PSD I preparation: mock exams under real conditions
Professional Scrum Developer IFoundation
Scrum.org's PSD I (Professional Scrum Developer™ I) certification validates your skills as a Developer inside a Scrum Team. It sits where professional engineering practices meet a command of the Scrum framework. It addresses developers, testers and technical professionals working in an agile context.
Around 85 % of the exam draws on developing and delivering professional products.
- Backlog refinement.
- Cross-functional work.
- Self-managed development.
- Design and architecture.
- Coding.
- Quality and testing.
The remaining 15 % covers the fundamentals of the Scrum framework.
The official exam has 80 multiple-choice questions, to answer in 60 minutes. The minimum score is 85 %.
On ScrumKata, preparing for the PSD 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 PSD I exam
80
questions
60 min
long
85%
to pass
300
practice questions
What the certification covers
- Professional delivery: quality, testing, architecture, CI/CD
- Scrum core: framework, teams, product
Sample PSD I questions
Here are 3 free questions with their full explanation, exactly what you will find in the practice modes.
A team finds that its build takes forty minutes. Why is this a serious problem?
- The cost multiplies by the number of developers and discourages frequent integration
- Scrum mandates a maximum build duration in the Definition of Done
- The integration server cannot run several builds in parallel
- A slow build mechanically produces more defects in production
The target inherited from Extreme Programming is a ten minute build. It is not cosmetic: every minute lost is multiplied by the number of developers and by how often they integrate. A slow build pushes people to integrate less often, producing exactly the large batches continuous integration seeks to avoid. The bottleneck is nearly always testing, especially against a real database.
Martin Fowler — Continuous Integration
A team splits its build into a commit build and a secondary build. What can be stated? Select all that apply
- The commit build is what gates integration into the mainline
- The secondary build must pass before a developer can integrate
- The commit build may exceed the ten minute target since it is split
- The secondary build covers the slower tests, against a real database
The commit build is fast and held within the ten minute target: it runs unit tests with doubles for external services, and it alone gates integration into the mainline. The secondary build is slower, runs integration tests against a real database and end to end scenarios, and runs afterwards. This split widens coverage without blocking the development flow.
Martin Fowler — Continuous Integration, Deployment Pipeline
What must an automated build make possible?
- Compile the source code, the other steps remaining manual
- Trigger the production release as soon as the tests pass
- Reproduce exactly the configuration entered on the integration server
- Build the entire system with a single command, with no manual step
The criterion is that a single command builds the whole system. Compilation is only part of it: moving files, loading the database schema and preparing the environment belong to it too. Everything the build needs is described in version-controlled files, never in settings clicked through a user interface.
Martin Fowler — Continuous Integration
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 PSD I
How do you prepare for the PSD I?
The PSD I assesses the engineering practices that make an Increment genuinely releasable: Definition of Done, continuous integration, testing, refactoring, alongside the Scrum framework. 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 PSD I?
By your readiness score: the average of your last five PSD 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 PSD I exam?
80 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 PSD I questions to practise on?
ScrumKata has 300 original PSD 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 PSD 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 PSD 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 PSD I exam cost?
At the time of writing, Scrum.org charges around $200 per PSD 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 PSD 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 PSD I level?
No account, no card. Twenty questions are enough to know where you stand.
Take the 20 free questions