Passing the PSK I: six mistakes allowed, two guides to know

The PSK I has only 45 questions, and the threshold stays at 85%. Do the arithmetic: you need 39 correct answers. Six mistakes, not one more. That is half the PSM I margin, on an exam resting on two official guides instead of one. That arithmetic changes the preparation. Over 80 questions, one hasty reading can be recovered. Over 45, every lapse weighs twice as much. ## The format, as published The figures come from the official PSK page, checked in September 2026. - 45 questions in 60 minutes, so 80 seconds per question. - Passing threshold: 85%, so 39 correct answers. - $200 per attempt. - Single choice, multiple choice and true or false. - English only, like the PSD I. You get almost twice as much time per question as in the PSM I. That is not a gift. It is the counterpart of longer questions, often scenarios to interpret. ## The two official areas Scrum.org publishes what the exam covers, and the list is short. Understanding and applying the Scrum framework, from a specific angle. How Scrum and Kanban combine for greater benefit, without compromising the foundations of either. Complementary practices, in two parts. The Kanban practices as the Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams describes them, and flow metrics along with their use. Notice what is absent. No facilitation, no coaching, no product vision, no strategy. The PSK I tests neither stance nor product management, unlike the PSM I and the PSPO I. What it does assume is that the Scrum framework is already known. This is not a discovery certification. ## Two guides, and the second is short That is this exam's particularity. It rests on the Scrum Guide and on the Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams, a brief text published in 2021. The second reads in an evening. Do not trust its length. Almost every sentence in it is testable, and the questions turn on nuances of scope rather than on definitions. Learn the four flow metrics it defines, because they come back constantly. - Work in Progress, the number of items started and not finished. - Cycle Time, the elapsed time between an item starting and finishing. - Work Item Age, the elapsed time since an item still in progress started. - Throughput, the number of items finished per unit of time. The distinction between the middle two is the most profitable to work on. Cycle Time is only known once the item is finished: it describes the past and warns of nothing. Work Item Age is measured while the item is moving, so it warns before the damage is done. ## The central trap: accountability depends on scope Here is the costliest nuance in the exam, and it turns on a few words. The Definition of Workflow is the shared understanding of the policies the team applies. Who defines it? The answer depends on what it covers. A workflow limited to the Sprint Backlog belongs to the Developers. They alone decide how to turn the Sprint Backlog into an Increment, and that prerogative is not shared. A workflow that goes beyond the Sprint belongs to the whole Scrum Team, through the relevant roles within it. In both cases, nobody outside the team dictates its Definition of Workflow. We know what that nuance costs. Our own reference card had lost it, attributing the Definition of Workflow to the Scrum Team in every case. A candidate who had trusted it would have answered wrongly. It has since been corrected against the text of the Kanban Guide. ## The families of wrong answers The scope word. This is the dominant pattern. The trap sits in "only", "always", "must", or in an inversion of cause and effect. Almost never in an obscure detail. Many questions are statements to evaluate, where a single adverb flips the answer. The well-known practice, wrongly attributed. The distractor cites a perfectly real Kanban tool, attached to the wrong event. Or a correct metric, applied at the wrong point in the item's life. Knowing the tool is not enough; you need to know where it plugs in. The secondary use presented as the primary one. A statement gives a metric a plausible but incidental role. The question is not about what the metric can do, but about what it is for first. The mirror question. The same idea is tested twice with opposite verbs. Does Kanban "remove" anything from Scrum? No. Does Kanban "add" something? Yes. Reading fast makes you miss the inversion. The discipline dilemma. An urgent item breaks the WIP limit, what do you do? The expected answer preserves transparency: you make the exception visible rather than change a policy quietly. ## What Scrum with Kanban does not change This is the point the exam checks most often, under varied forms. Adding Kanban removes no event, no artifact, no accountability. The Sprint remains the container, the Sprint Review happens, the Product Owner stays accountable for value. Flow practices add and enrich; they replace nothing. A candidate from a pure Kanban team will sometimes answer that a given event becomes unnecessary. That is always wrong within this certification. ## Preparing in three moves ### 1. Read the Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams, then read it again It is short, and that is a trap. Read it once for the overall view, then a second time stopping on every scope verb. "May", "must", "at a minimum": these are the words the exam tests. ### 2. Work the metrics by their use, not by their formula Metrics are tested on their meaning and on the decision they trigger. For each one, be able to answer two questions. What exactly does it measure, and what do I do when it moves? Little's law is the thread. At a given throughput, the more things you work on in parallel, the longer they take to finish. So the first action against cycle times that are too long is lowering WIP. ### 3. Revise the Scrum framework, appearances notwithstanding The first official area covers combining the two, which presupposes knowing both. Accountability questions come up often. The right answer points to the team or to the relevant roles, never to the Scrum Master or to management. How decisions are distributed in a Scrum Team therefore matters here as elsewhere. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many correct answers does the PSK I need? 39 out of 45, since the threshold is 85%. The margin is six mistakes, half that of the 80-question certifications. ### Do you need the PSM I first? No certification is required, and Scrum.org sets no prerequisite. But the exam tests combining Scrum and Kanban, which presupposes that the framework is known. Preparing for it without a grasp of Scrum means learning two things at once. ### Does the PSK I involve calculations? The metrics are tested on their meaning and on the decision they call for. Little's law counts for its practical consequence: lowering WIP shortens cycle times. It is the understanding of the relationship that is tested, not your arithmetic. ### Does the PSK I exist in other languages? No, English is the only language offered, as for the PSD I. The Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams reads in English too, and its vocabulary is the vocabulary of the questions. ### Does the PSK I expire? No. Scrum.org states that its certifications do not expire and require no renewal, and carry no later fees. ## Key points - 45 questions, 60 minutes, 85%: you need 39 correct answers, so six mistakes at most. - Two official guides, the Scrum Guide and the Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams. - Two areas only: combining the two frameworks, and the complementary practices with their metrics. - Accountability for the Definition of Workflow depends on its scope. Limited to the Sprint Backlog, it falls to the Developers; beyond that, to the Scrum Team. - Cycle Time looks backward, Work Item Age warns while the item is still moving. - The traps turn on scope words and on attributing a tool, rarely on a definition. - Kanban takes nothing away from Scrum. No event, no artifact and no accountability disappears. The free PSK I trial uses the official conditions, with the answer explained straight away. No account to create.