Escalation & ambiguity-resolution patterns
Design effective escalation and ambiguity resolution patterns.
This subtopic (5.2) sits in Context Management & Reliability (D5) on Anthropic's Claude Certified Architect — Foundations (CCA-F) exam. The bank holds 15 practice questions here — 4 easy, 8 medium, and 3 hard — with 5 free to try, answers and explanations included. 3 of the free questions are below; the rest are in the practice stream.
What the exam tests here
- escalation triggers — explicit request, policy gaps, inability to make progress
- sentiment-based escalation unreliable proxy for case complexity
- honoring explicit human agent requests immediately without investigation
- multiple customer matches require clarification not heuristic selection
Free practice questions: Escalation & ambiguity-resolution patterns
A customer support agent repeatedly calls lookup_order but cannot find the record because the customer only recalls a partial order number. The agent has tried three alternate search strategies without success. What should trigger escalate_to_human?
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D. The agent detects it cannot make progress after exhausting available search strategies.
Inability to make progress after exhausting available strategies is a canonical escalation trigger — the agent has hit a dead end it cannot resolve autonomously. 'Customer uses the word manager' is an explicit-request trigger, not the one demonstrated here. 'Fixed tool call count' ignores whether progress is still possible. 'First empty result' escalates prematurely before alternatives are tried.
A customer contacts support requesting a refund and explicitly says 'I want to speak to a human agent.' The agent has already called get_customer and confirmed the account. What should the agent do next?
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Invoke escalate_to_human immediately, since the customer explicitly requested it
An explicit request to speak to a human is a direct escalation trigger — the agent must honor it immediately regardless of its ability to resolve the issue. 'Attempt process_refund first' overrides an explicit customer request. 'Ask the customer to confirm' introduces unnecessary friction after a clear escalation signal. 'Resolve the refund autonomously' directly contradicts the customer's stated preference.
Your team's CLAUDE.md configures Claude Code for code review workflows. A teammate escalates every request flagged as frustrated to a senior engineer. What is the primary flaw in this escalation strategy?
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Sentiment reflects user tone, not the technical complexity requiring senior expertise.
Sentiment-based escalation conflates emotional tone with case complexity — a frustrated user may have a trivial request, while a calm one may have a critical issue. 'CLAUDE.md does not support escalation rules' is a false constraint. 'Plan mode should handle complex cases' confuses planning with escalation. 'Direct execution bypasses escalation' describes no real behavior.
2 more free questions on this subtopic in the practice stream, plus 10 in the full bank. Keep practicing →