Is this PMP practice test free?

Yes. It is free, with no signup and no email required. You get your score, a domain breakdown and every explanation as soon as you submit.

Do I need an account?

No. Your answers are graded in your browser. A free PM Mastery account is optional, for when you want to keep practicing.

How many questions are on the real PMP exam?

The exam has 180 questions (170 scored and 10 unscored pretest questions) in 240 minutes, with two 10-minute breaks.

Where can I take full-length PMP mock exams?

PM Mastery paid plans include unlimited 180-question mock exams in the 2026 format. See the fact sheet for plans and prices.

Free PMP Practice Test 2026 (with a Case Study)

Part 1: 20 questions

1. A hybrid project generates documentation that's printed for stakeholder review meetings. The PM calculates that the project will print 15,000 pages over its lifecycle. A stakeholder insists on paper copies because they 'can't read documents on screen.' What balanced approach should the PM take? A.Respect the stakeholder's preference and print all documents to maintain stakeholder engagement: stakeholder satisfaction is critical for project success, adjusting to digital formats mid-project could reduce participation in review meetings, printing costs are modest relative to the project budget, and accommodating preferences demonstrates servant leadership; stakeholder needs should be weighed alongside, but not subordinated to, environmental considerations in project delivery B.Accommodate the individual preference while reducing overall printing: provide paper copies for the stakeholder who needs them, while transitioning others to digital-first with tablet/laptop-friendly formatting; explore whether larger fonts, better formatting, or a tablet with e-ink display could address the readability concern; accommodate genuine needs while minimizing waste C.Transition to digital-only formats to meet sustainability objectives: organizational environmental policies call for reducing paper consumption, digital document management improves version control and reduces distribution delays, stakeholders can be supported through training and tool access, and printing 15,000 pages conflicts with corporate sustainability commitments; environmental goals should guide the approach even when individual preferences differ D.Print all documents on recycled paper as a compromise between stakeholder needs and environmental responsibility: recycled paper reduces environmental impact compared to virgin paper, maintains stakeholder comfort with physical documents, represents a middle path between digital-only and standard printing approaches, and demonstrates environmental awareness; balanced solutions can address both stakeholder and sustainability concerns without requiring behavioral change

2. A hybrid project has a detailed technical design document and a separate user experience specification. The PM discovers they reference different user roles, the technical design uses system administrator terminology while the UX spec uses end-user terminology for the same functions. What integration issue does this create? A.Different terminology for different audiences is acceptable and reflects appropriate document tailoring for technical versus user-focused stakeholders. Technical documentation requires system-level terminology while UX specifications use user-friendly language. The PM should maintain separate glossaries for each audience rather than forcing artificial consistency that reduces document effectiveness. B.The UX team should adopt the technical team's terminology to ensure consistency across all project documentation and reduce confusion during development handoffs. Technical specifications provide the authoritative system definition, and user experience documentation should align with established technical architecture. Standardizing on technical terminology ensures accuracy and reduces translation errors. C.Terminology inconsistency between technical and UX documents creates confusion during development: developers may build features that don't match UX expectations; the PM should establish a shared glossary, align role definitions across both documents, and implement a cross-reference check before development begins D.This terminology mismatch will be resolved naturally during development as teams collaborate and clarify requirements. Cross-functional communication during implementation will surface and address any confusion. The PM should focus on higher-priority integration issues rather than documentation terminology, since working software will demonstrate the correct user roles and system functions.

3. Why is it important for a PM to understand the organization's competitive landscape? A.To ensure project deliverables remain relevant and competitive in the market, and to adjust priorities if competitive conditions change B.To conduct competitive intelligence gathering and market research activities as part of the project scope C.To benchmark project features and functionality against competitor offerings and replicate successful market strategies D.Competitive landscape analysis is outside the project manager's role and should be handled by marketing teams

4. A hybrid project's stakeholder map shows that the procurement department has been classified as 'low interest, low influence.' During execution, the PM discovers that procurement controls vendor approval processes that are critical to the project. What error was made? A.The stakeholder analysis underestimated procurement's influence: control over vendor approval gives procurement practical blocking power regardless of their organizational chart position; the PM should reclassify procurement as high influence and develop an appropriate engagement strategy, influence analysis should consider process control, not just organizational hierarchy B.The initial classification was based on the best available information at project initiation; stakeholder analysis is a point-in-time assessment that should be updated regularly as new information emerges; the PM should update the stakeholder register to reflect procurement's actual influence level and adjust the engagement strategy accordingly using the power/interest grid methodology C.Keep the classification since procurement is a support function according to organizational hierarchy; their process control is operational rather than strategic; the PM should work within existing procurement processes rather than elevating their stakeholder status; functional departments should maintain their designated influence levels per the stakeholder management plan D.The classification error will be noted in lessons learned but doesn't need current action since the project is already in execution phase; stakeholder analysis changes should be minimized during execution to maintain stability; document the gap for future projects and work around procurement constraints using alternative vendor strategies

5. A predictive project's cost baseline allocates $200K for testing but the quality management plan defines a testing approach that would cost $350K to execute properly. The cost estimator used a parametric model while the quality manager used a bottom-up estimate. How should the PM resolve this? A.Reconcile the estimates by examining both methodologies: determine why the parametric model and bottom-up estimate diverge, assess which assumptions are more accurate for this project's testing needs, and adjust both the cost baseline and quality plan to reflect a validated testing budget B.Use the cost baseline as the starting point, since it has stakeholder approval, and work with the quality manager to identify which testing activities can be descoped or deferred to bring the quality plan into alignment with the approved budget C.Adopt the higher bottom-up estimate as the more detailed and project-specific figure, then submit a change request to increase the cost baseline, documenting the testing scope that justifies the additional funding D.Negotiate a midpoint budget with the quality manager and cost estimator, scaling testing activities proportionally so that the agreed figure is reflected in both the cost baseline and the quality management plan

6. A hybrid project team implements a risk mitigation strategy for vendor lock-in by building an abstraction layer over the vendor's proprietary API. After implementation, the team realizes the abstraction layer has introduced a 200-millisecond latency penalty on every API call, which may affect user experience. What type of risk is this, and what should the project manager do? A.This is a secondary risk created by the mitigation strategy; the project manager should assess its severity and determine if the latency is acceptable or requires its own response B.This is a residual risk from the original vendor lock-in threat; the project manager should accept it as the cost of mitigation C.This is a new independent risk unrelated to the original mitigation; it should be added to the risk register as a separate entry without linking to the original risk D.This is a defect in the mitigation implementation; the project manager should have the team fix the abstraction layer to eliminate the latency

7. A predictive project team's impediment is that code deployments require manual coordination between 4 teams via a shared spreadsheet. Each team adds their deployment items, and a release manager manually sequences and executes them. The process takes a full day and errors are common. What should the PM advocate? A.The release manager process works and just needs better coordination through improved spreadsheet templates: the manual process provides human oversight that catches issues automated systems might miss, release managers understand cross-team dependencies better than automated tools, spreadsheet-based coordination is flexible and can adapt to unique deployment scenarios, and process improvement should focus on optimizing existing workflows rather than replacing them with complex automation tools B.Hire an additional release manager to split the workload and reduce the full-day deployment cycle: adding resources addresses the capacity constraint that causes deployment delays, two release managers can provide redundancy and cross-training for business continuity, human oversight remains important for complex deployments involving multiple teams, and staffing solutions are often faster to implement than technology solutions requiring development and testing C.Advocate for deployment orchestration automation: replace the spreadsheet with a deployment pipeline tool that automatically sequences deployments based on dependencies, runs pre-deployment checks, and provides rollback capabilities, automation eliminates the manual coordination overhead, reduces errors, and compresses the full-day process into hours or minutes D.Have each team deploy independently without coordination to eliminate the bottleneck: autonomous team deployments reduce dependencies and speed up delivery cycles, teams understand their own systems better than a central release manager, independent deployments eliminate the single point of failure in centralized coordination, and microservices architecture supports independent deployment patterns, remove coordination overhead entirely

8. A hybrid project has been running for nine months with frequent changes to both the predictive baselines and the agile backlog. The team reports feeling overwhelmed by constant change and their velocity has dropped 25% over the past three sprints. Several experienced team members have requested transfers to other projects. What should the project manager address FIRST? A.The velocity decline first, by conducting detailed sprint retrospectives and analyzing burndown metrics to identify specific impediments and implementing targeted process improvements immediately B.The transfer requests first, by conducting stay interviews and offering retention incentives to prevent loss of critical knowledge and maintain team stability during this challenging period C.The root cause of change fatigue by working with the sponsor to stabilize requirements and implement a change management rhythm that gives the team predictable periods of stability D.The CCB process efficiency by proposing stricter change acceptance criteria and implementing a more rigorous impact assessment to reduce the volume of approved changes significantly

9. After 6 weeks of overtime to meet a milestone, the PM notices declining code quality, interpersonal friction, and increased sick days. What should the PM do NEXT? A.Celebrate the milestone achievement and immediately start the next phase to maintain momentum, capitalizing on the team's proven ability to deliver under pressure and tight deadlines B.Discuss the overtime period in the next retrospective to capture lessons learned, identify process improvements, and establish better planning practices for future intensive work periods C.Offer performance bonuses to recognize the extra effort and move on to the next deliverables, rewarding the team's dedication while maintaining project schedule and stakeholder commitments D.Acknowledge effort, implement a recovery period with reduced workload, address interpersonal issues from the stress period, and establish sustainable practices before the next intensive phase

10. A predictive PM discovers 20% of approved requirements conflict with each other. The team resolves conflicts ad hoc during development. What optimization should be implemented? A.Implement systematic requirements conflict analysis before development using traceability matrices and cross-reference reviews to resolve conflicts during planning when costs are lower B.Continue ad hoc resolution since the development team handles conflicts effectively during implementation. This approach maintains flexibility and allows for emergent requirement clarification. C.Assign a dedicated business analyst for conflict identification and resolution. Implement weekly requirements review sessions with stakeholders to address conflicts through structured facilitation processes. D.Reduce total requirements volume to minimize potential conflicts. Prioritize core functionality and defer secondary requirements to future releases to simplify the current scope.

11. A hybrid project's organizational change involves merging two previously competitive departments. Team members from each department view the other as rivals. The merged team must collaborate on the project. What should the PM facilitate? A.Ignore the rivalry and focus on project deliverables since professional behavior requires setting aside departmental differences. Establish clear work breakdown structures, assign individual accountability, and use performance metrics to drive results. Personal conflicts should not impact project execution when proper governance frameworks are implemented B.Let the managers handle the cultural integration while maintaining project focus on scope, schedule, and budget deliverables. Departmental relationship issues fall under organizational development rather than project management responsibilities. Escalate interpersonal conflicts through proper management channels and HR protocols C.Separate the departments' work streams so they don't need to interact directly during project execution. Create parallel work packages with minimal interdependencies and use liaison roles for necessary coordination. This approach reduces conflict potential while maintaining project momentum and deliverable quality D.Facilitate team building specifically designed for formerly competitive groups: create shared goals that require genuine collaboration, establish a new team identity that supersedes departmental identities, mix former rivals on sub-teams, and celebrate collaborative achievements, transforming competitive energy into collaborative energy

12. What is 'velocity' in Scrum? A.The rate at which team members complete individual tasks measured in hours per story point delivered B.The amount of work a team completes in a sprint, typically measured in story points, used for planning future sprints C.The bandwidth and latency measurements of the development environment's infrastructure and connectivity performance D.The team's efficiency metric calculated by dividing resolved defects by total defects identified each sprint

13. A hybrid project is replacing a beloved legacy system that employees have used for 15 years. Some users have created extensive personal workarounds and customizations. They view the legacy system as 'theirs.' What emotional dimension of change must the PM address? A.No emotional dimension exists, it's a tool replacement requiring technical training and process documentation updates. Focus on functional requirements gathering, system migration planning, and user acceptance testing protocols. Emotional responses are temporary and will resolve through proper change management communication and training program implementation B.Users will quickly adapt once they see the new system's features and improved functionality benefits. The Kübler-Ross change curve shows initial resistance followed by acceptance. Provide comprehensive training, highlight efficiency gains, and demonstrate ROI metrics to accelerate adoption through the performance management framework C.Loss and grief, employees have invested years in mastering the legacy system, and their expertise, customizations, and identity as system experts are being invalidated; the PM should acknowledge this loss, celebrate the legacy system's contribution, preserve valuable customizations where possible, and help users rebuild their expert identity with the new system D.The emotional attachment is unprofessional and should be managed through performance expectations and accountability measures. Implement clear adoption metrics, establish compliance requirements, and use performance improvement plans for resistant users. Professional behavior requires adapting to organizational technology decisions regardless of personal preferences

14. The team proposes using AI to automatically generate a deliverable, which would save significant time but would drop a feature that several stakeholders consider valuable. How should the project manager respond? A.Approve the automation, since the time savings clearly outweigh one feature B.Reject the automation outright to preserve the deliverable as planned C.Implement the automation now and add the feature back later if anyone complains D.Assess the value impact with stakeholders and weigh the time savings against the lost feature before deciding

15. A hybrid SaaS project learns that a major cloud provider (which hosts the project's infrastructure) has announced a 35% price increase effective in 6 months. The project's operational cost model assumed stable hosting costs. What should the project manager do FIRST? A.Assess the total financial impact on the project's operational budget, evaluate alternative hosting options with migration cost and risk analysis, negotiate with the current provider for enterprise pricing or long-term commitments, and present options to the sponsor B.Absorb the 35% cloud hosting cost increase within the existing operational budget since switching cloud providers mid-project would cause significant technical disruption, data migration risks, and timeline delays that outweigh the financial impact of higher hosting costs. C.Immediately begin migrating the SaaS project infrastructure to a cheaper cloud provider to avoid the 35% price increase, focusing on cost optimization over potential service disruption during the 6-month transition window before the new pricing takes effect. D.Reduce the project's cloud resource usage and infrastructure footprint by 35% through optimization and feature reduction to directly offset the announced price increase while maintaining the same total operational cost structure for the SaaS platform.

16. A hybrid project team is impeded by a mandatory corporate IT security scan that runs every Friday at 2 PM, taking down the development environment for 3 hours during prime coding time. The scan cannot be eliminated. What should the PM negotiate? A.Accept the scan schedule and have the team work around it by planning non-development activities during the 3-hour window. This demonstrates organizational compliance and avoids conflict with IT security requirements. Teams can use this time for code reviews, planning sessions, documentation, or training activities that don't require the development environment. Adaptation to organizational constraints is a key project management skill. B.Set up a secondary development environment to use during scans, ensuring continuous productivity despite the security requirements. This technical solution maintains development velocity while respecting IT policies. Work with the infrastructure team to provision duplicate environments that can serve as backup during scan windows. The additional cost is justified by maintaining team productivity and project momentum. C.Have the team work additional hours to make up the lost time, either by extending weekdays or working weekend hours to compensate for the 3-hour Friday disruption. This approach maintains project schedule while respecting security policies. The team can adjust their weekly schedule to ensure 40 productive hours despite the scan interruption, demonstrating commitment to both compliance and delivery. D.Negotiate a schedule change: propose moving the scan to Friday night or weekend hours when the environment is less utilized, or to a time zone-friendly slot that minimizes impact on the team; if the scan must run during business hours, schedule team activities that don't require the dev environment (code reviews, planning, documentation) during the 3-hour window

17. A Scrum team wants to improve their sprint review engagement. Currently, stakeholders passively watch a demo. What should the Scrum Master recommend? A.Schedule stakeholder interviews before the review to understand their specific interests and tailor the demo content accordingly, ensuring higher engagement through personalized presentations B.Invest additional sprint time in creating presentation materials, slide decks, and rehearsed demonstrations to deliver a more compelling and structured stakeholder experience C.Transform the review into an interactive session, let stakeholders use the increment hands-on, ask directed questions about value, gather feedback on priorities, and collaboratively adjust the product roadmap D.Create comprehensive video demonstrations with voice-over explanations that stakeholders can review at their convenience, followed by asynchronous feedback collection through surveys

18. A predictive project's change control data shows a strong correlation between changes requested in the first half of the project and rework in the second half. Changes approved early without considering downstream impacts create cascading effects later. What process improvement should the PM implement? A.Early changes are unavoidable and downstream impacts can't be predicted accurately in predictive projects; the correlation between early changes and later rework is normal project behavior that should be accepted rather than prevented, as attempting to predict downstream effects adds unnecessary analysis overhead without meaningful benefit B.Enhance early-phase impact analysis to include downstream lifecycle assessment: every change approved in early phases should be evaluated for its effect on later phases (testing, integration, deployment, operations); adding lifecycle impact to the analysis template helps the CCB make decisions that consider the full project timeline C.Freeze changes during the first half of the project to prevent downstream rework; implement a change moratorium for the initial 50% of the project timeline, allowing only critical defect fixes and regulatory compliance changes through the CCB approval process until requirements stabilization is achieved D.Add a mandatory second review of early changes before later phases begin; establish a phase-gate validation process where all changes approved in early phases undergo CCB re-evaluation at the 60% project completion milestone to confirm their continued validity and prevent rework cascades

19. A predictive project's testing finds that 60% of defects originate from the same 3 modules (out of 20 total modules). The testing effort is distributed equally across all modules. What optimization should the PM recommend? A.Equal testing distribution ensures complete coverage across all modules and prevents overlooking defects in seemingly stable components. Concentrating testing effort on problematic modules may miss critical issues in other areas, and the current approach maintains comprehensive quality assurance standards that protect against unexpected failures in low-defect modules. B.Rewrite the 3 problematic modules instead of testing them more extensively, addressing the root cause of defect concentration rather than managing symptoms through increased testing. Code refactoring or redesign of these modules will eliminate the underlying quality issues and create more maintainable, reliable components that require less ongoing testing effort. C.Reallocate testing effort based on defect density: the 3 high-defect modules should receive proportionally more testing effort (more test cases, more regression testing, earlier testing), while the 17 low-defect modules can have testing optimized with risk-based sampling and automated coverage, directing testing where defects cluster maximizes defect detection per testing hour D.Only test the 3 modules with the most defects since the other 17 modules have proven reliability and low defect rates. Concentrating all testing resources on the problematic modules maximizes defect detection efficiency and reduces testing overhead while maintaining overall system quality through focused attention on the highest-risk components.

20. A PM notices that their agile team has a very low bus factor (only one person understands the AI/ML pipeline). What is the MOST effective way to address this risk? A.Implement pair programming rotations where team members regularly work alongside the AI/ML specialist, combined with knowledge-sharing sessions and cross-training sprints dedicated to building distributed AI competency B.Create comprehensive technical documentation and maintain a detailed knowledge base with step-by-step procedures, troubleshooting guides, and architectural decisions for the AI/ML pipeline components C.Recruit an additional AI/ML engineer with similar expertise to create redundancy, ensuring the team has multiple specialists who can maintain and develop the machine learning infrastructure D.Transfer the AI/ML pipeline development to an external vendor with dedicated support teams, eliminating the single point of failure within the internal development team

Part 2: Case study

The Agile Rescue: Turning Around a Failing Predictive Project

You're the turnaround PM for 'ClaimsNow,' a claims processing modernization at Patriot Insurance. Started 14 months ago as waterfall, 24-month timeline, $4.8M budget.

Current status:

14 months elapsed, $3.1M spent (65% of budget)
Only 30% of functionality delivered
Original PM removed after 3 missed milestones
400-page requirements doc completed in month 4, but stakeholders say 'that's not what we asked for'
11-person dev team has low morale, they feel blamed
Business sponsor hasn't attended a meeting in 4 months
847 defects found, 142 critical

You have $1.7M and 10 months. The CIO says: 'We can't cancel, the board won't approve another modernization. Deliver something usable.'

Business users say: 'We stopped coming because nobody listened. We'd say requirements were wrong and nothing changed.'

21. In your first week, what should be your PRIMARY focus? A.Schedule comprehensive stakeholder interviews over 2-3 weeks to understand business priorities, review existing architecture documentation, and establish baseline metrics for current system performance B.Conduct a rapid assessment: meet with each business user and developer individually, identify which of the 30% built is actually usable, determine the top 5 business-critical capabilities, and assess team skills and capacity C.Establish a new project governance structure with weekly steering committee meetings, updated risk register, and revised milestone-based delivery schedule aligned to organizational standards D.Implement immediate quality assurance protocols to triage and resolve critical system defects while conducting root cause analysis to prevent future issues

22. Only 15% of the built work is usable. The requirements document contains features users never asked for. What do you recommend to the CIO? A.Implement enhanced requirements management with formal change control, stakeholder sign-offs, and detailed traceability matrices, then complete the remaining build against the corrected requirements document to prevent further scope misalignment B.Engage external agile transformation specialists to conduct an organizational readiness assessment and implement a proven change management framework for the methodology transition before any further development work resumes C.Conduct a complete project reset with fresh requirements gathering, a new technical architecture design, and dedicated agile coaching, discarding the built work so the implementation starts from a clean foundation D.Transition to hybrid: preserve the 15% usable foundation, workshop with users to identify essential capabilities, deliver in 2-week iterations with user reviews, and plan 4 major releases over 10 months, each delivering usable functionality

23. The dev team is demoralized and feels blamed for bad requirements. How do you rebuild morale? A.Conduct individual performance reviews to identify skill gaps, provide targeted training opportunities, and restructure team roles to better align capabilities with project needs B.Publicly acknowledge failures were systemic, restructure into cross-functional pods with direct business user access, celebrate early wins visibly, and give the team authority to push back on scope that doesn't fit iterations C.Implement team incentive programs with milestone-based rewards, recognition ceremonies for achievements, and clear performance metrics tied to successful delivery outcomes D.Organize comprehensive agile methodology training workshops, establish mentoring partnerships with experienced practitioners, and create safe learning environments for new approach adoption

24. The business sponsor hasn't attended in 4 months. How do you re-engage them? A.Request an executive mandate requiring the sponsor's participation in critical project decisions, establish formal escalation procedures for missed meetings, and document the sponsor's absence as a project risk B.Empower designated user representatives with decision-making authority in the sponsor's place, establish clear communication protocols, and continue project execution with their documented approval standing in for the sponsor's C.Visit in person, acknowledge past meetings wasted their time, show the new approach, invite them to the first iteration demo (not a status meeting), and propose lightweight engagement, 30-minute bi-weekly demos with working software, not slides D.Establish a structured communication cadence with written executive summaries, key decision points highlighted, and clear action items requiring the sponsor's input or approval by a stated date

25. After 3 iterations, the team delivered 2 modules users love. The CIO asks: 'Can we add back cut features from the original requirements?' How do you respond? A.Leverage demonstrated team velocity metrics to incorporate additional high-priority features while maintaining current iteration schedule and delivery commitments B.Establish feature buffer allocation within each sprint cycle to accommodate emerging requirements while protecting core iteration commitments and team capacity C.Maintain strict scope boundaries as defined in current iteration plans to preserve team focus and prevent return to previous project failure patterns D.Explain momentum comes FROM focused scope, show the prioritized backlog, offer to add features only if users rank them higher than current items, and note that scope creep derailed the original project

0 of 25 answered

Free PMP Practice Test for the 2026 Exam