Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)

It is a timed, online, multiple-choice assessment taken in a browser, typically with a mix of single-answer and multiple-answer items. Some questions ask you to pick all that apply, and partial credit rules vary by item, so read each prompt carefully. The certifying body publishes the current format and item types on its assessment page.

Those numbers are set by the certifying organization and change from time to time, so this page does not state them. Check the official assessment page before you schedule so you can plan your pacing. As a habit, skim the whole set first and answer the unambiguous items before returning to the tricky ones.

Passing thresholds and fees are published by the certifying body and are not fixed forever. Confirm both on the official site at the time you book rather than relying on secondhand figures. If you purchase an assessment attempt alongside a course, check whether the attempt has an expiry.

The content is not technical, but the questions are precise. People fail because they answer from team habit or from how their organization does Scrum, not from what the Scrum Guide actually says. If you can justify each rule and each timebox from first principles, the difficulty drops sharply.

Retake options depend on the certifying body's current policy and on how you purchased your attempt. Some purchases include a second attempt, others do not. Confirm the retake terms on the official site before booking, and treat a first attempt as diagnostic rather than as the plan.

Start with the Scrum Guide itself - read it end to end, then again section by section. Next, focus on the definitions: accountabilities, events, artifacts and their commitments. Only after that should you take open practice assessments, and use each wrong answer as a prompt to reread the relevant paragraph.

Use the open assessments published by the certifying body, and treat any third-party question set as a study aid rather than a source of truth. Practice questions are useful for exposing gaps; they are not authoritative. When a practice answer contradicts the Scrum Guide, the Guide wins.

Validity terms are set by the certifying organization and should be confirmed on its site rather than assumed. Even where a credential does not formally expire, Scrum guidance evolves, so rereading the current Scrum Guide periodically matters more than the certificate itself.

Answering what your team does instead of what Scrum requires; confusing the Scrum Master with a project manager or team lead; treating the Daily Scrum as a status report; and mixing up artifacts with their commitments. Also common: assuming a rule is optional because it feels impractical in your organization's context.

No experience is formally required, and the assessment is knowledge-based. That said, a few months on a real Scrum team makes the questions far easier to parse, because you will recognize the situations being described. Candidates without experience should compensate by working through scenarios rather than memorizing definitions.