Practice for the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) exam with 17 exam-style practice questions, instant answer reveals, and concise explanations of every correct answer. Topics include: How can a Product Owner validate the results of his/her assumptions made for the Product? (choose the best answer). Follow @CertPunch and visit certpunch.com for more certification practice exams and study content.
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What you will practice
- How can a Product Owner validate the results of his/her assumptions made for the Product? (choose the best an…
- How long should the Sprint Retrospective be?
- The Scrum Master helps the Product Owner do what with regard to the product backlog?
- A Sprint Retrospective can last up to 8 hours for a one-month Sprint.
- When can the Product Backlog be revised? (choose the best answer)
- The Sprint Retrospective marks the beginning of a new Sprint.
Answers and explanations
Tap a question to expand the answer and the exam reasoning. Try to commit to your own pick first.
Q1. How can a Product Owner validate the results of his/her assumptions made for the Product? (choose the best answer)
Answer: C. Releasing Increments to the market, early and often, to learn about the business assumptions built into the product.
A Product Owner validates assumptions by releasing increments early and often to measure actual market feedback. End-of-Sprint testing only verifies build quality, while a Sprint Goal simply provides focus. Real validation requires empirical user data.
Q2. How long should the Sprint Retrospective be?
Answer: C. A time-boxed meeting of 3 hours for a 1-month sprint, for shorter sprints this can be a shorter event
The Sprint Retrospective is timeboxed to a maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint, and is usually shorter for shorter Sprints. Memorize the official maximum timeboxes. The eight-hour limit applies to Sprint Planning, not the Retrospective.
Q3. The Scrum Master helps the Product Owner do what with regard to the product backlog?
Answer: A. The Scrum Master helps find techniques for effective Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management
The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner by facilitating effective Product Goal definition and backlog management techniques. Watch out for distractors suggesting the Scrum Master either takes over backlog responsibility or remains completely uninvolved.
Q4. A Sprint Retrospective can last up to 8 hours for a one-month Sprint.
Answer: A. False
The Sprint Retrospective is timeboxed to a maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint. For the exam, remember that the Sprint Planning event is the only event with an eight-hour maximum for a one-month Sprint.
Q5. When can the Product Backlog be revised? (choose the best answer)
Answer: C. The Product Backlog can be updated at any time by the Product Owner or at the Product Owner's discretion.
The Product Backlog is dynamic and can be updated at any time by the Product Owner. For the exam, dismiss options that restrict changes to specific Scrum events or require formal change requests, as Scrum favors continuous adaptation.
Q6. The Sprint Retrospective marks the beginning of a new Sprint.
Answer: A. False
A new Sprint starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous Sprint. The Sprint Retrospective is the final event of a Sprint, marking its end rather than the beginning of the next one. Sprint Planning is always the first event.
Q7. The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team but not the larger organization.
Answer: A. False
The Scrum Master serves both the Scrum Team and the larger organization as a true leader. A common exam trap is assuming the Scrum Master only focuses inward on the team, completely ignoring their broader organizational coaching and leadership responsibilities.
Q8. The Product Owner is accountable for:
Answer: A. Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood
The Product Owner is accountable for effective Product Backlog management, which includes ensuring the backlog is transparent, visible, and understood. Creating the Sprint Backlog is the Developers' accountability, while coaching the team belongs to the Scrum Master.
Q9. What variables should a Product Owner consider when ordering the Product Backlog?
Answer: C. Whatever is most appropriate for the Product Owner to achieve the product's goals and to optimize the value received
The Product Owner orders the Product Backlog in any way that best achieves the product's goals and optimizes overall value. Avoid rigid formulas like prioritizing effort or lowest cost first, because true value optimization depends entirely on context.
Q10. You are in a Scrum Team that is in the middle of the Sprint. Your team gets some additional team members. The likely result is:
Answer: A. The team may suffer in its productivity
Adding members mid-Sprint typically reduces short-term productivity due to the overhead of onboarding and communication. Remember Brook's Law; adding people disrupts the existing team dynamics. A Sprint is rarely extended or re-planned just for new members.
Q11. What are the five Scrum events?
Answer: B. The sprint, sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, sprint retrospective
The five Scrum events are the Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective. The Sprint itself acts as a container for the other four events. Remember that backlog refinement and releases are not official Scrum events.
Q12. What are the pillars of the empirical process in Scrum?
Answer: B. Transparency, inspection, adaptation
Scrum is founded on empiricism, which relies on the three pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Watch out for options listing Scrum values or mixing up the pillars, as those are common distractors.
Q13. How long should the Daily Scrum be?
Answer: B. 15 minutes
The Daily Scrum is strictly timeboxed at fifteen minutes to optimize inspecting progress. Remember that timeboxes are fixed maximums, so options suggesting the duration varies based on Sprint length are incorrect.
Q14. What is empirical process control in relation to Scrum?
Answer: D. Knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is known – this can be achieved by using the 3 pillars of transparency, inspection, adaptation
Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience, requiring decisions based on known information via transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Strong distractors often reference unrelated Agile techniques to confuse you.
Q15. The Product Owner's authority to change and update the Product Backlog is unlimited, except for:
Answer: F. Nothing. The entire organization must respect a Product Owner's decisions.
The entire organization must respect the Product Owner's decisions regarding the Product Backlog, meaning their authority is absolute. Exam cues often include traditional titles like CEO to trick you into thinking hierarchy overrides the role.
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