CompTIA · 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.
33% of exam · 6 sample questions below
A project manager is leading a team to develop a new mobile application. The project has a fixed budget and a strict deadline. During the execution phase, the stakeholder requests additional features that were not originally planned. Which project constraint is most directly affected by this request?
Quality
Scope
Additional features fall outside the agreed deliverables, directly expanding the project scope. With budget and deadline fixed, this unplanned work creates a triple-constraint conflict: the new requirements cannot be absorbed without either increasing cost, extending the schedule, or renegotiating what was originally committed.
Schedule
Cost
A project manager is assigned to a new initiative in a matrix organization with a weak matrix structure. The project manager needs to obtain resources from functional departments. The functional managers have authority over their team members' assignments and priorities. What is the most likely challenge the project manager will face in this environment?
Difficulty in obtaining dedicated funding for the project
Team members reporting directly to the project manager
Limited influence over resource allocation and prioritization
In a weak matrix, functional managers retain authority over assignments and priorities, so the project manager lacks formal power to commandeer staff. This directly produces limited influence over resource allocation and prioritisation, the defining constraint of the stem.
High project manager authority over team members
An organization is evaluating two potential projects. Project A has an NPV of $50,000 and a payback period of 2 years. Project B has an NPV of $40,000 and a payback period of 1.5 years. The organization's policy is to select projects with the highest NPV. Which project should be selected?
Project A because it has a higher NPV
The organisation's stated policy selects the project with the highest net present value, so Project A's $50,000 NPV outranks Project B's $40,000. Payback period is a secondary liquidity measure and does not override the mandated NPV criterion.
Project A because it has a longer payback period
Project B because it has a shorter payback period
Project B because it has a lower NPV
During project execution, the project team completes a deliverable that exceeds the specified requirements by adding extra features without authorization. This is an example of which concept?
Gold plating
Gold plating occurs when the team adds unrequested features beyond the agreed scope, exactly as described. It satisfies the scenario's constraint of unauthorised extra functionality, consuming budget and time without approval. Unlike scope creep, which is uncontrolled change from stakeholders, gold plating is extra work initiated by the team itself.
Scope creep
Value analysis
Progressive elaboration
A project manager is defining the project life cycle for a construction project where requirements are well-defined and unlikely to change. Which project management methodology is most appropriate for this scenario?
Agile
Predictive
Predictive methodology suits this scenario because stable, well-defined requirements allow sequential phase planning with baselined scope, schedule and cost. Its phase-gate controls manage dependencies and approvals typical of construction, satisfying the stem's constraint that requirements are unlikely to change, unlike adaptive approaches that expect evolving scope.
Hybrid
Scrum
During project initiation, the project sponsor provides the project manager with a document that authorizes the project and assigns the project manager. This document also outlines high-level scope, budget, and timeline. Which document is this?
Project charter
The project charter formally authorises the project and names the project manager, satisfying the initiation-phase requirement for documented approval. It also records the high-level scope, budget and timeline the sponsor supplied, distinguishing it from the detailed project management plan, which is produced later during planning.
Project management plan
Scope statement
Business case
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Practice this domainDuring which project phase is the project charter typically created and approved?
Initiating
The project charter is produced during Initiating, where the project is formally authorised and the project manager is assigned. Approval of the charter marks the phase boundary, giving the project its mandate before planning begins.
Closing
Executing
Planning
A project manager is developing a network diagram and needs to represent an activity that can start only after its predecessor has finished. Which dependency type does this describe?
Finish-to-Start (FS)
Finish-to-Start means the successor activity cannot begin until the predecessor activity has completed, which is exactly the constraint described. The other dependency types (Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Finish) permit overlapping or different timing relationships, so they do not match the stem.
Start-to-Start (SS)
Finish-to-Finish (FF)
Start-to-Finish (SF)
A project manager is using the power/interest grid to classify stakeholders. Which group should be managed most closely because they have high power and high interest?
Keep satisfied
Monitor
Manage closely
Stakeholders rated high on both power and interest demand the closest engagement, since they can significantly influence the project and care deeply about outcomes. The power/interest grid assigns this quadrant the manage closely strategy, maximising involvement and addressing concerns directly.
Keep informed
A project has an Earned Value (EV) of $50,000, Actual Cost (AC) of $60,000, and Planned Value (PV) of $55,000. What is the Cost Performance Index (CPI), and what does it indicate?
0.83; over budget
CPI equals EV divided by AC, giving 50,000/60,000 = 0.83. A value below 1.0 means each dollar spent delivers only 83 cents of earned value, so the project is running over budget against the stem's figures.
1.20; under budget
0.83; on budget
0.91; under budget
Which risk response strategy involves taking action to reduce the probability or impact of a risk?
Accept
Avoid
Mitigate
Correct: mitigation reduces probability or impact.
Transfer
A project manager is estimating the cost of a new software development project. She uses the actual cost of a similar past project and adjusts for differences in size and complexity. Which estimation technique is she using?
Three-point estimation
Parametric estimation
Bottom-up estimation
Analogous estimation
Analogous estimation derives duration or cost from the actual figures of a comparable historical project, then scales them for size and complexity differences. Here the manager uses a similar past project's real cost, adjusted for scope variance, satisfying the stem's requirement for a top-down, experience-based estimate rather than bottom-up or parametric calculation.
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Practice this domain19% of exam · 6 sample questions below
A project manager wants to visualize the sequence of project activities and their dependencies to identify the critical path. Which tool should be used?
Pareto chart
Network diagram
A network diagram maps activities as nodes with arrows showing dependencies, so the longest path through it reveals the critical path. This directly satisfies the need to visualise sequence and dependencies, unlike a Gantt chart that emphasises duration and calendar timing.
Milestone chart
Gantt chart
During a sprint review, the product owner notices that the team completed 30 story points in the previous sprint and 25 in the current sprint. The project manager wants to track the average story points completed per sprint to predict future performance. Which metric should be used?
Burnup chart
Burndown chart
Velocity
Velocity measures the average story points a team completes per sprint, directly satisfying the product owner's need to predict future performance from the 30- and 25-point sprints. Unlike cumulative flow or burndown, which track work remaining over time, velocity averages completed points across iterations, giving the forward-looking capacity forecast requested.
Planned value
A project manager notices that a task is taking longer than planned and the project is falling behind schedule. The project manager wants to identify the root cause of the delay. Which quality tool would be most appropriate?
Histogram
Control chart
Cause-and-effect diagram
A cause-and-effect diagram maps a problem back to its underlying root causes across categories such as people, process and materials. It directly satisfies the stem's need to identify why the task is delayed, unlike tools that merely display or track variation.
Pareto chart
In an agile project, the team is using user stories to capture requirements. Which of the following is the correct format for a user story?
As a customer, I want to view my order history, so that I can track my purchases.
"As a [role], I want [goal], so that [benefit]" is the canonical user story template, and this option instantiates all three clauses correctly: customer, viewing order history, and the tracking benefit. It satisfies the stem's agile requirement by capturing the requirement from the user's perspective rather than as a technical specification.
The system shall allow users to login.
Login functionality must be implemented.
As a user, I want to login, and the system must be secure.
Which document is used to track and manage changes to the project baseline?
Risk register
Issue log
Change log
The change log records every requested change to the project baseline, including approvals, rejections and their outcomes. It provides the audit trail needed to track and manage baseline changes, which is precisely what the question asks for.
Communication plan
A project manager is using earned value management. The project has a schedule variance (SV) of -$5,000. What does this indicate?
The project is ahead of schedule.
The project is behind schedule.
Schedule variance is calculated as earned value minus planned value; a negative result means less work was completed than planned at that point. An SV of -$5,000 therefore indicates the project is behind schedule, not over budget.
The project is under budget.
The project is over budget.
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Practice this domain18% of exam · 6 sample questions below
A project manager is overseeing the implementation of a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. The vendor requires access to the company's internal network to install and configure the software. Which of the following is the BEST practice to ensure security while allowing vendor access?
Provide the vendor with access to the guest Wi-Fi network
Set up a VPN connection with two-factor authentication
A VPN with two-factor authentication encrypts the vendor's session and verifies identity before any internal resource is reachable, satisfying the need to permit installation access without exposing the network. Two-factor authentication specifically mitigates credential compromise, which a plain VPN tunnel alone would not address.
Allow the vendor to use remote desktop protocol (RDP) directly over the internet
Create a local user account with administrative privileges for the vendor
A project manager is leading a project to upgrade the storage area network (SAN) for a hospital's electronic health records (EHR) system. The current SAN is reaching capacity and has performance issues during peak hours. The new SAN must support high availability with synchronous replication between two data centers located 10 km apart. The project budget is tight, and the timeline is aggressive. During a risk assessment, the project manager identifies that the fiber optic cable between the data centers is owned by a third-party provider and has a history of outages. The project sponsor is concerned about meeting the go-live date and asks the project manager to recommend a course of action to mitigate the risk of cable outages affecting the SAN replication. Which of the following is the BEST course of action?
Purchase redundant SAN controllers to provide failover in case of a controller failure
Increase the synchronous replication interval to reduce the impact of potential outages
Work with the fiber provider to install a second, diverse fiber path between the data centers
A second diverse fibre path provides physical route diversity, so a single third-party cable outage cannot break synchronous replication between the data centres. This directly mitigates the identified third-party outage risk while preserving the high-availability and 10 km replication constraints.
Replace synchronous replication with asynchronous replication over the existing WAN connection
You are the project manager for a mid-sized company that provides an online customer portal. The portal is hosted on a single virtual machine (VM) in the company's on-premises data center with 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM, and a 500 GB HDD. The VM runs Windows Server 2019 and hosts both the web server (IIS) and the database (SQL Server Express). Users have been reporting slow performance, especially during peak hours (10 AM - 2 PM). The system administrator notes that CPU usage spikes to 95% during those times, and disk I/O latency averages 50 ms. The company's budget is limited, and they want a cost-effective solution that can be implemented within two weeks. The project sponsor suggests migrating to the cloud, but the IT director is concerned about security and compliance. The company has no existing cloud infrastructure or virtual private network (VPN) to the cloud. You need to propose a solution that improves performance without incurring high costs or long delays. Which of the following is the BEST course of action?
Migrate the entire portal to a public cloud provider using a lift-and-shift approach, and set up a VPN connection for security.
Upgrade the existing VM by adding more RAM and using a faster HDD with a larger cache.
Create two separate VMs: one for the web server with 2 vCPUs and 8 GB RAM, and one for the database with 2 vCPUs and 8 GB RAM. Replace the HDD with an SSD on both VMs.
Separating IIS and SQL Server Express onto dedicated VMs removes their CPU and memory contention, and SSDs cut the 50 ms disk latency. This stays on-premises, avoiding cloud security and VPN concerns, and fits the two-week, low-cost constraint.
Implement IIS compression and enable SQL Server data compression to reduce CPU and I/O load.
Put the steps for creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) in the correct order.
Identify major deliverables, then decompose deliverables into smaller components, then assign WBS codes, then verify correctness and completeness, then document details.
This is correct because the WBS process starts by identifying the top-level deliverables, then breaking them down, assigning codes for tracking, verifying that all work is covered, and finally documenting the details.
Decompose deliverables into smaller components, then identify major deliverables, then assign WBS codes, then verify correctness and completeness, then document details.
Identify major deliverables, then assign WBS codes, then decompose deliverables into smaller components, then verify correctness and completeness, then document details.
Identify major deliverables, then decompose deliverables into smaller components, then verify correctness and completeness, then assign WBS codes, then document details.
Order the steps for creating a project schedule.
Define activities, Sequence activities, Estimate activity resources, Estimate activity durations, Develop schedule
This is the correct order because it follows the logical progression: first identify what needs to be done, then determine the order, then figure out the resources and time required, and finally create the schedule.
Define activities, Estimate activity resources, Estimate activity durations, Sequence activities, Develop schedule
Sequence activities, Define activities, Estimate activity resources, Estimate activity durations, Develop schedule
Define activities, Sequence activities, Estimate activity durations, Estimate activity resources, Develop schedule
Match each acronym to its definition in project management.
PMP: Project Management Professional
PMP is a certification from PMI for project managers.
WBS: Work Breakdown Structure
WBS hierarchically decomposes project work into manageable sections.
EVM: Earned Value Management
EVM integrates scope, schedule, and cost to measure performance.
ROI: Return on Investment
ROI calculates financial gain relative to cost.
PMP: Return on Investment
WBS: Earned Value Management
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Practice this domainThe PK0-005 exam has 95 questions and must be completed in 90 minutes. The passing score is 710/1000.
Scenario questions on project management concepts, initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and communication.
The exam covers 4 domains: Project Management Concepts, Project Life Cycle, Tools and Documentation, Basics of IT Infrastructure and IT Project Management. 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 CompTIA PK0-005 exam objectives. They are not copied from the real exam. Courseiva focuses on genuine understanding, not memorisation of braindumps.
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