Practice for the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) exam with 18 exam-style practice questions, instant answer reveals, and concise explanations of every correct answer. Topics include: What are the time-boxes for the Sprint Review and the Sprint Retrospective?. Follow @CertPunch and visit certpunch.com for more certification practice exams and study content.
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What you will practice
- What are the time-boxes for the Sprint Review and the Sprint Retrospective?
- Who should do the legwork of gathering the marketplace data for the Product Owner?
- If only the work scheduled for the Sprint's first few days is decomposed to units of one day or fewer, might…
- At the end of Sprint Planning, the Developers could not decompose all of the work into units of one day or le…
- Who monitors the remaining work of the Product Backlog?
- What are the Scrum Artifacts? Select all applicable answers.
Answers and explanations
Tap a question to expand the answer and the exam reasoning. Try to commit to your own pick first.
Q1. What are the time-boxes for the Sprint Review and the Sprint Retrospective?
Answer: A. 4 and 3 hours respectively
For a one-month Sprint, the Sprint Review is capped at four hours, and the Retrospective is capped at three hours. A helpful exam cue is to remember that reviewing with stakeholders takes longer than internal team reflection.
Q2. Who should do the legwork of gathering the marketplace data for the Product Owner?
Answer: C. It does not matter who does the legwork
Scrum does not dictate who gathers marketplace data, meaning anyone can assist with this legwork. The critical point for the exam is that the Product Owner remains accountable for the final decision and product value.
Q3. If only the work scheduled for the Sprint's first few days is decomposed to units of one day or fewer, might the Sprint Planning be completed?
Answer: A. Yes, if the remaining work is also estimated, maybe in bigger units
Sprint Planning can be completed if only the near-term work is finely decomposed, as long as the Developers understand the remaining scope. Detailed decomposition of the entire Sprint backlog is not required during planning.
Q4. At the end of Sprint Planning, the Developers could not decompose all of the work into units of one day or less. They could decompose the work for only the first few days of the Sprint. Since the team is self-organized, they should continu…
Answer: B. The Developers should close the Sprint Planning and start the work
Sprint Planning is strictly time-boxed, so the Developers must close the event and start working on the decomposed items. Exam cue: you do not need the entire Sprint planned day-by-day upfront, as the Sprint Backlog emerges during the Sprint.
Q5. Who monitors the remaining work of the Product Backlog?
Answer: D. The Product Owner
The Product Owner tracks total product progress by monitoring the remaining work in the Product Backlog. A strong distractor is the Developers, but they only track work remaining inside the current Sprint Backlog, not the overall Product Backlog.
Q6. What are the Scrum Artifacts? Select all applicable answers.
Answer: A,C,D. Increment || Sprint Backlog || Product Backlog
The three official artifacts in Scrum are the Product Backlog, the Sprint Backlog, and the Increment. Be careful not to select the Sprint Goal here, as it functions as a crucial commitment attached to the Sprint Backlog.
Q7. What are Product Backlog characteristics? (choose the best three answers)
Answer: A,D,E. As long as a product exists, its Product Backlog also exists || It is dynamic || It is never complete
A Product Backlog is dynamic and never complete as long as the product exists. Remember that Scrum events or artifacts do not get closed or dismissed; they continuously evolve to maximize value.
Q8. What measures can help determine the success of the product? (choose the best three answers)
Answer: A,B,D. The product's impact on customer satisfaction. || The product's impact on cost. || The product's impact on revenue.
Product success is measured by its impact on customer satisfaction, cost, and revenue. Avoid metrics like velocity, which only measures team speed, or delivered scope, which does not guarantee actual value.
Q9. What is the duration of the Daily Scrum?
Answer: A. 15 minutes
The Daily Scrum is strictly timeboxed at 15 minutes to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal. Ignore options mentioning the three questions, because the 2020 guide removed those as mandatory requirements.
Q10. In the Scrum context, the word "development" only refers to software.
Answer: A. False
In Scrum, the terms develop and development refer to any complex product work, not just software. This broad definition ensures the framework applies to hardware, marketing, or any complex domain. Never limit Scrum concepts to software development.
Q11. If 6 Scrum Teams work on the same product, how many Product Owners are needed?
Answer: A. One Product Owner
A product has exactly one Product Owner, regardless of how many Scrum Teams work on it. The Product Owner is one person, not a committee, ensuring a clear and unified product vision. Multiple teams may share this single Product Owner.
Q12. What should be taken into account for the Definition of Done? Select the two most appropriate items.
Answer: B,C. The Definition of Done of other Scrum Teams working on the same Product || Conventions, standards and guidelines of the Organization
The Definition of Done must account for organizational standards and guidelines, as well as the definitions used by other teams working on the same product. If multiple teams share a product, they must mutually create and follow a unified Definition of Done.
Q13. What type of process control is Scrum?
Answer: B. Empirical
Scrum is founded on empirical process control theory. This means decisions are made based on observation, experience, and experimentation. Empiricism relies on the three pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation to manage complex work effectively.
Q14. Successful use of Scrum depends on people becoming more proficient in living five values including: Select two.
Answer: A,E. Commitment || Respect
Commitment and Respect are two of the five official Scrum values. The complete list includes Focus, Openness, and Courage. Hierarchy, velocity, and multitasking are management concepts or metrics that are not part of the core Scrum values.
Q15. What action should a Scrum Master take if the Developers have decided that Retrospectives are no longer necessary?
Answer: A. Start facilitating more productive and useful Retrospectives.
The Scrum Master must ensure all Scrum events occur and remain productive, meaning they should coach the team to hold useful Retrospectives. Canceling mandatory events or extending the timebox violates Scrum rules and removes critical inspection opportunities.
Q16. Who is responsible for collaborating with the stakeholders?
Answer: D. The Scrum Team
The entire Scrum Team shares responsibility for collaborating with stakeholders to align the product with user needs. However, this is somewhat ambiguous because the Product Owner also has a primary duty to engage stakeholders for managing the Product Backlog.
Q17. How long should the Sprint Planning be?
Answer: A. Not more than 8 hours
Sprint Planning is timeboxed to a maximum of eight hours for a standard one-month Sprint, usually proportionally shorter for shorter Sprints. Avoid the trap of thinking planning continues until every single task is fully decomposed.
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