PMI · Free Practice Questions · Last reviewed May 2026
24real exam-style questions organised by domain, each with the correct answer highlighted and a plain-English explanation of why it's right — and why the others are wrong.
A team is using Scrum and notices that the Product Owner frequently changes priorities during the Sprint, causing the team to rework tasks. What should the Scrum Master do first?
Coach the Product Owner on the Sprint Backlog rule and the impact of changes.
The Scrum Master coaches the Product Owner to respect the Sprint scope.
Shorten the Sprint duration to minimize rework.
Ask the team to be flexible and accept the changes.
Escalate to the project sponsor for resolution.
In Kanban, the team is experiencing frequent bottlenecks at the testing stage. Which practice should they adopt to improve flow?
Increase the batch size of work items.
Conduct daily stand-up meetings.
Add more testers to the testing phase.
Limit the WIP at each stage, especially testing.
WIP limits expose bottlenecks and encourage flow.
A distributed Scrum team is having difficulty with communication across time zones. The Daily Scrum is scheduled at 9 AM in the US, which is midnight in India. What is the best approach to resolve this?
Record the Daily Scrum for the India team to watch later.
Replace the Daily Scrum with asynchronous updates.
Rotate the time of the Daily Scrum so that no one is always inconvenienced.
Fair rotation supports team collaboration.
Hold two separate Daily Scrums for each location.
During Sprint Planning, the Product Owner proposes a user story that is too large to fit in one Sprint. What should the team do?
Collaboratively break down the story into smaller, sprint-sized stories.
Decomposition is a standard Agile practice.
Reject the story and ask for a smaller one.
Accept the story and work overtime to complete it.
Accept the story and commit to completing it in the Sprint.
A team is new to Agile and wants to implement a framework that emphasizes iterative development, time-boxed iterations, and a prioritized backlog. Which framework should they adopt?
Kanban
Scrum
Scrum fits the description perfectly.
Lean
Extreme Programming (XP)
Which TWO of the following are responsibilities of the Product Owner in Scrum?
Facilitating the Daily Scrum.
Prioritizing the Product Backlog items.
The PO orders backlog items to maximize value.
Managing the Product Backlog.
The PO owns the Product Backlog.
Removing impediments for the team.
Enforcing timeboxes for Sprint events.
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Practice this domainA project manager is reviewing the project charter and notices that the business case includes a cost-benefit analysis with a Net Present Value (NPV) of $50,000 and an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 12%. The company's required rate of return is 10%. What should the project manager conclude about this project?
The project is financially viable.
IRR (12%) > required rate (10%) and positive NPV indicate financial viability.
The project's payback period is acceptable.
The project is expected to break even.
The project is not financially viable.
During project execution, a key stakeholder requests a significant change that will increase project scope. The project manager performs an impact analysis and determines that the change will delay the project by two weeks and increase costs by 10%. However, the change is critical for regulatory compliance. What should the project manager do first?
Approve the change because it is critical for compliance.
Reject the change because it will delay the project and increase costs.
Submit the change request to the change control board (CCB).
Formal change control process requires CCB review and decision.
Implement the change and request approval after.
A project manager is estimating the duration of an activity. The optimistic estimate is 4 days, the pessimistic is 12 days, and the most likely is 6 days. Using the PERT three-point estimate, what is the expected duration?
6.67 days
Correct PERT calculation: (4 + 4*6 + 12)/6 = 6.67.
12 days
7.33 days
6 days
A project team is working on a software development project. The project manager notices that the team is spending too much time on unplanned work, resulting in delays to the critical path. What technique should the project manager use to reduce unplanned work and improve focus?
Apply crashing to the critical path activities.
Perform resource leveling to smooth resource usage.
Use fast tracking to overlap activities.
Implement critical chain project management.
Critical chain focuses on resource constraints and buffers, reducing unplanned work.
A project manager is assigned to a project that is in the planning phase. The sponsor asks the project manager to include a 10% contingency reserve in the budget. The project manager knows that the project has a high degree of uncertainty. What should the project manager do?
Explain that contingency reserves are not allowed in the project budget.
Refuse the request because it is unethical.
Perform a quantitative risk analysis to determine appropriate contingency reserves.
Risk analysis provides data-driven reserve estimation.
Add the 10% contingency reserve as requested.
Which TWO of the following are outputs of the Identify Stakeholders process?
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis is part of the stakeholder register output.
Stakeholder management plan
Issue log
Stakeholder register
Stakeholder register is a direct output of Identify Stakeholders.
Stakeholder engagement plan
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Practice this domainA project manager is developing the project schedule for a construction project. The team has identified all activities and their dependencies. Which tool should the project manager use to determine the critical path?
Work breakdown structure (WBS)
Critical path method (CPM)
CPM calculates the critical path.
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
Gantt chart
During project execution, a key stakeholder requests a change that will increase the project scope. The project manager evaluates the impact and determines it will require additional budget and time. What should the project manager do first?
Implement the change and update the project plan
Submit a change request to the change control board
Formal change request is the first step.
Update the project baseline immediately
Reject the change because it impacts the baseline
A project manager is estimating activity durations for a software development project. The team has historical data from similar projects, but the current project involves new technology that could cause delays. Which estimating technique should the project manager use to account for uncertainty?
Parametric estimating
Analogous estimating
Three-point estimating
Incorporates uncertainty via three values.
Bottom-up estimating
A project manager is creating the risk management plan. Which document should the project manager reference to identify the risk tolerance of stakeholders?
Project scope statement
Stakeholder management plan
Contains stakeholder risk tolerance.
Project charter
Risk register
During project planning, the team identifies that a task has a duration of 10 days, a predecessor finish-to-start relationship, and a lag of 2 days. What is the earliest the successor task can start if the predecessor starts on day 1?
Day 11
Day 10
Day 12
Correct calculation.
Day 13
Which TWO of the following are outputs of the Define Activities process? (Select exactly 2.)
Work breakdown structure
Activity attributes
Output of Define Activities.
Activity list
Output of Define Activities.
Project schedule
Risk register
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Practice this domainA project manager is leading a software development project. The business analyst has identified that the current requirements gathering process does not align with the enterprise's business analysis framework. The team is experiencing frequent scope changes and rework. What should the project manager do first to address this issue?
Immediately implement a change control process to manage scope changes.
Train the business analyst on the project's requirements gathering techniques.
Review the enterprise's business analysis framework and adjust the requirements process to comply with it.
Aligning with the framework ensures consistency and reduces rework.
Update the requirements documentation to include a traceability matrix.
During the planning phase of a project, the business analyst needs to define the solution scope. Which business analysis framework artifact is most appropriate to document the high-level boundaries and capabilities of the solution?
User stories
Context diagram
A context diagram defines the solution's boundaries and external entities.
Business case
Work breakdown structure (WBS)
A business analyst is facilitating a requirements workshop for a new regulatory compliance system. Stakeholders disagree on the priority of two requirements: Requirement X (must meet legal deadline) and Requirement Y (improves user efficiency). The project sponsor insists on including both, but the timeline is tight. What is the best approach to resolve this conflict?
Prioritize Requirement X because it is regulatory, and defer Requirement Y.
Escalate to the steering committee for a decision.
Include both requirements and extend the project deadline.
Conduct a feasibility study to evaluate trade-offs and present options.
A feasibility study provides objective data to guide decision-making.
A business analyst is using a business analysis framework to identify stakeholders. Which technique is most effective for ensuring all affected parties are considered?
Brainstorming with the project team
Conducting one-on-one interviews with known stakeholders
Creating a stakeholder map and validating with experts
A stakeholder map systematically identifies and categorizes stakeholders.
Distributing a questionnaire to the organization
During requirements validation, the business analyst discovers that a key requirement conflicts with an existing system constraint. The project manager wants to proceed with the requirement as-is to meet customer expectations. What should the business analyst do?
Escalate directly to the project sponsor.
Document the conflict, analyze trade-offs, and facilitate a decision with stakeholders.
This follows the business analysis framework for conflict resolution.
Modify the requirement to avoid the constraint without informing stakeholders.
Accept the project manager's decision and proceed.
A business analyst is evaluating the performance of a business analysis framework after project completion. Which metric best indicates the effectiveness of the requirements management process?
Schedule variance
Number of requirements defects found post-implementation
Defects indicate errors in requirements elicitation or validation.
Number of requirements traced to test cases
Stakeholder satisfaction survey results
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Practice this domainThe CAPM exam has 150 questions and must be completed in 150 minutes. PMI uses a Proficient/Needs Improvement/Below Proficient rating — not a numerical score out of 1000.
Scenario-based project management questions covering planning, execution, monitoring, and controlling processes.
The exam covers 4 domains: Agile Frameworks and Methodologies, Project Management Fundamentals and Core Concepts, Predictive Plan-Based Methodologies, Business Analysis Frameworks. Questions are weighted by domain — higher-weight domains appear more on your actual exam.
No. These are original exam-style practice questions written against the official PMI CAPM exam objectives. They are not copied from the real exam. Courseiva focuses on genuine understanding, not memorisation of braindumps.
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