Ten PMP scenario questions, and why the second-best answer loses

Most candidates who struggle with PMP questions know the material. They lose marks because two answers look sensible and they pick the merely good one. Across 180 questions, that habit can cost you a retake.

How are PMP scenario questions judged?

Most questions describe a situation and ask what the leader should do next. The best answer follows principles that run through PMI's standards:

• Understand the situation before you act.
• Act within your own authority before you escalate.
• Prefer collaboration to orders, and follow agreed processes such as change control.
• In agile settings, serve the team and remove blockers rather than assign tasks.
• Protect value and keep stakeholders informed.

Wrong options are rarely absurd. The runner-up is usually a sensible action taken too early, too high or outside the agreed process.

The ten roughly follow the July 2026 weights set out in the PMP exam format guide. Allow 14 minutes, the exam's pace of about 80 seconds each. Facts were checked against PMI's documents on 9 October 2026.

People: three questions

Question 1 · People

Before requirements sign-off, the finance director expects the new system to speed up month-end close. The operations head expects it to replace shop-floor spreadsheets. The budget covers only one of these in the first release. What should you do first?

A. Ask the sponsor to choose
B. Bring both together to surface expectations and agree priorities
C. Add both needs to the requirements
D. Proceed, since the charter is approved

Question 2 · People

After a sprint review, a client's satisfaction falls sharply. Their market has moved, and half the demoed features no longer matter. What should you do?

A. Hold the plan until the contract changes
B. Demo more often to rebuild confidence
C. Learn what has shifted, then work with the product owner on the backlog
D. Report the dissatisfaction to the sponsor

Question 3 · People

Two senior engineers keep talking over each other, and a junior analyst has stopped contributing. The team's agreed ground rule is one voice at a time. What should you do?

A. Leave it, since self-organising teams resolve conflict
B. Raise it with both engineers' line managers
C. Restate the ground rule and talk privately with each engineer
D. Move the engineers into separate workstreams

Process: four questions

Question 4 · Process

A functional manager says the database specialist you planned for weeks 8 to 12 will now be half-time. The work is on the critical path. What should you do first?

A. Escalate to the sponsor for the specialist full-time
B. Analyse the impact and negotiate options with the functional manager
C. Hire a contractor
D. Spread the work across the team

Question 5 · Process

Your forecast overrun now exceeds the remaining contingency, which the governance plan says goes to the steering committee. A team lead suggests quietly moving testing money. What should you do?

A. Draw down the contingency and report the gap later
B. Analyse the cause, then take a recommendation to the steering committee
C. Move the testing money, since the total is unchanged
D. Wait a month in case the trend reverses

Question 6 · Process

User acceptance defects have risen for three releases running, and late fixes take a third of every sprint. What is the best action?

A. Add a test phase before each release
B. Add more testers to user acceptance testing
C. Find the root cause with the team and invest in prevention
D. Ask the client to tolerate more defects

Question 7 · Process

An agile team's last five sprints delivered 38, 42, 40, 36 and 44 points. About 240 points remain, and the sponsor wants a release date. What should you do?

A. Re-estimate everything in hours for a detailed schedule
B. Forecast six to seven sprints from velocity, updated each sprint
C. Commit to six sprints and ask the team to speed up
D. Decline, because agile work has no fixed dates

Business Environment: three questions

Question 8 · Business Environment

Mid-release, a competitor launches a feature customers now expect, and two large prospects pause talks. The sprint ends in six days. What should you do?

A. Add the feature to the current sprint
B. Assess the change with the product owner and reprioritise the backlog
C. Finish the release and review the market afterwards
D. Ask the sponsor to cancel the release

Question 9 · Business Environment

Your project replaces paper picking lists with handheld scanners. Six weeks before go-live, experienced supervisors still run paper in parallel, and their teams follow them. What should you do?

A. Ask the operations director to make the system mandatory
B. Remove the paper forms so there is no alternative
C. Assess the resistance with the supervisors and plan change support together
D. Delay go-live until every supervisor is comfortable

Question 10 · Business Environment

For the third retrospective running, the team notes that designs arrive late from another department. Nothing has changed. What should you do?

A. Record it again and ask the design manager to improve
B. Agree one improvement action with an owner, test it next sprint and share the result
C. Escalate the department's lateness to the sponsor
D. Capture it in the lessons learned at closure

What your score tells you

Count only first answers, then sort misses by habit, because a habit repeats across domains.

Ten questions are a signal, not a verdict; full mocks on the July 2026 outline decide readiness. How many hours you need turns your misses into weeks.

Chapter 5 of the book has you rate yourself on all 26 tasks, and Appendix G adds 18 more timed questions mapped to them.