PMP Practice Questions

You are managing a manufacturing facility construction project with a detailed WBS and baseline schedule. During month 4 of the 18-month project, you receive the performance reviews for your project team members from their functional managers. You notice that one of your key electrical engineers received a below-average rating, citing lack of contribution to departmental initiatives. However, this engineer has been fully dedicated to your project, meeting all assigned deadlines and producing high-quality work. The functional manager suggests reducing this person's allocation to your project. What should you do?

August 31, 2026

You are leading a government software development project using a waterfall approach. Three months into the project, you notice that two senior developers who were highly collaborative during planning have become increasingly adversarial, disagreeing on technical approaches during design reviews and making critical comments about each other's work. Their conflict is starting to affect team morale, and other team members are beginning to take sides. The design phase is scheduled to complete in two weeks. What is your best course of action?

August 31, 2026

You are managing a complex infrastructure project with a 24-month timeline. During the planning phase, you identify that your team will need specialized database architects for months 8-12, but your functional manager can only commit these resources for months 10-14 due to competing organizational priorities. The project schedule shows critical database design activities starting in month 8, and any delay would impact the critical path. What should you do first?

August 31, 2026

You are managing a bridge construction project with a 36-month timeline and a team of 45 people including engineers, construction workers, and safety officers. The project is performing well against the baseline, with CPI at 1.02 and SPI at 0.98. During month 12, your construction superintendent, who has 20 years of experience and has been instrumental in maintaining quality and safety standards, submits a resignation letter citing a better opportunity. The construction superintendent is not easily replaceable due to specialized knowledge of the bridge design and local regulations. What is your most important immediate action?

August 31, 2026

You are managing a product development project for a new medical device. The project is in the execution phase, and you have a cross-functional team including engineers, regulatory specialists, and quality assurance professionals. During a weekly team meeting, you notice that the regulatory specialists consistently remain silent when technical decisions are being discussed, even though these decisions have significant regulatory implications. When you ask them directly for input, they provide valuable insights. The team is approaching a critical design decision milestone next week. How should you address this situation?

August 31, 2026

You are managing a manufacturing project with a geographically distributed team across three countries and multiple time zones. The project follows a traditional waterfall methodology with detailed planning completed upfront. Team members have raised concerns about feeling disconnected and unclear about how their work contributes to overall project objectives. Team performance metrics show declining productivity and increasing miscommunication. What should you do to address this situation?

August 28, 2026

You are managing a software development project using a stage-gate approach with formal phase reviews. During the design phase, you learn that three key team members will be pulled to support an emergency customer issue for approximately two weeks, starting next week. The design deliverables are due to the steering committee in three weeks for gate approval. What is the best course of action?

August 28, 2026

Your predictive project has entered the execution phase, and you notice that one team member consistently delivers high-quality work but is frequently late with deliverables, causing delays to dependent tasks. During your one-on-one meeting, the team member reveals they are struggling with the technical complexity of their assignments but were hesitant to ask for help. What should be your primary response?

August 28, 2026

You are leading a construction project following a waterfall methodology. One of your senior engineers, who has been with the company for 15 years, consistently questions your decisions in team meetings and undermines your authority in front of other team members. This behavior is affecting team morale and productivity. You have the project's RACI matrix clearly defining roles and responsibilities. What is the most appropriate action?

August 28, 2026

You are managing a large infrastructure project using a predictive approach with a detailed WBS and resource-loaded schedule. During the planning phase, you identify that two critical team members have overlapping assignments during months 4-6, which will cause resource over-allocation. The project sponsor is pressuring you to maintain the current timeline. What should you do first?

August 28, 2026

You are managing a predictive product development project for a manufacturing company. The project team includes subject matter experts from engineering, quality, and production departments. During the design phase, you notice that the quality manager, who is a key stakeholder, rarely attends scheduled project meetings and has not responded to several requests for review and approval of critical deliverables. This is causing delays in the approval process. When you finally reach him by phone, he mentions he's very busy with operational issues. What is the most effective action?

August 20, 2026

Your predictive construction project has a baseline schedule of 18 months with defined milestones. You have a team of 40 people including contractors and full-time employees. The project sponsor has just informed you that due to budget constraints, three of your planned team members will not be available for the next phase starting in two months. These positions were critical to the resource management plan. The sponsor asks you to proceed with the reduced team and maintain the original schedule. What should you do first?

August 20, 2026

You are leading a predictive software development project with a defined project plan and detailed WBS. Three months into execution, one of your key developers informs you privately that she is overwhelmed with her assigned tasks and feels she doesn't have the necessary skills to complete a critical module due next month. She is embarrassed and asks you not to tell other team members. The module is on the critical path, and her performance reviews from her functional manager have always been excellent. What is the best approach to help this team member?

August 20, 2026

You are managing a large infrastructure project with a team of 25 members following a predictive approach. During the execution phase, you notice that two senior engineers are having recurring disagreements about technical implementation details, which is causing delays in deliverables. The disagreements occur during team meetings and are beginning to affect team morale. Other team members have started choosing sides, and productivity has decreased by 15% over the past two weeks. What should you do first to address this situation?

August 20, 2026

You are managing a predictive IT infrastructure upgrade project with a diverse team including members from three different countries and time zones. The project is four months into a 12-month schedule. You've noticed during virtual status meetings that team members from the Asia-Pacific region rarely speak up or challenge ideas, even when you know from private conversations that they have valuable concerns and alternative suggestions. Team members from North America tend to dominate discussions. This dynamic is preventing the team from making the best decisions. What should you do to improve team collaboration?

August 20, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project where the marketing deliverables follow a predictive schedule tied to a product launch date, while the product features are developed iteratively. A high-performing developer has been consistently helping marketing team members learn new tools and solve technical problems, but this is impacting their ability to complete sprint commitments. The marketing manager wants this support to continue, saying it's invaluable. The Scrum Master is concerned about sprint goal achievement. How should you handle this situation?

August 17, 2026

Your hybrid project has a core team co-located in the office and three remote team members in different time zones who joined recently. The co-located team members have strong working relationships and often make decisions during informal hallway conversations. The remote members have expressed frustration about being excluded from decisions and learning about changes after they've been made. Sprint retrospectives show declining satisfaction scores from remote team members. What should you do to address this?

August 17, 2026

You are leading a product development project using a hybrid approach where requirements are managed predictively but delivery occurs in two-week iterations. A key stakeholder who funded the project has been unavailable for the past month and missed the last two sprint reviews. The team has questions about priorities and acceptance criteria, causing them to make assumptions. Another stakeholder with less authority has been attending and providing direction that contradicts the original requirements. What is your best course of action?

August 17, 2026

Your hybrid project team includes five experienced waterfall practitioners and three agile coaches. During retrospectives, the waterfall practitioners rarely speak up, and later you discover they feel their perspectives aren't valued in agile ceremonies. One veteran team member privately tells you they feel the agile approach dismisses the importance of upfront planning. Team velocity has plateaued for three iterations. How should you address this situation?

August 17, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project where the development team uses Scrum for software delivery while the infrastructure team follows a predictive approach. During sprint planning, the development team commits to features that require infrastructure changes, but the infrastructure team says they need two weeks advance notice to schedule their work. This misalignment has caused delays in the past two sprints. What should you do first to address this situation?

August 17, 2026

Your agile team has been consistently meeting sprint commitments, but during a recent retrospective, team members admitted they have been padding estimates significantly to ensure they never miss a commitment. The team's capacity allows them to complete stories early, but they wait until late in the sprint to pull in additional work to avoid looking like they overcommitted. The product owner is frustrated because the team could be delivering more value. What should you do to address this behavior?

August 13, 2026

During a sprint review, your product owner presents a new feature idea that excites stakeholders, and they immediately begin discussing implementation details. Three team members become animated and start volunteering to work on it, while two others remain silent and look uncomfortable. After the meeting, one of the quiet team members tells you privately that they feel their opinions are never heard because the more vocal members always dominate discussions. How should you address this to promote inclusive team participation?

August 13, 2026

Your agile team consists of members distributed across three time zones with only a two-hour overlap in working hours. Team members have reported feeling disconnected and unaware of what others are working on. The daily standup has become a status report where people simply read updates without meaningful interaction. Sprint planning meetings are running long because decisions take time with limited real-time collaboration. What is the most effective approach to improve team collaboration?

August 13, 2026

You are leading an agile team that has been working together for three sprints. During the last retrospective, two team members had a heated disagreement about the definition of done for user stories. The conflict escalated, and other team members became uncomfortable. One developer now refuses to pair program with the other. The team's velocity has dropped by 30% since the conflict began. What should you do first to address this situation?

August 13, 2026

You are coaching a new scrum master who is struggling with their role. During sprint planning, you observe them directing the team on which tasks each member should work on and how long each should take. In the daily standup, they spend time problem-solving individual blockers rather than facilitating team self-organization. When you provide feedback, they explain that they are trying to be helpful because they have the most technical experience and want to ensure the team succeeds. What coaching approach would best help this scrum master develop?

August 13, 2026