Free PMP practice test

12 original questions written by our editors against the official PMI exam domains. They are not real exam questions. Pick an answer to see the explanation.

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1. People

   Two senior developers on your hybrid team keep arguing in stand-ups about code review standards, and the disagreement is slowing work on the current iteration. What should you do first?

   AMove one of the developers to a different workstream to separate themBMeet with both developers to understand the source of the disagreement and help them agree on a standard that the team adds to its working agreementCEscalate the issue to both developers' functional managersDChoose a review standard yourself and announce it to the team
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   Answer: B. Managing conflict starts with understanding its source and facilitating an agreed resolution that the team owns, such as a working agreement. Escalating or reassigning people skips the team's ability to resolve it. Imposing a standard may end the argument but does not build buy-in.

2. People

   Halfway through a project, a new sponsor takes over. In her first meeting she describes the project's purpose quite differently from the approved charter. What is the best action?

   AContinue as planned, since the charter was already approvedBSend the sponsor the latest status report so she can catch upCHold a session with the sponsor and key stakeholders to review the business case and objectives and confirm a shared visionDRaise a change request to adjust the scope to the new sponsor's view
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   Answer: C. A mismatch in understanding the vision should be surfaced and resolved with the people who own it before anything else changes. Ignoring it risks delivering something the sponsor will not accept. A change request is premature until the vision is agreed, and a status report does not address the misunderstanding.

3. People

   A regulatory affairs manager has high influence over your product's approval but rarely attends design reviews. Last week he raised objections late, causing rework. What should you do?

   AFind out what he needs from the project and tailor his engagement, for example with short one-to-one checkpoints at key decisions, and update the stakeholder engagement planBRemove him from the review invitations since he does not attendCAsk the sponsor to require his attendance at every reviewDAdd more technical detail to the weekly status report
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   Answer: A. High-influence stakeholders need engagement tailored to their needs and availability, and the engagement plan should reflect that. Removing him guarantees more late surprises. Forcing attendance or adding detail to a report does not address why he is not engaging.

4. People

   The only team member who understands a legacy system integration has resigned and leaves in six weeks. Integration work continues for another four months. What is the best response?

   AAsk HR to persuade the person to delay their departureBPlan a structured handover now: identify the critical knowledge, pair the person with a successor on live work, and record it in the shared project repositoryCAsk the team member to write a summary document during their last weekDAccept the risk and deal with integration problems as they come up
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   Answer: B. Knowledge transfer works best when it starts early, focuses on critical knowledge and combines hands-on pairing with documentation others can access. A last-week document captures too little. Delaying departure is outside your control, and accepting the risk ignores an obvious threat you can reduce.

5. Process

   Your project includes a medical device whose hardware requirements are fixed by regulation, and a companion mobile app whose features will change based on user feedback. Which development approach fits best?

   ADelay the project until all mobile app requirements are knownBA predictive approach for the whole project, with all requirements fixed up frontCA hybrid approach: predictive planning for the regulated hardware and short adaptive iterations for the mobile appDA fully agile approach with no up-front planning for either component
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   Answer: C. Stable, regulated requirements suit predictive planning, while evolving requirements suit iterative delivery, so a hybrid approach matches each part to its needs. Fully predictive planning would force constant change requests for the app. A fully agile approach ignores the fixed regulatory constraints, and waiting delays value.

6. Process

   At a status review, your project shows a cost performance index (CPI) of 0.85 and a schedule performance index (SPI) of 1.05. How should you describe its performance?

   AUnder budget and behind scheduleBOver budget and behind scheduleCOver budget and ahead of scheduleDUnder budget and ahead of schedule
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   Answer: C. A CPI below 1.0 means each unit of money spent is earning less than planned value, so the project is over budget. An SPI above 1.0 means more work has been completed than planned at this point, so it is ahead of schedule. The other options reverse one or both indices.

7. Process

   Your team has a fixed release date and more backlog items than it can finish. Stakeholders disagree on what matters most. How should you decide what the team works on?

   AStart with the easiest items to show high velocity earlyBSplit the team's time equally across all requested featuresCBuild the items in the order the requests were receivedDWork with the product owner and key stakeholders to rank items by business value and feedback, then deliver the highest-value items first in increments
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   Answer: D. Value-based delivery means prioritizing with stakeholders by business value and delivering the most valuable work first, so the fixed date still yields the most benefit. Arrival order and ease ignore value. Spreading effort evenly risks finishing nothing completely by the release date.

8. Process

   You need an outside specialist to start next week on a short, two-month engagement while requirements are still being explored. Your organization wants to limit its financial exposure. Which contract type fits best?

   ATime and materials with a not-to-exceed limitBCost plus percentage of costCFirm fixed priceDCost plus award fee with a multi-year term
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   Answer: A. Time and materials suits short engagements where the scope is not yet defined, and a not-to-exceed limit caps the buyer's exposure. Firm fixed price needs well-defined scope, which you do not have. Cost plus percentage of cost gives the seller no reason to control costs, and a multi-year award-fee contract is far too heavy for two months of work.

9. Process

   The customer has accepted the final deliverables of your project. What should you do next?

   AStart planning the follow-up project the customer mentionedBObtain formal sign-off, confirm the operations team is ready to take over, capture final lessons learned and close out contracts and financialsCArchive the project documents and close the project fileDRelease the team immediately so they can join other projects
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   Answer: B. Closure includes formal approval, confirming readiness for transition, final lessons learned, and closing procurements, finances and resources. Releasing the team or archiving documents first leaves these activities unfinished. A follow-up project is a separate initiative and does not close this one.

10. Business Environment

    On the predictive part of your project, a customer vice president asks a developer directly to add a new reporting feature. The developer tells you about it. What should you do?

    AAssess the impact on scope, schedule, cost and risk, then submit it through the change control process for a decisionBTell the vice president that no changes are allowedCAdd the feature to the scope baseline so the team can start workDLet the developer add the feature if it looks small
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    Answer: A. Requested changes to baselined work go through change control, with an impact analysis so the right people can approve or reject them. Adding it informally creates scope creep. Refusing outright ignores a possibly valuable request, and updating the baseline before approval bypasses governance.

11. Business Environment

    Your risk register lists late delivery by a key supplier as a risk, with a planned response of using a pre-qualified backup supplier. The supplier has now confirmed a three-week delay. What should you do?

    ACarry out the planned response, record the event in the issue log and inform affected stakeholdersBHold a new risk identification workshop with the teamCRe-baseline the schedule to absorb the three-week delayDWait a week to see whether the supplier recovers
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    Answer: A. The risk has occurred and is now an issue, so you apply the response you already planned, track it as an issue and communicate. A new workshop or waiting wastes the time the plan was meant to save. Re-baselining accepts the full delay without trying the planned response.

12. Business Environment

    A new data privacy regulation has been announced that takes effect before your system goes live. It may affect where customer data can be stored. What is the best action?

    AAsk the team to work overtime to go live before the regulation appliesBWait until the regulation takes effect before doing anythingCAssess the impact on scope and backlog with compliance experts, prioritize the required changes, update the compliance and risk records and brief the sponsorDRecommend that the sponsor cancel the project
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    Answer: C. Changes in the external environment should be assessed for their impact on scope and backlog, with compliance needs prioritized and stakeholders informed. Waiting leaves less time to respond. Cancelling is an overreaction before any analysis, and rushing to go live early does not remove the compliance obligation.