fee covers the curriculum, the candidate handbook and the first examination sitting. Cohort programs add weekly examiner-led sessions and a reviewed capstone.

All figures in USD. Cohort places are limited to twenty candidates per intake. Credentials are valid for three years and may be renewed by re-examination at half the current exam fee.
Program Self-Paced Cohort Exam Fee Retake Policy
Claude CodeTrack I · AI-CC
$1,45012-month access
$2,9008-week intake
$395first sitting included
One free retake$195 per sitting thereafter
RAG SystemsTrack II · AI-RG
$1,65012-month access
$3,20010-week intake
$395first sitting included
One free retake$195 per sitting thereafter
Multi-Agent SystemsTrack III · AI-MA
$1,85012-month access
$3,60012-week intake
$395first sitting included
One free retake$195 per sitting thereafter

Questions

Before you enrol.

What do I need to qualify?

There is no formal prerequisite. In practice, candidates who pass hold roughly two years of professional software engineering experience and can read and write production code unaided. The candidate handbook lists the assumed baseline for each track; a free self-assessment is included with enrolment.

How is the exam graded?

Against a published rubric, by two independent examiners. The practical component is weighted on working output, engineering judgement and safe use of automation; the defense is weighted on your reasoning under questioning. Both components must be passed. Scores are released with written examiner comments within ten working days.

How long is the certificate valid?

Three years from the date of conferral. The field moves; a credential that never expires would stop meaning anything. Renewal is by abbreviated re-examination at half the current exam fee, and the original serial number is retained on the register.

Can employers verify it?

Yes. Every certificate carries a unique serial number. Anyone can enter it on the Institute verification page to confirm the holder, the track, the issue date and the validity window — no account and no contact with the holder required.

Admissions Open

Let the work be examined.

Intakes open quarterly. Self-paced enrolment begins the day you register — the examination is booked when you are ready for it, and not before.

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