This PMP practice question tests your understanding of process — managing technical aspects. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A project manager is reviewing the project's risk register and identifies several risks that could impact the project. According to PMBOK Guide, which THREE of the following are strategies for negative risks or threats? (Choose three.)
Exploit
Why wrong: Exploit is used to ensure an opportunity is realized.
Enhance
Why wrong: Enhance is used to increase the probability or impact of an opportunity.
Avoid
Avoid involves eliminating the threat or protecting the project from its impact.
Transfer
Transfer involves shifting the impact of a threat to a third party.
Mitigate
Mitigate involves reducing the probability or impact of a threat.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Avoid
Avoid, Transfer, and Mitigate are the three primary strategies for dealing with negative risks or threats as defined in the PMBOK Guide. Avoid involves eliminating the threat entirely by changing the project plan, Transfer shifts the impact of the threat to a third party (e.g., insurance, fixed-price contracts), and Mitigate reduces the probability or impact of the threat to an acceptable threshold. These strategies are specifically designed to address risks with a negative impact on project objectives.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Exploit
Why it's wrong here
Exploit is used to ensure an opportunity is realized.
Enhance
Why it's wrong here
Enhance is used to increase the probability or impact of an opportunity.
Avoid
Why this is correct
Avoid involves eliminating the threat or protecting the project from its impact.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Transfer
Why this is correct
Transfer involves shifting the impact of a threat to a third party.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Mitigate
Why this is correct
Mitigate involves reducing the probability or impact of a threat.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
PMI often tests the confusion between threat and opportunity strategies, so the trap here is that candidates mistakenly select Exploit or Enhance because they sound like active responses, but they are reserved for positive risks, not threats.
Detailed technical explanation
In risk management, the PMBOK Guide categorizes response strategies into two distinct groups: those for threats (negative risks) and those for opportunities (positive risks). The threat strategies—Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate, and Accept—each have specific mechanisms: Avoid might involve removing a high-risk vendor, Transfer might use a fixed-price contract to shift cost overruns, and Mitigate might add redundancy or conduct more testing. A common subtlety is that Accept is also a valid threat strategy, but it is not listed among the correct answers here because the question asks for three specific strategies from the provided set.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
What to study next
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FAQ
Process — Managing Technical Aspects — This question tests Process — Managing Technical Aspects — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Avoid — Avoid, Transfer, and Mitigate are the three primary strategies for dealing with negative risks or threats as defined in the PMBOK Guide. Avoid involves eliminating the threat entirely by changing the project plan, Transfer shifts the impact of the threat to a third party (e.g., insurance, fixed-price contracts), and Mitigate reduces the probability or impact of the threat to an acceptable threshold. These strategies are specifically designed to address risks with a negative impact on project objectives.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
This PMP practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PMP exam.
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