PSM II preparation: mock exams under real conditions
Professional Scrum Master IIAdvanced
Scrum.org's PSM II (Professional Scrum Master™ II) certification validates an advanced command of the Scrum Master accountability. It assesses your ability to apply it in concrete, ambiguous and demanding situations. It goes beyond the fundamentals of the Scrum Guide.
The syllabus emphasises five subjects.
- Leadership, and the styles that suit an agile context.
- Coaching and mentoring.
- Facilitation.
- Technical risk management.
- Organisational design.
Aimed at experienced Scrum Masters, it suits candidates who already hold the PSM I.
The official exam has 30 questions, largely scenario-based, to answer in 90 minutes. The minimum score is 85 %.
On ScrumKata, preparing for the PSM II 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 PSM II exam
30
questions
90 min
long
85%
to pass
403
practice questions
What the certification covers
- The Scrum framework in practice
- Teams, leadership and coaching
- Product, backlog and stakeholders
- Professional delivery and technical risk
- The agile organisation: design and culture
Sample PSM II questions
Here are 3 free questions with their full explanation, exactly what you will find in the practice modes.
A team formed two months ago is going through open tension: technical disagreements are turning personal and productivity is dropping. What reading should the Scrum Master prioritize?
- It is a normal development stage: the team must go through conflict to establish its norms
- The team was poorly composed and should be reshuffled
- The Scrum Master must settle technical disagreements to restore calm
- The Sprint load should be reduced until tensions subside
This conflict phase is a normal stage of team formation, not a dysfunction to eliminate. Treating it as a problem to suppress prevents the team from establishing its own working norms: a necessary step before reaching high performance.
Mastering Professional Scrum — Team development
An organization launches its agile transformation and sees visible results in six months. Eighteen months later, the old approval committees are back without anyone having decided it. How is this explained?
- The initially trained people have left the organization
- Without sustaining the driving forces, equilibrium naturally returns to its prior state
- The transformation was poorly led from the start
- The transformation's scope was too broad
A social system exists in equilibrium between driving and restraining forces. A change is never permanently secured: as soon as the sustaining effort drops, restraining forces regain dominance and pull the system back to its prior state.
Zombie Scrum Survival Guide — Force field model
What is the difference between the coaching and mentoring stances for a Scrum Master?
- The coach stays neutral and draws out; the mentor shares their own experience
- Mentoring requires a written agreement, coaching does not
- Coaching addresses teams, mentoring individuals
- Coaching is reserved for the Scrum Master, mentoring for management
The coach stays neutral and helps the person draw on their own experience; the mentor brings their own. Both are legitimate, provided one knows which stance is being taken and makes it explicit.
Professional Scrum Competencies — Coaching and Mentoring
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 PSM II
How do you prepare for the PSM II?
The PSM II assesses applying Scrum in ambiguous situations: team coaching, organisational impediments, trade-offs where several answers look defensible. Knowledge of the guide is assumed; judgement is what gets assessed. 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 PSM II?
By your readiness score: the average of your last five PSM II 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 PSM II exam?
30 questions in 90 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 PSM II questions to practise on?
ScrumKata has 403 original PSM II 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 PSM II 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 PSM II 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 PSM II exam cost?
At the time of writing, Scrum.org charges around $250 per PSM II 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 PSM II?
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 PSM II level?
No account, no card. Twenty questions are enough to know where you stand.
Take the 20 free questions