PMP Mock Exam Question Bank: Popular Situational Questions with Answer Explanations (Free Practice)

As the old saying goes, "Practice makes perfect." For candidates preparing for the PMP Exam (Project Management Professional), this is the golden rule. Many candidates find themselves struggling with real exam questions even after memorizing the PMBOK Guide. Why? Because the modern PMP Exam is no longer a test of rote memorization; it is a deep assessment of your "Project Management Mindset."

Can you make the judgment that best aligns with PMI values when faced with 180 situational questions under the high pressure of a 230-minute exam? This requires extensive practical drilling. To help you break out of the "knowing the theory but failing the questions" trap, KORNERSTONE has curated this selection of PMP sample questions with detailed analysis. We focus on the "People" and "Agile" domains—currently the heaviest weighted sections—to help you master the correct problem-solving logic.

PMP Situational Question Examples: People Domain

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

Question 1: Conflict Management

Scenario: During the execution phase of a critical project, two senior technical experts get into a heated argument over which database architecture to adopt. This dispute has lasted for two days, severely affecting team morale and project progress. As the Project Manager, what should you do?

1. Decide on one of the expert's solutions so the team can proceed with work.
2. Escalate the issue to the functional manager and ask them to make a technical decision.
3. Arrange a meeting for both parties to list the pros and cons of their solutions and guide them to reach a consensus.
4. Separate the two experts and assign them to 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've noticed team morale is low, and they have missed several minor deadlines. In the retrospective, members complain that the workload is too heavy and they don't feel supported by 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, and remove low-value tasks.
3. Request a bonus from HR to incentivize 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. During recent online status meetings, you noticed low engagement from some members, with some even handling other emails during the meeting. To improve this situation, what should you do first?

1. Set strict meeting rules requiring everyone to turn on cameras and prohibiting other work.
2. Work with the team to develop a Team Charter that agrees on communication norms and meeting etiquette.
3. Switch to email reporting and cancel synchronous meetings to save everyone's time.
4. Privately criticize the inattentive members and record it in their performance review.

Agile Management Sample Questions

With Agile and Hybrid projects now accounting for about 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 "Adaptive" nature of the Agile mindset.

Question 4: Sprint Planning and Scope Change

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

1. Immediately stop the team's current work and prioritize this new feature.
2. Tell the Product Owner that the Sprint scope is locked and cannot be changed; ask them to wait for the next Sprint.
3. Communicate with the Product Owner; if the feature is truly urgent, add it to the backlog and consider removing an equivalent amount of work from the current Sprint or planning it for the next one.
4. Require the Product Owner to submit a formal Change Request and convene a CCB meeting for approval.

Question 5: Retrospective Meeting

Scenario: In the last few Sprint Retrospectives, team members have only blamed each other, creating a tense atmosphere with no concrete improvement plans produced. As the Scrum Master, how should you intervene?

1. Record all complaints and report the team's unprofessional behavior to senior management.
2. Suspend Retrospectives until the team members learn how to communicate politely.
3. Guide the team to revisit the "Prime Directive," establish psychological safety, and use specific facilitation techniques (like Fishbone diagrams) to focus on process improvement rather than personal blame.
4. Create an improvement plan yourself and supervise the team's execution in the next Sprint.

Error Analysis Techniques: Reading PMI's "Subtext"

After finishing the PMP sample questions above, you might find your answers differ from the "standard answers." This is normal! Often, we choose wrong because we use "real-world experience" instead of "PMI's ideal world logic." Here are three quick tips to correct your mindset:

1. Distinguish "Act Immediately" vs. "Analyze First"

In reality, if a boss asks a question, you might execute a solution immediately. But on the PMP exam, this is usually wrong. PMI's logic is: Analyze -> Plan -> Execute.
Tip: When a question asks "What should the PM do next?", look for options containing words like "assess impact," "review plan," or "evaluate" first.

2. Beware of "Passing the Buck"

Options that involve "reporting to the sponsor," "pushing to the functional manager," or "asking the client to solve it" are 90% likely to be distractors. PMI assumes you are a capable, proactive Project Manager. You should attempt to resolve issues within your authority unless the problem 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. However, in Agile questions, "Individuals and Interactions" value higher than processes. If the choice is between "following the process but offending the client/team" and "adjusting flexibly to meet value," Agile questions usually favor the latter.

Need More Practice?

The ocean of PMP exam questions is vast, and scattered practice makes it hard to cover all testing points. True preparation requires a systematic PMP mock exam system that is fully aligned with the latest ECO.

KORNERSTONE's PMP Certification Course offers students:

• Full Simulation Question Bank: Over 1,000 selected questions covering Predictive, Agile, and Hybrid scenarios.
• Smart Error Analysis: The system automatically tracks your weak areas (Is your Cost Management weak? Or are Agile concepts unclear?), helping you reinforce precisely where needed.
• Pre-Exam Crash Course: Led by senior instructors like Mr. Kenric Li and Mr. Sankar V.S., breaking down high-difficulty questions and teaching exclusive "elimination" and "keyword positioning" techniques.

Don't let your exam fee go to waste. Choose a professional preparation partner to ensure you pass your PMP on the first try!

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