Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam Practice Test
PMP practice questions cover project management decisions across planning, delivery, monitoring, and closure. The available scenarios include selecting predictive or adaptive approaches, handling scope requests, assessing risks, communicating with stakeholders, and applying earned value measures. They focus on choosing actions that support project objectives while accounting for constraints, uncertainty, and stakeholder needs.
Exam overview
About the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam
Project managers integrate scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communications, procurement, and risk rather than treating each as an isolated concern. Decisions may involve evaluating trade-offs, establishing change control, and explaining how proposed work contributes to organizational value. The practice bank also samples team decision-making, stakeholder engagement strategies, and communication choices for routine updates versus urgent issues. Other scenarios address recording threats, selecting a response such as avoidance, interpreting cost performance through earned value, and completing closure tasks such as resolving contracts and organizing records. These situations call for identifying the immediate problem, considering its effect on project objectives, and choosing a proportionate next action. Use them to connect project documents and techniques to the management decision each one supports.
Sample Practice Questions
Review a selection from this exam's published US Practice Tests practice bank.
A project manager is facilitating a meeting where a decision must be made among several feasible options. The participants have relevant expertise, and their commitment to the decision will be important. Which decision-making approach is most appropriate?
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Correct answer: BWhen participants have relevant expertise and their commitment matters, facilitating a shared decision can improve both decision quality and ownership. Waiting for all uncertainty to disappear or choosing based on presentation detail is not a sound decision criterion.
A project is nearing completion. The deliverables have been accepted, but several contracts remain open and project records have not been organized. What should the project manager do?
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Correct answer: BProject closure includes completing applicable procurement and administrative activities, organizing and archiving records, and confirming that obligations are addressed. Acceptance alone does not complete all closure work.
A team is deciding whether to use a predictive or adaptive delivery approach. Requirements are expected to change frequently, and stakeholders can provide feedback in short cycles. Which approach is most suitable?
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Correct answer: BAn adaptive approach is useful when requirements are uncertain or likely to evolve and stakeholders can provide regular feedback. Work can be delivered in increments and adjusted as learning occurs.
A project manager is preparing a communication plan for a distributed team. Team members need routine status information, while an urgent issue may require immediate discussion. Which plan best addresses both needs?
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Correct answer: BA communication approach should match the information’s urgency and audience needs. Regular updates support predictable information flow, while a rapid channel enables timely response to urgent matters.
A project manager wants to compare the actual cost of work performed with the budgeted cost of that same work. Which earned value measure provides this comparison?
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Correct answer: ACost variance is earned value minus actual cost, comparing the budgeted value of completed work with what was actually spent. Schedule variance compares earned value with planned value.
A project has a fixed deadline and a fixed scope, and the sponsor asks the team to add a feature. What should the project manager do first?
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Correct answer: BA requested scope change should be evaluated for its effects on schedule, cost, resources, and other objectives, then handled through the project’s change control approach. This supports informed decisions rather than unauthorized changes.
A project team is selecting a response to a threat. The team changes the project plan so that the threat can no longer affect the project objective. Which risk response strategy is this?
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Correct answer: AAvoidance changes the plan to eliminate the threat or protect the objective from its impact. Transfer shifts responsibility for managing an impact, while acceptance takes no proactive action beyond the chosen level of preparedness.
How to use this practice test
The free practice session presents up to 20 random questions from the 50-question bank. Answer each scenario before reviewing the results shown at the end. Use missed or uncertain answers to identify concepts to revisit, such as earned value comparisons, risk responses, change control, stakeholder engagement, and project closure.
Preparation tips
- For earned value questions, distinguish actual cost (AC), earned value (EV), and planned value (PV) before selecting a cost or schedule measure.
- When a requested feature affects fixed scope, schedule, or cost, identify the applicable change-control step before deciding whether to implement it.
- For risk scenarios, separate an uncertain future event from an issue that has already occurred, then match the response strategy to the stated threat or opportunity.
- Compare stakeholder influence, interest, and information needs when choosing engagement and communication approaches.
- For closure scenarios, check acceptance, outstanding procurement or contract work, lessons learned, and records before considering the project complete.