TOP PMP SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Questions

1. Amy is a project manager working within an organization that is recently going through a
reorganization. During a staff meeting, she learns that management decided to shift
technology to the cloud as a top strategic priority. She is managing a project using an
Agile approach, and since she knows that this shift has a direct impact on her project,
she decided to:
a. Send a formal request to the sponsor asking for an exception against going to the
cloud.
b. Close the project and submit a new project that will properly address the updated
scope.
c. Assess the impact with the sponsor and proceed with the change management
process.
d. Assess the impact with the team and refine the backlog.

2. Nada is managing a web project which sends daily email notifications and threshold
notifications when cloud expenses are exceeding a predefined level. Using an adaptive
approach to manage the project, Nada works with her team to update and prepare stories
for the upcoming iteration. This is an example of:
a. Backlog refinement
b. Project management
c. Schedule management
d. Sprint review

3. The traditional format of a daily stand-up is to gather in a circle near the relevant task
board and each member takes his turn to answer a set of questions. Which of the following
options explains the meaning of daily stand-up in agile?
a. It is the meeting to discuss the future work schedule.
b. A daily lesson learned session
c. A meeting where the team is asked the things done on the previous day and the
plan for the current day along with the problems they faced during these tasks
d. A daily brainstorming session

4. Your Scrum team failed to meet the Sprint objectives. Right at the beginning of the four-
week Sprint, one of the key members of the team took two days off due to a family
emergency. What is the most likely reason that your team did not meet the Sprint
objectives?
a. Your team is lacking skills.
b. Your team is overworked.
c. You didn’t assign a replacement for the OOTO (Out of the Office) member.
d. Your team did not plan the sprint effectively.

5. Working on developing an accounting software, the Agile team decides to allocate 8 Story
Points to a task, based on the fact that developers estimated 5 points and testers estimated
3 points. Which statement is true regarding this scenario?
a. The team should ask the relevant stakeholders about the estimate.
b. Points should be assigned for the overall task, not for parts of it.
c. Points should never be estimated, they should be determined instead.
d. Points should be assigned by the project manager, not by the team.

6. A PMO is shifting from a predictive to a more adaptive approach to deliver project

outcomes. During an Agile training session for its employees, a team member asks: “How
many individuals should be in a project team?”. What should be the response?
a. 1 to 5
b. 10 to 15
c. 3 to 9
d. There is no standard number

7. Rachel is a project manager of Unique Manufacturing, a company specialized in creative

manufacturing. As she sits down with her sponsor to evaluate the project performance, she
reviews feedback from the most recent prototype, which was produced successively to gain
further insight. Rachel explains to the sponsor how the use of timeboxing helped reduce the
uncertainty in the project. What type of life cycle is she using?
a. Agile
b. Predictive
c. Iterative
 d. Incremental

8. Ahmed is an Agile consultant. A medium-sized IT company, previously working with the

predictive approach, asked him to help them set up the Agile life cycle for their projects.
Which of the following influences that Ahmed should be aware of when setting up the Agile
approach?
a. Existence of a scrum master
b. Organization’s culture
c. Organization knowledge of the predictive methodology
d. Size of an organization

9. You are leading a team of 6 civil engineers in an open space work environment. You were
working on an offer that should be sent to a potential client when they called and asked for
the cost estimate. You informed the prospect that it will be around $600,000. Upon hearing
the discussion, Amelia, a team member, immediately corrected you by saying “it’s actually
around $700,000”, without you even noticing that she is hearing the discussion. What kind
of communication is being used here?
a. Open space communication
b. Distracting communication
c. Indirect communication
d. Osmotic communication

10. Andrew is a project manager in an organization that used to opt for the predictive
approach. The decision-makers at his organization attended a conference about Agile and
decided to adopt the method starting the next year. Andrew got worried about losing his
job because as far as he knows, an Agile team is composed of team members, a scrum
master, and a product owner, thus his organization will not need a project manager
anymore. Are his concerns justified?
a. Yes, the agile team doesn’t include a project manager
b. Yes, he should either convert to a scrum master role or look for a new
opportunity in an organization following the predictive approach
c. No, he can work as a product owner since it’s the same as a product
manager’s role
 d. No, he can continue working as a project manager where he will be more
of a facilitator

11. To keep up with everything going on with his project, Luca relies on emails as a medium
to communicate with the project team and stakeholders. To avoid any misunderstanding,
Luca pays close attention to the way he composes his emails. When formulating his emails,
Luca uses all of the following techniques, except:
a. Brief, right-to-the-point expressions
b. Consideration of the reader needs
c. Words and ideas fluency
d. Tone variation

12. You are managing a project using the predictive approach. The sponsor authorized the
Change Control Board (CCB), in which he is a member, to review all change requests. One
month after the project launch, the CCB got three change requests; the first was by the
sponsor, the second was by a low-power stakeholder, and the third one was issued by a
senior team member. Which of those is not allowed to submit a change request?
a. The sponsor since they are a member of the CCB
b. The stakeholder since they have a low power
c. All of the above are allowed to submit a change request
d. The senior team member since they are part of the project execution team

13. Ronaldo is a local carpenter who owns a small workshop specialized in designing and
manufacturing outdoor furniture. Pedro, a sales representative working with a luxurious
hotel chain, asked Ronaldo to produce a single unit of a new concept of egg chairs as quickly
and inexpensively as possible. What is this product called?
a. Minimum viable product
b. Pre-production version
c. Product increment
d. Sample

14. After discussing the matter with stakeholders, you decided to go with a hybrid approach
for your new project in order to get the advantages of both the predictive and adaptive
approaches. After you had documented and estimated all of the project activities, one of
the stakeholders complained that you seem to literally follow the predictive approach. What
should you do next in order to demonstrate that you are actually following a hybrid
approach?
a. Sequence activities
b. Develop schedule
c. Plan iterations
d. Estimate costs

15. You are managing a team of engineers to build a packaging machine. After internally
verifying that the product is ready, you shipped it to the client site. When the client received
the product, they gave you a call asking whether the machine meets requirements or not.
What should you do next?
a. Confirm that the product was internally tested and formally close the project
b. Perform the control quality process and use the contingency reserve to fix any
discovered issues
c. Collaborate with the client to get their signature approving that the product
complies to requirements
d. Send an engineer to the client site to double-check the product requirements

16. You are managing a software project using the Agile approach. During the sprint
planning session, you came across a disputable story where everyone has a different story
point estimation. The product owner, being the most acquainted with the business case,
weighed in with a “2” story points estimation. However, you think it should be “3” since you
worked on several similar stories in the past. Your team, which is composed of two junior
engineers, thinks it should be “5”. What estimate should be applied?
a. 5, because the team members are the ones who will be working on the story
b. 3, because you have a past experience that allows you to use the analogous
estimation technique
c. 3, as an average of all estimates
d. 2, because the product owner is the most aware of the business

17. Ana is managing a project using an iteration-based Agile approach. During the
retrospective meeting, one of her team members declared that the sprint planning meeting
always takes too much time due to the fact that tasks were not detailed enough in the first
place. What should Ana do to fix this issue?
a. Create a rule to prohibit creating non-detailed tasks
b. Encourage the team to hold one or more backlog refinement sessions during
iterations
c. Ignore the team member’s feedback unless other team members agree with them
d. Split the planning meeting into two or three sessions so attendees don’t feel
bored

18. You are in the planning phase of a project consisting of manufacturing a drone for
wildlife protection purposes. The project is challenging because the drone is supposed to be
able to identify and keep count of a wide range of wild animals. Since you have previously
dealt with drones in the military field, you think that using analogous estimating will be of
great help for your current project. Your estimation technique is best known as:
a. Three-point estimating
b. Expert judgment estimating
c. Bottom-up estimating
d. Parametric estimating

19. Wanting to have their own home, José and Maria decided to avoid getting a mortgage
and build a tiny house instead. They watched some videos and read many tutorials, then
they started planning. When it came to interior design, José and Maria seemed to disagree
on a lot of details. Since they wanted to get their house ready by the end of the year, they
decided to launch the construction work first and decide about the interior design later on.
What technique are José and Maria using?
a. Rolling wave
b. Fast-tracking
c. Crashing
d. Decomposition

20. A start-up in the pre-seed stage approached you in order to develop a sound resource
planning for its development. Even though you have worked with many start-ups before,
this time you are skeptical about this start-up business model. Should you use historical
information if you are to accept conducting their resource planning?
 a. No, since every project is unique, there is rarely any correlation between different
projects’ resource expectations.
b. No, since historical information is usually not applicable for innovative and rapidly
changing projects.
c. Yes, since historical information can provide insight when making comparisons to
resources used on previous similar projects.
d. Yes, since an accurate estimation of resources cannot be performed without
referring to historical information.

21. Irina joined a new company that adopts the Agile approach. Her team is using “ideal
hours” to size the tasks during the sprint planning. However, she was a bit confused by the
use of other terms referring to “ideal hours”. Which other terms did Irina’s team use to
refer to “ideal hours”? (Select three)
a. Effort hours
b. Business hours
c. Man hours
d. Person hours

22. Elias is the facilitator of a Sprint Review meeting. During the meeting, Alexander, one of
the team members, demonstrated a new feature and pointed out that it took more than
expected due to the missing technical documentation. Then, he asked a senior team
member about how they should avoid this in the future. As the meeting facilitator, what
should Elias do?
a. Let the discussion flow naturally since it’s important and only intervene if the side
discussion continues for too long
b. Ask the team member to reflect on how to make such improvements on another
meeting
c. Interrupt Alexander because the product owner is not supposed to know that
documentation is missing
d. Let the discussion continue and then ask the product owner to give feedback on
potential improvements

23. After checking the burndown chart in your Agile project management tool, you find out
that there is a lot of work left to be done that will be difficult to complete by the end of the
sprint. What should you do next?
 a. Request an urgent meeting with the team and inform them that they will need to
work overtime to meet the sprint deadline and keep the client satisfied.
b. Send an email to the team informing them of the situation and encouraging them
to do more effort.
c. Wait for the next stand-up meeting to find out the reason behind the team’s slow
pace
d. Wait until the next retrospective meeting to reflect on what is happening

24. Your organization is deliberating over two potential projects that have exactly the same
payback period. After doing a benefit measurement analysis, you find out that project A has
a lower Internal Rate of Return (IRR) than project B. What project should your organization
choose?
a. Project A
b. Project B
c. There is no difference
d. The available information is not enough to make a decision

25. The sponsor submitted a change request to the Change Control Board (CCB) in which
you are a member. The Board counts five members, and opinions are diverged concerning
whether to accept or reject the change request. What is the best course of action in order to
make a decision?
a. Try to reach a consensus
b. Call for voting and let the majority decide
c. Let the most experienced member of the board decide
d. Let the board director decide

26. You are managing a project which follows the Scrum framework and using the Fibonacci
sequence to estimate user stories. One of the stories has been assigned a “5” estimation by
you, but your team thinks that a “3” estimation is more accurate. What should the final
estimate of this user story be?
a. 3
b. 4
c. 5
 d. You should discuss more to reach a consensus

27. You have experience managing projects in different fields, but this is your first time
managing an IT project. You happened to hear the product owner repetitively stating that
adding technical debt should be avoided at all costs. What is technical debt?
a. Bugs caused by omission or mistakes
b. Code Refactoring
c. The cost of rework due to missed features
d. The cost of rework due to degraded code quality

28. Yusuf is managing his project using the predictive approach. One month into execution,
he calculated the cost variance and the result was $0.90. What is the status of Yusuf’s
project?
a. The project is under budget
b. The project is over budget
c. The project will end up costing more than initially forecasted
d. The project will end up costing less than initially forecasted

29. You are managing a web application project using an iterative life cycle. During the
iteration planning, Mila, one of your team members, insists that a user story that involves
updating the pricing plan should not be brought into the upcoming sprint since many use
cases are still missing and there aren’t enough details on how to handle users with old
pricing plans. What is the likely reason for Mila to push out this user story?
a. The user story doesn’t meet the Definition of Done
b. The user story doesn’t meet the Definition of Ready
c. The user story involves an impossible stakeholder demand
d. The user story might result in a wasted time and effort

30. Sylvie was recently hired as a project manager at Acme Inc. In her previous position, she
used to have a wide-ranging authority that covers getting functional requirements from
stakeholders as well as contributing to the technical decisions with her team. Wondering if
things will be different for her in Acme Inc. Sylvie asked her mentor what type of
organization Acme Inc. is. Which of the following options is not an organizational structure
type?
a. Projectized
b. Matrix
c. Functional
d. Technical

31. During a prospect meeting, Anna insisted that the new website she wants to develop for
her e-commerce business should meet some crucial conditions: it should be SEO (Search
Engine Optimization) friendly with a score of 80% or above, and all of its pages should be
perfectly responsive on all devices and screen sizes. Anna is setting the
__________________.
a. Definition of Done
b. Quality Assurance
c. Functional Requirements
d. Fit for Use

32. You have been informed by your senior manager that you are going to lead a Fintech
(Financial Technology) project. Since this project is big and innovative, you are excited as it
will present a great accomplishment in your career. However, after a few weeks, you start
to feel worried because every time you ask your manager about the project’s start date,
they tell you that they are waiting for an official document to be issued in order for you to
start working on the project. Which document is your management referring to?
a. Project charter
b. Project management plan
c. Scope statement
d. Enterprise resource planning

33. Anissa is managing an e-health platform project. After completing all requirements,
Annisa sits with Arief, the product owner, and goes through each item of the deliverable
acceptance criteria. Arief found that among thirty deliverables, two did not meet
requirements, so he asked Anissa to do the needed changes in order to sign off the final
delivery document. Which process are Anissa and Arief currently performing?
a. Control quality
 b. Control scope
c. Validated scope
d. Close project

34. You are assigned to manage an amusement park. The project comprises two phases: the
first phase involves importing attractions like games and rides, and the second phase entails
setting up and installing everything. What should you do after completing the first phase?

a. Validate scope
b. Identify risks
c. Identify stakeholders
d. Define activities

35. Johanna owns a wholesale business. Two of her sales representatives refuse to share
with her the contact information of some of the company’s retailers. Since they own this
sensitive data, they use it to blackmail her on multiple occasions. For this reason, Johanna
asked you to set up a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ensure that all explicit
information concerning retailers will be recorded. Knowing that your project might face
resistance from these two sales representatives, what should your first step be?
a. Use the why-why method to understand the root of the sales representatives’
behaviour
b. Use the what-if scenario analysis to evaluate the sales representatives' attitude
and evaluate their potential impact on the project
c. Meet with the two sales representatives and try to win their support
d. Hire another trusted sales representative to secretly get the retailers’ contact info

36. Your company was awarded a contract in one of the Scandinavian countries. Before
moving along with your team to the project site, which proactive measure should you take
as the project manager?
a. Train your team on the country’s laws
b. Teach your team the country’s common slang terms
c. Do some research to make sure both you and your team understand the cultural
differences
 d. Develop a communication management plan

37. Michelle is managing a business transformation project. Within the scope of the project,
Michelle and her team have to conduct a survey with 10 experts. Her sponsor asked her to
raise the number of experts to 20 since 10 might not be sufficient to have enough input and
insight. They also requested that she makes the change without issuing a change request.
What should Michelle do?
a. Accommodate the change
b. Refuse to make the change
c. Negotiate the number in order to reach a consensus
d. Inform the sponsor that they need to follow the change management process

38. Lizzy had replaced another project manager in a distressed project consisting in
implementing a financial management system. While she was examining the network
diagram, she found five critical paths and two near-critical paths. What does this indicate
about the project?
a. The project is at high risk
b. The project requires more financial or human resources
c. The project will be completed on time and within budget
d. The project should be terminated

39. Natalie’s organization has recently converted to Agile for its projects’ execution. After a
few months, Natalie’s superiors approached her to complain that her Team A has a bad
performance compared to her other Team B since the latter always has a higher velocity
than that of Team A. What should Natalie do?
a. Move some of the best performing members of Team B to Team A
b. Set up a reward program to motivate Team A
c. Urge Team A to work on increasing their velocity in the upcoming sprints
d. Inform her superiors that they can’t compare different teams’ performances
based on velocity

40. During the maintenance of your banking platform project, you are contractually engaged
to present a monthly report on what has been done during the previous month and what
preventive measures will be taken during the upcoming month. You used to deliver the
status update presentation yourself, but since you are on vacation, a team member
volunteered to replace you. After the meeting has taken place, you receive feedback from
key stakeholders saying that the presentation was not good. What should you do to address
the situation with your team member?
a. Reproach the team member to let them know how disappointed you are
b. Send an email to the team member to use their reply as a justification for any
ulterior decisions
c. Ask the team member what happened with the presentation that resulted in the
stakeholders’ dissatisfaction
d. Ignore the issue since it only occurred once and it won’t happen again now that
you’ll be back to delivering the upcoming status presentations

41. You are leading a dispersed team using the Scrum framework. During the sprint
retrospective, your team suggested improving communication and collaboration by using
fishbowl windows and remote pairing. Even though you’re worried that this might
negatively impact the team’s productivity, you agree to implement both tools as you want
to promote self-organization within your team. What should your next step be?
a. At the end of the upcoming sprint, you should evaluate the impact of the new
practices and decide whether to stop or continue using them.
b. Frequently join the remote conferencing rooms to ensure that the team is actually
working and not spending time uselessly chit-chatting.
c. During the upcoming sprint, you should measure your team’s velocity and, if you
notice any decrease, unilaterally discontinue the use of the new practices in order to
be able to achieve the sprint objectives.
d. Ask for the product owner’s approval to deploy the use of these two practices, as
they should validate any changes in work processes.

42. Marion is in charge of holding a conference about entrepreneurship. In order to be up-

to-date with the current trends and understand what participants and potential attendees
might look for, she asked her team to perform benchmarking, brainstorming sessions, focus
groups, interviews, and questionnaires. The methods are representative of which tool and
technique?
a. Data analysis
b. Data gathering
c. Data representation
 d. Decision making

43. You are developing a software project using an iterative, incremental approach. During a
retrospective meeting, and while your team was discussing several potential improvements
for the next iteration, you were taking note of the associated action items. What should the
next step be?
a. The team should ask the product owner for feedback
b. The team should ask the scrum master for feedback
c. The team should prioritize incomplete user stories from the previous iteration
d. The team should prioritize improvement action items to be implemented during
the next iteration

44. James had a major dispute with one of his construction project vendors. James claims
that the vendor has failed to provide raw materials that conform to the agreed-upon quality
requirements, while the vendor complains that payments were late, failing to meet
contractual obligations. What should James do?
a. Not waste his time and simply replace the vendor
b. Involve a third party for arbitration or mediation
c. Collaborate directly with the vendor to resolve the issue
d. Conduct a procurement audit

45. Linda is leading a manufacturing project to create a new gaming console. While testing
the product, her team discovers that one of the controller buttons is not functioning
properly. Thus, Linda asked her team to submit a change request to replace the button,
which didn’t take long to get approval. This change request represents:
a. Corrective action
b. Preventive action
c. Defect repair
d. Gold plating

46. You got assigned to lead the implementation of a Learning Management System (LMS)
using a predictive approach. During execution, Megan, who was assigned to handle a critical
task, informed you that she won’t be able to meet the deadline and that she will need more
time. Knowing that her updated estimate will have no impact neither on the critical path nor
on the project duration, what should you do?
a. Transfer the task to another team member who can complete it within the
allocated time
b. Inform Megan that since the project schedule is already approved, it won’t be
possible to changes it
c. Ask Megan to take care of updating the project schedule whenever any inaccuracy
in activity estimates is identified
d. Approve Megan’s new activity estimate and update the project schedule and any
other relevant plans accordingly

47. Julian is managing a project that consists in implementing an accounting application for
a pet store. During a project performance review meeting, Julian presented the following
figures: AC = $4,000, PV = $5,000, and EV = $5,500. What does that indicate about the
project?
a. Since both the CV and SV are positive, the project is under budget and ahead of
schedule
b. These numbers are insufficient to calculate the project SPI and CPI
c. Since the CV is negative, Julian has probably spent more than he initially planned
to
d. Since the SV is negative, the project is behind schedule

48. Since its foundation, your organization has been always using the predictive life cycle for
implementing its projects. Recently, executives decided to experiment with adaptive
approaches. You suggested using the Kanban method since it respects the company’s
current work enrolment state, processes, roles, and titles. What other principles and
characteristics could you communicate to your executives about the Kanban method?
(Select two)
a. Osmotic communication
b. Visualize the workflow
c. Limit work in progress
d. Implement feedback loops
49. Alexis is managing a software development project using a hybrid approach. During
project execution, the sponsor decided to exit the project, and another sponsor was
assigned. When Alexis informed the new sponsor that the deliverables were produced using
a hybrid project management approach, they asked for a proof. How should Alexis address
the new sponsor's request?
a. Explain the hybrid approach to the new sponsor
b. Inform the new sponsor that they should reach out to the project team in order to
get a clear explanation on how the product is being developed
c. Demonstrate the project charter to the new sponsor
d. Present the project management plan containing the product development
approach to the new sponsor

50. Madeline is leading a one-year facial recognition home security system. Five months into
the execution phase, %50 of the project work is completed. What is the project’s SPI and
status?
a. The SPI is 0.83 and the project is behind schedule
b. The SPI is 0.83 and the project is ahead of schedule
c. The SPI is 1.2 and the project is behind schedule
d. The SPI is 1.2 and the project is ahead of schedule

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