PAL I preparation: mock exams under real conditions
Professional Agile Leadership IFoundation
Scrum.org's PAL I (Professional Agile Leadership™ I) certification validates your understanding of agile leadership. It covers the part leadership plays in a successful Scrum transformation. It addresses managers and executives who want to build an environment where agility can work.
The syllabus covers the fundamentals of the Scrum framework, along with five subjects.
- The leadership styles that suit an agile context.
- Self-managing teams.
- Facilitation.
- Emergent software development.
- Organisational design and Evidence-Based Management.
The official exam has 36 multiple-choice questions, to answer in 60 minutes. The minimum score is 85 %.
On ScrumKata, preparing for the PAL I rests on five things.
- Questions matched to the difficulty of the exam.
- Original mock exams and revision questions.
- Timed tests, in the official format.
- Detailed tracking of your progress.
- An explanation for every answer, with the section it draws on.
The format of the PAL I exam
36
questions
60 min
long
85%
to pass
300
practice questions
What the certification covers
- The agile organisation: design, culture, EBM
- Leadership, self-managing teams, facilitation
- The Scrum framework: empiricism, values, team, events
- Product: value, forecasting, stakeholders
- Emergent software development
Sample PAL I questions
Here are 3 free questions with their full explanation, exactly what you will find in the practice modes.
What is a manager's role in an organization using Scrum?
- Ensuring the rules of the Scrum framework are followed
- Supporting teams and creating a bounded environment where self-management and empiricism work
- Identifying who is responsible when a team fails
- Setting the Product Goal for the teams under their responsibility
It consists of supporting teams, practising servant leadership, and creating a bounded environment where self-management and empiricism can work. Enforcing the framework's rules belongs to the Scrum Master, setting the Product Goal to the Product Owner, and holding an individual responsible for the failure of a team whose outcome is collective is counterproductive.
Scrum.org — Developing People and Teams
A Scrum Team reports being constantly interrupted by unplanned work. What should its manager do?
- Understand with the team the nature of those interruptions and act on what causes them
- Split the team in two, one handling the unexpected and one new development
- Give up Scrum in favor of a more flexible approach
- Explain to the team that the unexpected is part of a complex environment
Work with the team to understand the nature of the interruptions and reduce their occurrence at the source. Recurring interruptions almost always describe an upstream problem, often outside the team's reach: that is precisely a leader's ground. Telling the team to accept it as complexity is giving up, and splitting the team to dedicate half to the unexpected institutionalizes the problem.
Scrum.org — Developing People and Teams
An executive committee asks each team to fill in a shared dashboard so progress becomes comparable across teams. Which objection is best founded?
- Estimates should first be normalized to make the figures comparable
- The dashboard is acceptable if it stays visible to all teams
- Scrum Masters should refuse any measurement request in the name of the framework
- Comparing different products measures nothing common, and a dashboard filled in for a third party stops being reliable
Two problems compound. The intended comparison is meaningless: teams work on different products with local units of measure. And a dashboard filled in for a third party ends up filled in to satisfy that third party, degrading the information rather than improving it. The transparency a leader needs is available in the existing events.
Scrum Guide 2020 — Transparence
Where these questions come from
Every question is written from the official guides, and carries the section it draws on. We publish no dumps: practising on leaked questions teaches you to recognise a wording, not to reason, and on exam day the slightest rephrasing leaves you stuck. The explanation says why the right answer is right, and why the others are not.
Frequently asked questions about the PAL I
How do you prepare for the PAL I?
The PAL I assesses the part management plays in an agile organisation: culture, structure, measuring performance, and the impediments only leadership can remove. The method that works has four steps: read the official guide from end to end, sit one mock exam to find out where you actually stand, work first on the topics sitting below the 85% threshold, then sit timed mock exams until you clear that threshold consistently. Revising without measuring is working blind.
How do I know I am ready for the PAL I?
By your readiness score: the average of your last five PAL I mock exams, set against the official 85% threshold. Only mock exams count, never Practice mode, since it shows the answer as you go. ScrumKata also breaks the gap down topic by topic, ranked by its effect on the final score, so you know what to work on and not only where you stand.
What is the format of the PAL I exam?
36 questions in 60 minutes, and 85% correct answers to pass. The Mock exam mode on ScrumKata reproduces that format exactly: the same number of questions, the same timer, and no feedback before the end.
Where can I find PAL I questions to practise on?
ScrumKata has 300 original PAL I questions, spread across topics according to each topic's official weight in the exam, and across difficulty levels. Every question comes with a detailed explanation and a reference to the guide it draws on. Some are free, with no card required.
Is one PAL I mock exam enough to prepare?
A mock exam measures, it does not teach. It gives you a score and, if it is well built, the list of your weak topics. What changes the outcome is what you do next: revisit the questions you missed, understand why the right answer is right, and check on the next pass that the idea has stuck. A practice test on its own tells you where you stand, not how to improve.
Are the PAL I questions on ScrumKata the real exam questions?
No, and that is deliberate. We publish no dumps. Every question is written from the official guides, with a reference to the section it draws on. Practising on leaked questions teaches you to recognise a wording, not to reason, and on exam day the slightest rephrasing leaves you stuck.
How much does the PAL I exam cost?
At the time of writing, Scrum.org charges around $200 per PAL I attempt, with no free retake if you fail. Check the current figure on scrum.org, as these prices change. ScrumKata does not sell the certification: you pay Scrum.org directly to sit the exam.
How long does it take to prepare for the PAL I?
That depends on where you start far more than on a number of hours. With daily Scrum practice, a few weeks of focused revision is often enough. Without field experience, expect longer. The right marker is not elapsed time but the point where your mock exams clear 85% consistently.
Ready to measure your PAL I level?
No account, no card. Twenty questions are enough to know where you stand.
Take the 20 free questions