PMP Mock Exam Bank: 50 Popular Situational Questions with Answer Analysis (Free Practice)

As the saying goes, "Knowledge without practice is useless." For candidates preparing for the PMP Exam (Project Management Professional certification), this is an absolute golden rule. Many candidates can recite the "PMBOK Guide" by heart but still feel helpless when facing actual exam questions. Why? Because the current PMP exam is no longer a simple memory test of knowledge points; it is a deep assessment of the "Project Management Mindset."

Can you make the judgment most consistent with PMI values for 180 situational questions within a high-pressure 230-minute window? This requires a lot of practical exercise. To help everyone break through the dilemma of "understanding theory but getting questions wrong," KORNERSTONE has specially compiled this selection of PMP mock questions with detailed analysis. We focus on the "People" and "Agile" domains, which currently have the highest weight in the exam, to help you master the correct problem-solving logic from the ground up.

PMP Exam Situational Questions: People Domain

According to the latest Examination Content Outline (ECO), the People domain accounts for 42% of the total score. these questions mainly test how you, as a Project Manager (PM), use soft skills to resolve conflicts, lead teams, and manage stakeholders. Remember, PMI advocates for "Servant Leadership." When choosing answers, please prioritize collaboration, empowerment, and support.

Question 1: Conflict Management

Scenario: During the execution phase of a critical project, two senior technical experts have a heated argument over which database architecture to adopt. This dispute has lasted for two days, seriously affecting team morale and project progress. As the project manager, what action should you take?

1. Decide to adopt the proposal of one of the experts so the team can continue working.
2. Escalate the issue to the functional manager and ask them to make the technical decision.
3. Arrange a meeting for both parties to list the pros and cons of their respective proposals and guide them toward a consensus.
4. Separate the two experts and have them manage different modules of the project to avoid conflict.

Question 2: Team Performance and Motivation

Scenario: You are leading a high-pressure software development project. Recently, you noticed low team morale and several missed minor deadlines. During a retrospective meeting, members complain that the workload is too heavy and they feel a lack of support from management. What should you do next?

1. Remind the team of the importance of project deadlines and ask them to work overtime to catch up.
2. Review the Backlog with the team, re-prioritize items, and remove low-value tasks.
3. Apply for bonuses from the HR department to motivate the team to complete the remaining work.
4. Hire more temporary staff to share the workload.

Question 3: Virtual Team Management

Scenario: Your project team is distributed across three different time zones. In recent online status meetings, you noticed that some members have very low engagement, and some are even handling other emails during the meeting. To improve this situation, what should you do first?

1. Establish strict meeting rules requiring everyone to turn on their cameras and prohibiting multitasking.
2. Work with the team to develop a Team Charter to agree on communication norms and meeting etiquette.
3. Switch to sending email reports and cancel synchronous meetings to save everyone time.
4. Privately criticize those inattentive members and record it in their performance reviews.

Agile Management Sample Questions

As Agile and Hybrid projects now account for 50% of the exam, you must be familiar with the basic operations of frameworks like Scrum and Kanban, as well as the "Value-Driven" and "Adaptability" mindsets of Agile.

Question 4: Sprint Planning and Scope Change

Scenario: The team is in the middle of a two-week Sprint, currently on Day 5. The Product Owner rushes into the office, requesting the immediate addition of a "very urgent" new feature, stating it is critical to the customer. As an Agile Project Manager (or Scrum Master), how should you respond?

1. Immediately have the team stop their current work to prioritize developing this new feature.
2. Tell the Product Owner that the Sprint scope is locked and cannot be changed, and ask them to wait until the next Sprint.
3. Communicate with the Product Owner; if the feature is indeed urgent, add it to the Backlog and consider removing other tasks of equivalent effort from the current Sprint, or save it for the next Sprint planning.
4. Require the Product Owner to submit a formal Change Request and hold a CCB meeting for approval.

Question 5: Retrospective Meeting

Scenario: In recent Sprint Retrospectives, team members have only been blaming each other, the atmosphere is tense, and no concrete improvement plans have been produced. As a Scrum Master, how should you intervene?

1. Record everyone's complaints and report the team's unprofessional behavior to senior management.
2. Suspend the Retrospective meetings until the team members learn how to communicate politely.
3. Guide the team to revisit the "Prime Directive," build psychological safety, and use specific facilitation techniques (like a Fishbone diagram) to focus on process improvement rather than blaming individuals.
4. Personally develop an improvement plan and oversee the team's execution in the next Sprint.

Incorrect Question Analysis Tips: How to Read PMI's "Subtext"

After finishing these PMP sample questions, you might find that your choices differ from the "standard answers." This is normal! Often, we choose incorrectly because we use "real-world experience" instead of "PMI's ideal-world logic." Here are three tips to quickly adjust your thinking:

1. Distinguish "Immediate Action" from "Analysis First"

In reality, if a boss raises a problem this second, you might implement a solution the next. But in the PMP exam, this is usually wrong. PMI's logic is: Analyze -> Formulate Plan -> Execute.
Tip: When a question asks "what to do next," look for options containing words like "analyze impact," "review plan," or "assess" first.

2. Beware of "Passing the Monkey"

Any option that involves "reporting the problem to the sponsor," "pushing it to the functional manager," or "asking the client to solve it themselves" is 90% likely to be a distractor. PMI assumes you are a capable, proactive project manager. You should try to solve the problem within your own authority unless it exceeds the boundaries defined in the Project Charter.

3. Process vs. People

In traditional Waterfall questions, strictly following the process (like change control) is often correct; but in Agile questions, "Individuals and interactions" are valued over processes. If the options are "Follow the process but offend the client/team" versus "Adjust flexibly to meet value," the latter is usually chosen in Agile questions.

Feel like 5 questions aren't enough?

The PMP exam question bank is vast, and relying on scattered practice makes it difficult to cover all knowledge points. True preparation requires a systematic PMP Mock Exam system that is fully aligned with the latest ECO outline.

KORNERSTONE PMP Certification Course provides students with:

• Full Realistic Mock Exam Bank: Over 1,000 selected questions covering predictive, agile, and hybrid scenarios.
• Intelligent Error Analysis: The system automatically tracks your weak areas (Is it Cost Management? Or unclear Agile concepts?), helping you strengthen them precisely.
• Pre-exam Cram Session: Led by senior instructors to dismantle high-difficulty questions on-site and teach exclusive "elimination methods" and "keyword positioning" techniques.

Don't let your registration fee go to waste. Choose a professional preparation partner to ensure your PMP journey is a success on the first try!

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