Free CSM sample questions

Correct answer: Focus

The value of 'Focus' is most directly compromised. By allowing frequent interruptions, the team loses its ability to concentrate on the work of the Sprint and progress towards the Sprint Goal. The Scrum Master should coach the stakeholders on how to interact with the team appropriately, likely directing communication through the Product Owner and respecting the Sprint's boundary.

Correct answer: True

This statement is true. It directly describes the pillar of Transparency. For inspection and adaptation to be effective, the state of the artifacts and progress towards goals must be transparent to all involved parties, ensuring everyone operates from a common understanding.

Correct answer: The Product Goal

The Product Goal is the commitment for the Product Backlog. It describes a future state of the product which can serve as a target for the Scrum Team to plan against. A missing or poorly defined Product Goal leads to a lack of long-term vision, causing Sprint Goals to seem random and tactical rather than strategic steps toward a larger objective.

Correct answer: Facilitate a discussion between the Product Owner and the Developers to collaboratively craft a Sprint Goal and select work that fits within the Sprint.

The Scrum Master's role is to facilitate, not dictate. The Developers are accountable for selecting the amount of work they can complete. The most effective action is to facilitate a negotiation between the Product Owner and Developers to define a realistic Sprint Goal and corresponding Sprint Backlog. This respects the Developers' self-management and helps the Product Owner make necessary trade-offs.

Correct answer: Adaptation, because the Product Backlog is not being adjusted based on feedback.

While all pillars are related, the core issue is a failure to adapt. The Sprint Review is a key event for inspection and adaptation. Stakeholders provide feedback (inspection), and the expected outcome is that the Product Owner uses this feedback to adjust the Product Backlog for future Sprints (adaptation). If the team continues to build features that miss the mark, it means this adaptation loop is broken.

Correct answers: Explain that in Scrum, performance is measured at the team level through the delivery of valuable Increments, not by individual output.; Coach the manager on how self-managing teams work and invite them to the next Sprint Review to see the team's collective progress.

This addresses the manager's request by re-framing performance in a Scrum context, shifting the focus from individual metrics to team outcomes and collective ownership.

This is a proactive coaching action. It helps the manager understand Scrum principles and provides a constructive, transparent way for them to observe the team's results without undermining self-management.

Correct answer: It inhibits the ability to adapt to new information and changing priorities.

A core tenet of Scrum is empiricism, which relies on learning and adapting. A Gantt chart-style backlog creates a false sense of certainty and discourages change. The Product Backlog should be an emergent, ordered list that can be adapted at any time based on new insights, market changes, or feedback, which this rigid structure prevents.

Correct answer: The Scrum Team

The entire Scrum Team is accountable for creating the Definition of Done. If the organization has a standard Definition of Done, the Scrum Team must follow it as a minimum and may add to it. This collective ownership ensures that everyone—Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers—shares a common understanding of what it means for work to be complete.

Correct answer: Split the team into two smaller, cohesive Scrum Teams.

The Scrum Guide recommends that a Scrum Team be small enough to remain nimble, typically 10 or fewer people. Once a team grows too large, communication overhead increases, and agility diminishes. The best practice is to reorganize into multiple smaller Scrum Teams, each responsible for a cohesive set of work, often sharing the same Product Backlog and Product Owner.

Correct answer: The entire Scrum Team is accountable as a whole for creating a valuable, useful Increment every Sprint.

Scrum replaces the single point of accountability of a Project Manager with the collective accountability of the entire Scrum Team. While each role has specific accountabilities (PO for value, Developers for quality Increment, SM for effectiveness), the team as a unit is accountable for delivering a valuable, useful Increment each Sprint. Success is a team effort and a shared responsibility.