Example questions for preparation for the Certified Scrum Master certification exam

Example questions for preparing for the Certified Scrum Master exam help applicants a lot to take their certification exam for the first time.

A certified Scrum Master with the title BVOSM, CSM, or PSM must have a deep knowledge of the rules and principles of Scrum. To successfully pass your exam we offer you a collection of example questions.

Preparation for the Certified Scrum Master certification exam with example questions

The Scrum Master role and the Sprint Review event are an integral part of the Scrum framework. In this article, we share sample situations that the Scrum Master role may encounter during the Sprint Review event. Reference: Preparation for the Scrum Master certification exam (BVOSM, CSM, PSM), https://mstsnl.net/preparation-for-the-scrum-master-certification-exam-bvosm-csm-psm/

Your team is very eager to go on holiday and asks you to postpone the retrospective of your sprint to the beginning or end of the other sprint.

I do not agree. The retrospective must take place immediately after the current sprint, while everything is still fresh. After a few days or weeks, we may have forgotten some details or they may no longer seem so important.

The client informs you that he/she is starting repair procedures in his / her office and asks you to send him/her a summary by e-mail from your meeting with the team and your opinions about the Sprint Review meeting. He trusts you completely for your analysis.

It is desirable to have a person representing the client at the Sprint Review meeting. In case this is physically impossible, a virtual meeting could be arranged. As a last resort, together with the Product Owner we compile a detailed report for the customer and require mandatory feedback. It is the responsibility of the Product Owner to conduct effective communication with the customer. Reference: “Quick and easy preparation for the Scrum Master certification exam“, https://www.businesspad.org/quick-and-easy-preparation-for-the-scrum-master-certification-exam/

Your principal has heard that your Sprint is over, but there is unfinished business. He is angry and asks you to remove some of the big User Stories from those planned by the end of the sprint and replace them with smaller ones that you can find in the general list.

I explain to the Director that it is normal to have unfinished work on a User Story after the end of the Sprint. With the team, we will analyze in detail what remains to be completed and according to the feedback from the client, we will prioritize the tasks for the next sprint. Customer feedback is a key element in prioritizing Backlog tasks. Reference: “Preparation for the Scrum Master certification exam (PSM, CSM, BVOSM) with sample questions“, https://www.libraryofmu.org/preparation-for-scrum-master-certification-exam/

The team informs you this morning that they are ready with all their work two days before the end of the sprint and ask you to arrange a meeting with the client to hold a Sprint Review meeting with him and start the new sprint tomorrow. While you are at the Sprint Review meeting, they will attend an interesting company training, but promise to make amends by asking the HR department to give you an extra day off this year.

The entire team must attend the Sprint Review meeting. During the meeting, the owner of the product (customer) plays a very important role, being responsible for evaluating each demonstrated user story against the acceptance criteria and accepting or rejecting the story accordingly. Source: https://www.powerhp.net/

Thus, the whole team is informed directly about the customer’s assessment, and the number of accepted user stories determines the number of points achieved in the sprint. By gaining this experience, the team learns to make the right assessments and make informed decisions about historical points that can be achieved.

It’s great that the team is ready two days earlier than planned and I would agree to attend the company training today, as it is important for them, but I am organizing a Sprint Review meeting for the next day when everyone can attend. Reference: “Certified Scrum Master exam preparation: CSM, PSM, BVOSM sample questions“, https://scrumtime.org/certified-scrum-master-exam-preparation-questions/

The team informs you that they prefer not to work with a fixed time for sprints, but prefer each sprint to have a duration according to their work and judgment. They have already discussed this proposal with the Product Owner role and he said he has no claims.

I explain to the team that it is no coincidence that Scrum requires all sprints within the project to be the same length. This helps to:

Easy comparison of sprint results (speed of work, forecast of time needed for a particular development);
The team gets used to its efficiency and productivity and can make more and more accurate plans over time;
Work habits and rhythm are built. Reference: “Preparation for CMS and PSM Certified Scrum Master exam with sample questions“, https://phron.org/preparation-for-cms-and-psm-certified-scrum-master-exam-with-sample-questions/
I tactfully reject their proposal.

Your assigned Product Owner on a project goes on a business trip to the client and sent you a Sprint Goal this morning for the next sprint. He has also made a collection with all the user stories that the team will work on.

We review and discuss with the team what the Product Owner has sent. In case there are questions for clarification of some User Stories by the team, I organize a virtual meeting with the Product Owner to clarify what is necessary so that the team is calm and sure of what is required of the product. (Source: https://www.mu7club.com/, The club of 7 master’s universities)

The Product Owner of the project has sent you an email stating that he will collect detailed information on many details and plans to communicate with the client on an ongoing basis so that he can describe as many details as possible about the work for a long time to come.

I remind the Product Owner that we do not need to go into detailed and long-term planning at the beginning of the project, as the nature of working in a Scrum environment can lead to a change in product requirements after the second or third sprint. It is more important to focus on what is most important to the client now and brings value to the moment. It is good to get as many details as possible about the requirements for the product, but without stretching with planning much ahead of time. Reference: “Certified Scrum Master exam preparation with sample questions“, https://customessaysonline.net/certified-scrum-master-exam-preparation-with-sample-questions/

You are returning from vacation. The project team and Product Owner tell you that there is no time and the sprint should start without planning, as the team will work independently and choose User Stories, ranked at the top of the Product Backlog collection.

I gather the team immediately for a sprint planning meeting, as I understand that the Product Backlog is ready and has prioritized User Stories. We are discussing with the Dev team which User Stories can start working on and which could be completed within the remaining time of the sprint so that at the end we can show progress and some value for the client.

I am careful to leave the responsibility and self-organization entirely in the hands of the Dev team to avoid burnouts, problems, and defects, instead of achieving quality work and a stable product.

The Product Owner role has told your team that some functionality is expected in a few months. Your team plans to do technology research from now on to save yourself any problems and lack of competencies over time.

The fact that something is currently expected to happen indefinitely does not mean that it will happen at all or will happen as it seems to happen at the moment. In the process of product development, the requirements for it or part of its functionality will likely change over time, depending on customer feedback, market conditions, or for some other reason. Therefore, the team should not immediately rush into the study of technology from now on. Reference: “Preparation for Scrum Master certification exam on Sprint event“, https://medfd.org/preparation-for-scrum-master-certification-exam-on-sprint-event/

It is important to keep the focus on what needs to happen/develop at the moment. And, when or if the time comes to develop this functionality, the work should be planned in such a way as to allow enough time to study the relevant technologies.

A member of your team who is planning to go on vacation soon has just started working on User Story, which is expected to be planned for the next sprint.

I ask my colleague to stop working on this User Story, as we do not yet know for sure whether it will be planned for the next sprint or will work at all, and his work may go to waste. If he has free time in the current sprint, he could use it to help a colleague if needed, or for training.

A member of the team expresses dissatisfaction with the idea that everyone knows what the other is doing. He is used to solitude. He prefers to work without explaining exactly what or seeing his work in software systems. It guarantees that it will deliver very good results and on time.

I explain to my colleague that there is a good reason for the Scrum team to work in full transparency and for everyone to know what the other is doing. Visibility helps, if necessary, to adapt the work and efforts of the whole team and to avoid working on unnecessary functionalities or properties of the product. Helps the effectiveness of the team and achieves high results. Reference: “Preparation for Scrum Master certification and tips for Scrum professionals”, https://www.kievpress.info/preparation-for-scrum-master-certification/

For him, the benefit is that he will always be aware that he is working in the right direction, knowing exactly what his colleagues are doing and receiving regular feedback from them about the work he has done, and he will not waste time with unnecessary things.

A colleague of yours, Scrum Master from your organization, meets you in the hallway and asks for advice on the length of his team’s sprint. None of the teams can offer a duration for their sprint. He asks you to recommend a time for their sprint.

The team that will work on the project must determine the length of the sprints in it, taking into account what tasks they will have to perform and how long they think it will take them to work on them along with testing. As a basis, they should use their experience of working on similar tasks in the past.

An outsider who is not familiar with the project cannot and should not set this time frame. It is possible that at the beginning of the project the team will experiment with the length of the sprint until they establish their rhythm.

The team checks and adjusts the length of the sprint in retrospect and reaches a consensus. However, this should not be stretched over time. Within 2-3 sprints, the team should have already established its rhythm. Read more: “Preparation with sample questions for Scrum Master certification exam CSM & PSMI”, https://wikipedia-lab.org/preparation-sample-questions-scrummaster-certification-exam/

Only in rare cases, when the team cannot make a decision, will the Scrum Master get involved and help determine the length of the sprint.

The Product Owner role of your team wants to change the duration of the sprint to 6 weeks as you start integrating very complex systems and do not want to discredit yourself, your team, and the organization in front of the client with sprints where you risk not being able to deliver real work done.

I explain to the Product Owner that it is not a good idea to change the length of the sprints (especially only one sprint), as this will lead to confusion and errors in calculating the speed (velocity) of the team, which will reflect on future planning. and forecasting project development. Thus, the risk of failure is greater. Reference: “Free preparation for the Scrum Master certification exam (CSM, PSMI, PSMII, BVOP)”, https://brightonbot.com/preparation-scrum-master-certification-exam/

Shorter sprints allow us to identify and define problems for the team promptly and respond on time. Regular feedback from the customer gives us confidence that we are on the right track and even if we fail to deliver a working product at the end of the sprint, the customer sees the progress and at the same time the problems facing the team.

This transparency, which is provided by short sprints, would hardly lead to the disgrace that the Product Owner fears. Source: Original publication (https://customer-service-us.com/)

You receive an email from your client’s Project Manager. He asks you if there is a problem if your sprint is 6 working days. He expects a quick response so he knows what to pass on to his superiors.

First of all, I am trying to understand the reason behind this request. But I also answer that determining the length of the sprint is the responsibility of the Scrum team and depends on whether in this time frame we will be able to deliver a real result and value for the client’s business. I will return feedback on the topic as soon as the team decides on the length of the sprints. Read more: “Free training to prepare for the Scrum Master Certification exam”, https://www.islandjournal.net/scrum-master-certification-exam/

Your director tells you that he has read a lot of information on the Internet about Scrum and asks you to set a time for your sprints to be one working week to reduce any risk.

Here I also answer that determining the length of the sprint is the responsibility of the Scrum team and depends on whether in this time frame we will be able to deliver real results and value for the client’s business. One workweek may not be enough for the team to do this, but in the end, they will determine that time themselves.