20 free CAPM practice questions

Correct answer: C · The payroll runs are operations; the software replacement is a project

PMI describes a project as temporary work, with a beginning and an end, undertaken to create a unique result, while operations are ongoing, repetitive work that sustains the business. The biweekly payroll runs repeat the same process with no planned end, so they are operations. The software replacement has a start, a fixed go-live date, a budget, and a unique result, so it is a project; when it ends, its output passes to the payroll operation. Producing output on a schedule does not turn repetitive work into a project, and supporting the same function does not make a temporary initiative operational. A program is a group of related projects managed together for shared benefits, not a label for routine work.

Look for this next time: Projects are temporary and create a unique result; operations repeat the same work to sustain the business.

Correct answer: B · The move must cost no more than $80,000

A constraint is a limiting factor the project must work within, such as a budget ceiling, a mandated date, or a required standard. The $80,000 cap limits the options the team can choose, so it is a constraint. The landlord's possible delay is a risk: an uncertain event that has not happened and may or may not occur. The expectation that the movers will be available is an assumption: something treated as true for planning without proof, which should be logged and checked. The vendor's missed date is an issue, because it has already happened and now has to be managed. The CAPM outline lists telling these four apart as part of its first task.

Look for this next time: Constraints limit options, risks may happen, assumptions are unproven planning beliefs, and issues have already happened.

Correct answer: A · A program, because related projects are coordinated for shared benefits

PMI's program standard describes a program as related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually. The portal, the scheduling upgrade, and the training depend on one another and share one benefit, so together they form a program. A portfolio is a collection of projects, programs, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives; the executive committee's selection and funding of all the group's work is the portfolio level, and portfolio components need not be related. A phase is part of a single project's life cycle, not a group of projects. Daily use of the systems after delivery is operations.

Look for this next time: A program coordinates related projects for shared benefits; a portfolio groups work, related or not, to meet strategic objectives.

Correct answer: D · Disclose the relationship and step back unless stakeholders approve a plan

PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct makes disclosing real or potential conflicts of interest a mandatory fairness standard. It also says to treat even the appearance of a conflict as a conflict, and to refrain from influencing the decision unless the conflict has been fully disclosed to the appropriate stakeholders, a mitigation plan has been approved, and those stakeholders consent to proceed. Evaluating the bids anyway relies on the project manager's own sense of fairness, which the Code says is not enough. Recommending a different vendor to avoid criticism is still a decision shaped by the relationship, and it is unfair to the sister's firm. Asking a bidder to withdraw goes beyond the project manager's role and skips disclosure.

Look for this next time: Disclose any real or potential conflict of interest, and step back from the decision unless stakeholders approve a way forward.

Correct answer: C · Providing resources and championing the business case with senior leaders

PMI describes the sponsor as the person or group that provides resources and support for the project and is accountable for enabling its success. Sponsors typically champion the business case, secure and release funding, help remove obstacles beyond the project manager's authority, and make decisions that exceed it. The project manager is the person the organization assigns to lead the team that achieves the project objectives, so leading and coordinating daily work, maintaining the schedule, and running team meetings and handling routine conflicts are project manager responsibilities. Mixing up the two roles leads either to escalating routine decisions to the sponsor or to a project manager trying to make funding decisions that belong to the sponsor.

Look for this next time: Sponsors provide resources and champion the business case; project managers lead the team and manage the daily work.

Correct answer: A · Approval received is a milestone, a point in time with zero duration

A milestone is a significant point or event in a project, so it marks a moment, such as an approval being received, and has zero duration. Preparing launch materials is an activity: work that consumes time and resources, so it carries an estimated duration of 10 days. Leaving a duration blank because it is unknown would hide a schedule risk; unknown durations are estimated, not omitted. Milestones have no duration whether or not they sit on the critical path. A work package is the lowest level of the work breakdown structure, and it is decomposed into activities, which do have durations. The CAPM outline asks candidates to distinguish a milestone from a task duration.

Look for this next time: Milestones mark significant points in time and have zero duration; activities consume time and carry estimated durations.

Correct answer: B · Send an agenda with objectives and time limits, then record decisions and owners

An effective meeting has a clear purpose, an agenda shared in advance, time limits, the right attendees, and recorded outcomes: decisions and action items with owners and due dates. Those elements address both problems here, the overruns and the missing decisions. Making attendance mandatory treats the symptom; people stopped coming because the meeting wastes their time. Doubling the length rewards the lack of structure and takes more of everyone's time. Status emails can replace some updates, but they do not produce the decisions the meeting is failing to reach. The CAPM outline lists evaluating the effectiveness of a meeting under its task on problem-solving tools and techniques.

Look for this next time: Meetings work when they have a clear purpose, a shared agenda, time limits, and recorded decisions with owners.

Correct answer: B · 12 days, and C has 3 days of total float

List the paths through the network and add their durations. A-B-D takes 3 + 5 + 4 = 12 days, and A-C-D takes 3 + 2 + 4 = 9 days. The longest path, A-B-D, is the critical path, so the project takes 12 days. C sits on the shorter path, and its total float is the difference between the two paths: 12 − 9 = 3 days, so C can slip up to 3 days without delaying the finish. A 9-day answer uses the shortest path and leaves B's extra work out. Adding all four durations (3 + 5 + 2 + 4 = 14) ignores the fact that B and C run in parallel. Five days of float overstates C's slack: C's 2 days plus 3 days of float equal B's 5 days.

Look for this next time: The critical path is the longest path; float on another path is the gap between its length and the critical path's.

Correct answer: A · CV = +$4,000 and SV = −$6,000: under budget and behind schedule

Cost variance compares the value of the work done with what it cost: CV = EV − AC = $54,000 − $50,000 = +$4,000, so the project is under budget for the work completed. Schedule variance compares the work done with the work planned: SV = EV − PV = $54,000 − $60,000 = −$6,000, so less work is done than planned and the project is behind schedule. Reversing the subtractions flips both signs and both conclusions. A CV of $10,000 comes from PV − AC ($60,000 − $50,000), which compares the plan with spending and ignores how much work is actually done. Pairing −$6,000 with cost and +$4,000 with schedule mixes up the two formulas. Both variances start from earned value.

Look for this next time: Both variances start from earned value: CV = EV − AC and SV = EV − PV; negative means over budget or behind schedule.

Correct answer: D · A warehouse expansion with an approved design, permits, and costly late changes

A predictive, plan-based approach suits work whose scope and requirements can be defined early and are expected to stay stable, and where late changes are expensive, so detailed upfront planning and a baseline pay off. A warehouse expansion with an approved design and permits fits that profile: the deliverable is well understood, construction follows a logical sequence, and rework after the concrete is poured is costly. The mobile app, the research prototype, and the weekly-changing website all carry high uncertainty about requirements or the solution, which favors adaptive approaches that deliver in short cycles and use feedback to adjust. The CAPM outline asks when a predictive, plan-based approach is appropriate.

Look for this next time: Choose a predictive approach when scope is well defined and stable and late changes are expensive.

Correct answer: C · 5 iterations, using the average velocity of 20 points

Velocity is the amount of work, here in story points, that a team completes in an iteration, and its recent average is the usual basis for a forecast. The average is (16 + 25 + 19 + 20) ÷ 4 = 80 ÷ 4 = 20 points, so 100 remaining points ÷ 20 = 5 iterations. Forecasting from the single best iteration (100 ÷ 25 = 4) assumes the team's peak will repeat every time, and using the worst (100 ÷ 16 = 6.25, rounded up to 7) assumes the low point will. Adaptive teams do forecast releases; they update the forecast every iteration as velocity and the backlog change, instead of treating it as a fixed commitment.

Look for this next time: Forecast remaining iterations by dividing the remaining backlog by recent average velocity, and update the forecast every iteration.

Correct answer: D · Set and enforce work-in-progress limits so items finish before new ones start

Kanban manages flow by visualizing work and limiting work in progress (WIP). The Agile Alliance describes WIP limits as a way to decide when to start new items and to smooth the flow of work. A limit on In Progress and Testing stops developers from pulling new items while work waits for testing, so the team helps clear the bottleneck and finishes what it started, which shortens lead times. A waiting column makes the queue more visible, but on its own it does not stop the queue from growing. Assigning a fixed number of new starts pushes more work into the system regardless of downstream capacity. Switching to sprints changes the method instead of fixing the flow problem.

Look for this next time: In Kanban, limit work in progress so the team finishes items before starting new ones; that shortens lead time.

Correct answer: A · The first is the sprint review; the second is the sprint retrospective

In the 2020 Scrum Guide, the sprint review inspects the outcome of the sprint and determines future adaptations: the team presents its work to key stakeholders, and the product backlog may be adjusted. The sprint retrospective is where the team plans ways to increase quality and effectiveness, looking at individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and its Definition of Done. Reversing the two confuses product feedback with process improvement. Sprint planning starts a sprint, and the daily scrum is a short daily check on progress toward the sprint goal. Backlog refinement is an ongoing activity, not an end-of-sprint event. The CAPM outline lists Scrum among the methodologies whose components candidates should distinguish.

Look for this next time: The sprint review inspects the product with stakeholders; the retrospective improves how the team works.

Correct answer: B · Extreme Programming (XP)

Test-first programming, pair programming, and continuous integration are core Extreme Programming practices; the Agile Alliance glossary lists all three among XP's practices. XP centers on engineering practices that keep code quality high while requirements change. Scrum is a framework of roles, events, and artifacts and does not prescribe engineering practices, although many Scrum teams adopt XP's. Kanban manages flow through visualization and work-in-progress limits rather than coding practices. SAFe is a framework for coordinating many agile teams across an enterprise; it can include XP practices, but it is defined by its scaling structures. The CAPM outline names Scrum, XP, SAFe, and Kanban as methodologies whose components candidates should distinguish.

Look for this next time: Pair programming, test-first development, and continuous integration are hallmark Extreme Programming (XP) practices.

Correct answer: C · Process owner, accountable for the approval process and its rules

A process owner is accountable for the design and performance of a business process, including its rules and how well it meets its goals, across the teams that run it. That describes the finance director's relationship to invoice approval. The product owner on an agile team is accountable for maximizing the product's value and ordering the backlog, a role that is already filled. The CFO funds and champions the project, so the sponsor role is taken, and seniority alone does not make someone a sponsor. A business analyst elicits, analyzes, and manages requirements; the director will supply requirements as a stakeholder, not perform that role. The CAPM outline asks candidates to distinguish stakeholder roles such as process owner and product owner.

Look for this next time: A process owner is accountable for a business process's design, rules, and performance; a product owner maximizes product value through the backlog.

Correct answer: B · Hold a facilitated session with the three teams to review the impact and agree

The channel should fit the message and its purpose. This message is complex, affects several groups whose priorities conflict, and needs a joint decision within a week, so an interactive, facilitated session, in person or by video, lets the teams see the impact together, surface their conflicts, and agree on an approach. An email or a wiki post is one-way communication: fine for informing people, but poor at resolving disagreement and slow at reaching a decision. Separate briefings can help prepare people, but deciding from three separate conversations leaves the conflicts between teams unresolved and gives no one shared ownership of the decision. The CAPM outline asks candidates to recommend the most appropriate communication channel or tool.

Look for this next time: Use interactive, facilitated communication when a message is complex, affects groups that disagree, and needs a joint decision.

Correct answer: D · A structured online survey with the same closed questions for everyone

Surveys, or questionnaires, gather information from many respondents quickly and at low cost, even when they are spread across locations, and closed questions produce answers that can be counted and compared across regions. That fits 3,000 customers, 12 countries, eight features, and a two-week window. Interviews give depth but are slow and costly at this scale. A workshop brings a small group together to explore and agree on requirements; it cannot reliably represent thousands of customers, and convening people from 12 countries in two weeks is hard. Observation shows how people use today's tools, but not which proposed features they want. The CAPM outline asks candidates to identify the requirements-gathering approach that fits a situation.

Look for this next time: Use surveys for comparable input from many dispersed stakeholders quickly; use interviews or workshops when you need depth.

Correct answer: A · A product roadmap showing themes and features across the planned releases

A product roadmap is a high-level, time-based view of where a product is going: the themes, capabilities, or features planned for upcoming releases. It communicates direction to executives and to teams such as marketing and sales without the detail of individual tasks, and it is updated as priorities change. A detailed task schedule is too granular for this audience and this question. A requirements traceability matrix tracks each requirement from its source through delivery and testing; it does not show what is planned for each release. A sprint backlog covers only the current iteration. The CAPM outline asks candidates to explain how a product roadmap is used and which components go into which releases.

Look for this next time: A product roadmap gives a high-level, time-based view of which capabilities are planned for which releases.

Correct answer: C · The analyst refines backlog items with the product owner just in time, each iteration

In adaptive approaches, requirements are elaborated progressively. The business analyst, often working with or supporting the product owner, refines backlog items into stories with acceptance criteria shortly before the team needs them, and revisits them as feedback arrives each iteration. In predictive approaches, much of the analysis happens upfront and the requirements are baselined. Agile teams still document requirements, in a lighter and evolving form, so the analyst's role does not end. Signing off a complete specification before the first iteration reverts to a predictive approach. Developers do help refine stories, but handing them all the requirements work drops the analysis and stakeholder collaboration the analyst provides. The CAPM outline asks how methodologies shape the analyst's role.

Look for this next time: In agile work, the business analyst refines requirements progressively with the product owner instead of finalizing them all upfront.

Correct answer: D · The requirements traceability matrix

A requirements traceability matrix links each requirement back to its origin, such as a business objective, and forward to the deliverables and test cases that satisfy it. Reading forward shows whether every approved requirement has been built and tested; reading backward shows whether any delivered feature lacks a requirement, a sign of scope creep. The stakeholder register records who the stakeholders are and what they care about, the risk register tracks uncertain events and their responses, and the charter authorizes the project at a high level. None of them traces requirements through to testing. The CAPM outline names the requirements traceability matrix or the product backlog as the basis for judging readiness for delivery.

Look for this next time: Use a requirements traceability matrix to confirm each requirement is built and tested, and that nothing was added without one.