• 80 questions

PSM 1 Practice Test

Rules and team situations from the 2020 Scrum Guide, each answer backed by the sentence that settles it.

In Scrum, key decisions rest on the perceived state of what?

Pick an answer, then press Check answer. Then you see Correct or Not quite, with the reason. Keys: A to D pick, Enter checks.

Print covers the next 80 questions. Share this set copies a link to the same questions in the same order.

Exam mode: 80 questions, 60 minutes, 68 right to pass (85%).

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with Scrum.org. Bank checked October 7, 2026.

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All 80 questions

Empiricism and Scrum Values 12

  • A company keeps Sprints but drops the Sprint Retrospective and the Product Owner. What does the Scrum Guide say leaving out elements of Scrum does? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Purpose of the Scrum Guide
  • A Developer raises a hard quality problem in the open instead of working around it. Which Scrum value does the Scrum Guide tie to doing the right thing and working on tough problems? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Values
  • A task board has not matched the real state of the work for weeks, yet the team still inspects it. What does the Scrum Guide call inspection without transparency? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Transparency
  • A team inspects its Increment every Sprint but changes nothing as a result. What does the Scrum Guide call inspection without adaptation? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Inspection
  • By the Scrum Guide, when does adaptation become more difficult? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Adaptation
  • In Scrum, key decisions rest on the perceived state of what? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Transparency
  • In the words of the Scrum Guide, what does lean thinking do? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Theory
Show all 80 questions (73 more)

Empiricism and Scrum Values, continued

  • Midway through a Sprint, a process is found to deviate outside acceptable limits. When must the adjustment be made? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Adaptation
  • The Scrum Guide says the Scrum Team and stakeholders speak openly about what? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Values
  • Side requests pull at a team during the Sprint. By the Scrum Guide, what is the primary focus of the Scrum Team on? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Values
  • Which Scrum value does the Scrum Guide describe as team members treating each other as capable, independent people? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Values
  • Why is the Scrum framework purposefully incomplete? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Definition

Scrum Team 14

  • A manager wants a separate group to verify each Increment after the Sprint ends. By the Scrum Guide, who is responsible for verification? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Team
  • A product has dozens of stakeholders with competing needs. Who may represent those needs in the Product Backlog? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Product Owner
  • A Scrum Team lacks a skill the product needs. What does the Scrum Guide expect of the people Scrum engages? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Theory
  • A Scrum Team of 16 reorganizes into two Scrum Teams that work on the same product. What should the two teams share? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Team
  • A team of analysts and researchers uses Scrum for work that is not software. Are they Developers in the sense of the Scrum Guide? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Purpose of the Scrum Guide
  • An executive re-orders the Product Backlog without speaking to the Product Owner. What does the Scrum Guide say Product Owners need in order to succeed? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Product Owner
  • By the Scrum Guide, how does the Scrum Master establish Scrum? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Master
  • How often do the Developers adapt their plan toward the Sprint Goal? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Developers
  • One Developer keeps skipping a practice the Developers agreed on. By the Scrum Guide, who holds Developers accountable as professionals? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Developers
  • The Scrum Team is a cohesive unit focused on one objective at a time. What is that objective? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Team
  • What does the Scrum Guide report about smaller teams? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Team
  • Where are the decisions of the Product Owner visible? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Product Owner
  • Which of these is part of the Product Backlog management the Product Owner is accountable for? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Product Owner
  • Who structures and empowers the Scrum Team to manage its own work? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Team

Events 18

  • A Sprint Review is run as a slide show with no discussion. What does the Scrum Guide say? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Review
  • A team is behind and proposes to skip its testing to reach the Sprint Goal. What does the Scrum Guide say about quality during the Sprint? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), The Sprint
  • A team works in two-week Sprints. What does the Scrum Guide say about its Sprint Planning timebox? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Planning
  • An hour after the Daily Scrum, two Developers find that their plan no longer works. What may they do? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Daily Scrum
  • At the Sprint Retrospective a team finds the one change that would help most. What does the Scrum Guide say about the most impactful improvements? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Retrospective
  • By the Scrum Guide, why are events used in Scrum? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Events
  • By when must the Sprint Goal be finalized? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Planning
  • During the Sprint the Developers learn that the selected work is larger than they thought. What may happen to scope? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), The Sprint
  • In Sprint Planning, who selects the Product Backlog items for the Sprint? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Planning
  • The Scrum Master is doing work on Sprint Backlog items. How does the Scrum Master take part in the Daily Scrum? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Daily Scrum
  • The Scrum Team wants a security specialist from outside the team at Sprint Planning. What does the Scrum Guide say? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Planning
  • To whom does the Scrum Team present the results of its work at the Sprint Review? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Review
  • What does the Scrum Guide warn may happen when the horizon of a Sprint is too long? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), The Sprint
  • When Developers decompose Product Backlog items in Sprint Planning, how small are the work items often made? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Planning
  • Which changes does the Scrum Guide rule out during a Sprint? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), The Sprint
  • Which effect does the Scrum Guide attribute to Daily Scrums? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Daily Scrum
  • Which of these does the Scrum Team inspect at the Sprint Retrospective? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Retrospective
  • Why might a team choose shorter Sprints, by the Scrum Guide? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), The Sprint

Artifacts and Done 16

  • A director hands the Developers work that is not in the Product Backlog. What does the Scrum Guide say about the Product Backlog? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Product Backlog
  • A team created three Increments in one Sprint. What does the Sprint Review show? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Increment
  • An Increment meets the Definition of Done on day six of a ten-day Sprint. May it be delivered to stakeholders before the Sprint Review? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Increment
  • An item is almost finished but falls short of the Definition of Done. May it be shown at the Sprint Review? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Definition of Done
  • An organization has no standard Definition of Done. Who must create one for the product? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Definition of Done
  • At what moment is an Increment born? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Definition of Done
  • The Developers commit to the Sprint Goal. What does it leave flexible? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Sprint Goal
  • How does each Increment relate to the Increments before it? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Increment
  • How much detail should the Sprint Backlog have? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Backlog
  • On day four of a Sprint the Developers learn something that changes their plan. What happens to the Sprint Backlog? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Backlog
  • Once the Sprint Goal is created in Sprint Planning, where is it added? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Sprint Goal
  • What are the Scrum artifacts designed to maximize? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Artifacts
  • What must an Increment be in order to provide value? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Increment
  • When is a Product Backlog item deemed ready for selection in Sprint Planning? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Product Backlog
  • Whose plan is the Sprint Backlog? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Backlog
  • The work proves to differ from what the Developers expected. By the Scrum Guide, what do they do? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Sprint Goal

Developing People and Teams 8

  • A manager outside the team wants to tell the Developers how to build a selected item. What does the Scrum Guide say? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Planning
  • A Scrum Master insists on a fixed set of questions at the Daily Scrum. Who chooses the structure of the Daily Scrum? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Daily Scrum
  • At a Sprint Retrospective the team finds that an assumption led it astray. What does the Scrum Guide say is done with such assumptions? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Retrospective
  • Employees outside the Scrum Teams do not see why the work cannot be fully planned up front. Which service of the Scrum Master addresses this? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Master
  • Product Backlog items are vague and long-winded. Which service of the Scrum Master applies? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Master
  • Rather than give people detailed instructions, what do the rules of Scrum do? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Definition
  • What does the Scrum Master help the Scrum Team focus on? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Master
  • Whom does the Scrum Master serve by planning and advising Scrum implementations? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Scrum Master

Managing Products with Agility 12

  • A Scrum Team wants to pursue a second Product Goal alongside its current one. What does the Scrum Guide say? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Product Goal
  • A team tracks its progress with a burn-down chart. What does the Scrum Guide say about such forecasting practices? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), The Sprint
  • At the Sprint Review, what do the Scrum Team and stakeholders review besides what was accomplished in the Sprint? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Review
  • The Developers size the Product Backlog items. How may the Product Owner influence them? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Product Backlog
  • How does the Scrum Guide define a product? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Product Goal
  • In a complex environment, what can decisions about the future draw on? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), The Sprint
  • In Sprint Planning, what does the Product Owner propose? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Planning
  • What does the Product Goal describe? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Product Goal
  • What makes the Developers more confident in their Sprint forecasts? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Sprint Planning
  • When is the Product Backlog refined during a Sprint? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), The Sprint
  • Where is the Product Goal kept? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Commitment: Product Goal
  • Which does the Product Owner ensure about the Product Backlog? The Scrum Guide (November 2020), Product Owner

How this list was compiled: Own questions, written to the focus areas Scrum.org lists for its Professional Scrum Master I assessment at https://www.scrum.org/assessments/professional-scrum-master-i-certification (read 2026-10-07): Understanding and Applying the Scrum Framework (Empiricism, Scrum Values, Scrum Team, Events, Artifacts, Done), Developing People and Teams (Self-Managing Teams, Facilitation, Coaching) and Managing Products with Agility (Forecasting and Release Planning, Product Value, Product Backlog Management, Stakeholders and Customers). Every fact was read on 2026-10-07 in the Scrum Guide, November 2020 edition (https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html). Each question names the section of the guide it was written from and links to it. Licence: Own work. Every question, wrong choice and explanation was written for this site from the Scrum Guide. Nothing is copied or reworded from a Scrum.org assessment, its Scrum Open practice assessment or another practice product. The Scrum Guide is (c) 2020 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland and is offered under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); the short passages quoted in the explanations are quoted from it under that licence.

How it works

This free, unofficial PSM 1 practice test holds 80 of our own questions on the Scrum Guide, sorted by the focus areas Scrum.org lists for Professional Scrum Master I. It is not affiliated with Scrum.org, and no question comes from its assessments.

Read the full guide

What PSM I covers

Scrum.org's certification page, read on October 7, 2026, lists focus areas under three competencies: Understanding and Applying the Scrum Framework, Developing People and Teams, and Managing Products with Agility. It gives no weights, and it says results come back as a breakdown by competency, never question by question.

How these questions differ from the real ones

The real assessment mixes multiple choice, multiple answer and true or false. Here every question has one right answer among four, and the explanation names the section of the November 2020 Scrum Guide it rests on.

  • For a Sprint shorter than a month the guide sets no figure for Sprint Planning, the Review or the Retrospective: each is usually shorter.
  • Work that misses the Definition of Done is not shown at the Sprint Review. It goes back to the Product Backlog.
  • No one, the Scrum Master included, tells the Developers how Product Backlog items are to be turned into Increments.

Questions and answers

How many questions are on the PSM 1 exam?

80 questions in 60 minutes, by Scrum.org's page: multiple choice, multiple answer and true or false. Exam mode here draws all 80 of our questions on the same clock.

What is the passing score for PSM 1?

85%, by Scrum.org's page. Exam mode uses the same mark, but these are our own questions, so a score here does not predict a result on the real assessment.

Do you need a course to take the PSM 1?

No. Scrum.org says attendance is not a prerequisite, though it strongly recommends a course. An attempt costs $200 USD, and the password it buys does not expire until used.

Is this a Scrum Master certification practice test?

Yes, for Scrum.org's Professional Scrum Master I, often typed PSM 1. The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) of Scrum Alliance is a different certificate with its own test: for that, use the Scrum Master practice test.

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