Agentic Architecture — Curriculum
Agentic Architecture & Orchestration · 27% of the exam. 6 lessons.
1. The Agentic Loop and stop_reason
How the model-tool-client loop actually terminates, and why stop_reason is the only signal you can trust to control it.
2. Orchestration Patterns: Chaining, Routing, Parallelization
The core workflow patterns from Anthropic's agent-building guidance and when each one is the right tool for a task.
3. Subagent Design and Context Passing
What a subagent actually returns to its caller, how much context it should get, and why isolation is the default, not the exception.
4. Parallel vs. Sequential Execution
How to decide whether subtasks should run one after another or all at once, and what breaks when you get it wrong.
5. Multi-Agent System Design
The orchestrator-workers pattern, hub-and-spoke topology, and why subagents don't talk to each other directly.
6. Failure Modes in Agentic Loops
The concrete ways agentic loops break in production, and the anti-patterns the exam expects you to recognize and reject.