Oracle Agentic AI Foundations Associate (1Z0-1157-26)

Learning plan

About 11.5 hours of focused study, split into 5 phases. Pick your weekly pace and the timeline adjusts.

Estimated finish: 2 weeks

Before you start

• Basic familiarity with LLM concepts, working Python, and basic OCI familiarity (Oracle's stated prerequisites)
• A free Oracle account for MyLearn. An OCI Free Tier account and a local Python environment for the demos

1. Week 1 · 2 h

   AI agent fundamentals

   • Define an AI agent and its core components (model, instructions, tools, memory, planning loop)
   • Explain reasoning patterns such as chain-of-thought and ReAct, and when an agent needs guardrails
   • Trace a single agent turn from user input through tool call to final answer

   Use: Oracle Agentic AI Foundations course (free)

2. Week 1 · 3.5 h

   LangChain and MCP

   • Build a LangChain agent from chat models, prompts and tools, and explain what happens "under the hood" in the agent loop
   • Explain MCP hosts, clients and servers, and the tools/resources/prompts primitives
   • Add an MCP server to a LangChain agent, and know the STDIO and Streamable HTTP transports

   Hands-on: Build a LangChain agent with two Python tools (a calculator and a lookup), then expose the lookup as a local STDIO MCP server, connect the agent to it, and check its tool list in MCP Inspector.

   Use: LangChain documentation · MCP Inspector (GitHub)

3. Week 1 · 2.5 h

   OpenAI Responses API and Agents SDK

   • Explain the Responses API and how the Agents SDK adds agents, tools, handoffs and guardrails on top
   • Design a multi-agent customer-support flow with handoffs and an input guardrail

   Hands-on: With the OpenAI Agents SDK, build a triage agent that hands off to a billing agent or a tech-support agent, and add a guardrail that blocks off-topic requests.

   Use: OpenAI Agents SDK (Python) docs

4. Week 1 · 2 h

   OCI Enterprise AI agents and Oracle AI Database

   • Explain why agents need a lifecycle and runtime, and describe the OCI Enterprise AI Platform and Enterprise AI Agents building blocks
   • Know how agents are deployed and scaled on OCI
   • Explain Oracle AI Vector Search workflow, Private Agent Factory, the Select AI agent framework and the Autonomous AI Database MCP Server

   Use: OCI Generative AI documentation · Oracle AI Vector Search guide

5. Week 2 · 1.5 h

   Practice exam and review

   • Pass every module skill check, then work through the "Prepare for OCI Agentic AI Certification" module
   • Take the free practice exam in the learning path and re-watch the lessons behind each miss

   Use: Become an Oracle Agentic AI Foundations Associate learning path

You're ready to book when…

• You can explain ReAct, MCP's host/client/server roles and Agents SDK handoffs without notes
• You have built a working agent with LangChain and with the OpenAI Agents SDK
• You pass Oracle's free practice exam and every course skill check

Exam tips

• The course is vendor-mixed (LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP, OCI), so expect questions about open frameworks as well as Oracle products.
• Oracle lists Agentic AI Foundations as the free entry point to its 2026 Agentic AI track, which continues with three professional certifications.