Passing the SPS: the trap is not Nexus, it is the level

How many Product Backlogs in a Nexus? How many Sprint Backlogs? Who answers for the Definition of Done? These questions look alike, and they all run the same machinery. The wrong answer names a real artifact, or a real accountability, but at the wrong level. A Nexus stacks two levels. The Scrum Teams, each keeping its own Sprint Backlog and Sprint Goal. And the Nexus, which has one Product Backlog, one Product Owner, one Integrated Increment. Confusing the two costs more points than anything else. ## The format, as published The figures come from the official SPS page, checked in September 2026. - 40 questions in 60 minutes. - Passing threshold: 85%, so 34 correct answers and six mistakes at most. - $250 per attempt. - Single choice, multiple choice and true or false. - English only. The price deserves a word. That is fifty dollars more than the foundation certifications, and the only one at that price among those we cover. A second attempt therefore costs real money. ## The three official areas Scrum.org publishes three, and the third one surprises. The Nexus framework. Its definition, its theory, and what it adds to Scrum in terms of accountabilities, events and artifacts. Applying Nexus. The Nexus Integration Team, the Nexus events, the artifacts and their commitments. Scaling fundamentals. When to scale, and when not to. How to reduce dependencies between teams. A certification about scaling, a third of whose syllabus partly covers the cases where you should not attempt it. That is not a flourish. It is the framework's position, and it comes up in the questions. ## The central trap: which level is the question about Build this reflex before any other. On every question, ask yourself which level is being discussed. What is unique at the Nexus level. One Product Backlog. One Product Owner. One Product Goal. At least one Integrated Increment per Sprint. One shared Definition of Done, applying to everything. What stays specific to each Scrum Team. Its Sprint Backlog. Its Sprint Goal. Its own work, which it organises alone. The difference between Product Goal and Sprint Goal takes on its full meaning here. One is shared by the whole Nexus, the other belongs to one team and one Sprint. The counting questions follow directly. How many Product Backlogs for nine teams? One. How many Sprint Backlogs? Nine. The attribution questions follow the same logic. The typical distractor names an accountability that genuinely exists, placed one level too high or too low. ## What Nexus adds, and it is little The Nexus Guide is explicit on this point: Nexus extends Scrum, it does not replace it. What gets scaled is still Scrum. One accountability is added to the Scrum Guide's three: the Nexus Integration Team. It is accountable for producing a Done Integrated Increment at least once per Sprint, and serves as a focal point for integration. Its composition is tested. It brings together the Nexus Product Owner, a Scrum Master, and members of the Scrum Teams. That Scrum Master may also be a Scrum Master for one of the teams. Above all, hold on to the nuance of the verb. The Nexus Integration Team ensures that integration happens. It does not do that work in place of the teams. A frequent distractor has it directly performing what it is only accountable for. A Nexus brings together roughly three to nine Scrum Teams working on a single product. ## What Nexus does not change The Nexus events are added to the Scrum events, they do not replace them. Each Scrum Team continues to hold its own events. The Scrum Guide's three accountabilities stay in place and keep their definitions. How decisions are distributed in a Scrum Team therefore holds identically inside a Nexus. A candidate who answers that a given team event disappears in favour of its Nexus equivalent is wrong. ## The other families of wrong answers The accountability that performs instead of ensuring. Already seen above for the Nexus Integration Team, it holds more widely. Being accountable for something is not doing it yourself. The anti-pattern recycled as a distractor. A Sprint dedicated to infrastructure upfront, a stabilisation phase before release, a team frozen around a component. These are documented anti-patterns, presented as reasonable solutions. The absurd structure as a foil. An organisation of disproportionate weight, described in pseudo-official vocabulary. It tests whether words that sound right can impress you. The resource myth. Adding teams does not mechanically add value. Complexity and dependencies grow too, and that is the problem Nexus tries to contain. ## Preparing in three moves ### 1. Read the Nexus Guide with the Scrum Guide beside you The Nexus Guide is short, and it assumes the other is known. Every time it names an artifact or an event, note which level it sits at. That mental table is what the exam asks about. ### 2. Work on dependencies, not only on definitions The third area covers reducing dependencies between teams. Two sources feed them. The structure of the product first, depending on whether concerns are separated or entangled. The structure of communication between people second. Also be able to say when not to scale. A single team that suffices remains the best answer. ### 3. Practise the multiple-response format Multiple selections are more frequent here than in the foundation certifications, and the expected count is often stated. Read it every time. With six mistakes of margin over 40 questions, one misreading weighs heavily. Aim for three consecutive runs above 85% before booking. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many correct answers does the SPS need? 34 out of 40, the threshold being 85%. The margin is six mistakes, as in the PSK I, on an advanced-level exam. ### Do you need the PSM I first? No certification is required. But Nexus extends Scrum and assumes the framework is mastered, accountabilities and events included. Preparing for it without that base means learning two frameworks at once. ### How many teams in a Nexus? Roughly three to nine Scrum Teams working on a single product. Below that, one team suffices and Nexus adds nothing. Above it, the Nexus Guide prescribes no single solution. ### Does the Nexus Integration Team do the integration work? No, it is accountable for it. It ensures a Done Integrated Increment is produced at least once per Sprint, and serves as a focal point. The work itself remains the Scrum Teams'. The distinction is heavily tested. ### Does the SPS expire? No. Scrum.org states that its certifications do not expire and require no renewal, and carry no later fees. ## Key points - 40 questions, 60 minutes, 85%: you need 34 correct answers, so six mistakes at most. - $250 per attempt, fifty more than the foundation certifications. - A Nexus has one shared Product Backlog, Product Owner, Product Goal and Definition of Done. Each Scrum Team keeps its Sprint Backlog and its Sprint Goal. - The Nexus Integration Team is the only accountability Nexus adds. It ensures integration, it does not perform it. - Nexus extends Scrum without taking anything away: the team events remain. - One official area covers the cases where scaling is the wrong move. - Dependencies come from the structure of the product and from the structure of communication. The free SPS trial uses the official conditions, with the answer explained straight away. No account to create.