PMP Exam Questions: 20 Practice Questions for the July 2026 Exam

By Stephen Adindu, PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, Lead Coach at The Career Accelerators. Last updated November 2026.

The PMP exam now has 180 questions in 240 minutes, split across three domains: People (33%), Process (41%) and Business Environment (26%). About 60% of the questions assume an agile or hybrid way of working. Questions come in several formats, including multiple choice, multiple response and matching, and some are built around a case study or a chart. Your result is a pass or fail with feedback for each domain, and PMI doesn't give a pass mark.

Below, we explain how the exam is built since PMI's July 2026 update, then give you 20 TCA practice questions in the same style, with answers, a scoring guide and a study plan.

How many questions are on the PMP exam?

The exam has 180 questions in 240 minutes, about 80 seconds a question. Ten of the questions are pretest questions that don't affect your score.

For eligibility, fees and how to apply, see our guide to getting PMP certified.

What does the PMP exam cover?

PMI's July 2026 Exam Content Outline splits the exam into three domains and 26 tasks. Business Environment more than tripled in the update, from 8% to 26%, while People fell from 42% and Process from 50%.

Source: PMI, PMP Examination Content Outline, July 2026.

• People is about leadership: a shared vision, conflict, leading the team, engaging stakeholders, aligning and managing their expectations, knowledge transfer and communication.
• Process is about delivery: the integrated plan, scope, value-based delivery, resources, procurement, finance, quality, schedule, project status and closure.
• Business Environment is about the setting around the project: governance, compliance, change control, impediments and issues, risk, continuous improvement, organizational change and changes outside the project.

PMI says the update brings AI, sustainability and stakeholder engagement into project scenarios. In the outline, sustainability appears in the tasks for planning, quality, compliance and risk, while AI is named as a trend PMI considered rather than a task.

What types of questions are on the PMP exam?

The outline lists eight formats. Two are new in the July 2026 version: case or scenario questions and graphic-based questions.

PMI marks the first four as available whichever way you sit the exam, including online. "Computer-based testing" is its term for sitting the exam on a computer at a test centre. The July 2026 outline doesn't list a fill-in-the-blank format.

The outline is built on tasks, not definitions, and PMI says the exam isn't written from any single book. So practise choosing the best action in a situation, often what to do first or next.

PMP sample questions: 20 practice questions

These are practice questions written by TCA in the style of the PMP exam and mapped to tasks in PMI's July 2026 Exam Content Outline. They're not real exam questions, and they aren't copied or adapted from PMI, PMI's practice tests, prep books or question banks. The organizations in them are made up.

The set follows the exam's proportions (7 People, 8 Process and 5 Business Environment; 8 predictive and 12 agile or hybrid) and opens with a case study, as the exam does. Write down your answers in about 27 minutes, then check them below.

Case study: replacing a credit union's mobile app (questions 1 to 3)

1. Four months before launch, the compliance lead tells you the regulator has issued new guidance on how apps must ask members for consent before their data is shared. It takes effect before your launch date. What should you do first?

A. Ask the product owner to add a consent story to the backlog for the team to estimate at the next refinement session.
B. Add the guidance to the risk register as a threat, assign the compliance lead as its owner and review it at next month's risk meeting.
C. Raise a change request with the vendor to build consent screens into the integration layer.
D. Work with the compliance lead to assess how the guidance affects the app backlog, the vendor's work and the launch date, then take the impact to the governance body.

2. The vendor tells you its second milestone will be three weeks late because of staffing problems. The app team can work on other features in the meantime, so the launch date isn't at risk yet. What should you do?

A. Hold back the next milestone payment and send the vendor a formal notice of breach.
B. Check the contract terms, ask the vendor for a written recovery plan, update the schedule and the dependency with the app team, and track the vendor against the plan.
C. Ask the app team to build a temporary integration themselves so they no longer depend on the vendor.
D. Note the delay and take no further action, because the launch date isn't affected.

3. Halfway through a sprint, the sponsor reads pilot feedback saying members find the new login confusing. She asks you to have the team drop their current work and fix the login tomorrow. What should you do?

A. Ask the team to pause the sprint and start the login fix straight away.
B. Explain to the sponsor that the team has committed to this sprint's work, so changes have to wait until the release is finished.
C. Thank the sponsor, take the feedback to the product owner, and help the product owner and sponsor agree where the fix ranks before the next sprint planning.
D. Ask the team to work overtime so they can finish the sprint and fix the login as well.

People (questions 4 to 9)

4. Two senior developers on your hybrid project disagree about the design of a reporting module. The argument has spilled into the daily stand-ups, other team members are taking sides, and the work is stalling. What should you do first?

A. Review both designs yourself, choose the stronger one and announce the decision at the next stand-up so the team can move on.
B. Meet the two developers to understand what's behind the disagreement, then facilitate a session where the team weighs both options against agreed criteria.
C. Escalate the disagreement to their functional manager.
D. Ask them to keep the debate out of stand-ups and let it settle on its own.

5. You've just formed an agile team. The members haven't worked together before, and every morning they ask you what to work on. What should you do?

A. Keep assigning tasks each day so the team stays productive, and review progress with each member at the end of the day.
B. Ask HR to replace the members who aren't self-starters.
C. Ask the product owner to assign the tasks instead.
D. Coach the team to plan and pull their own work: agree a working agreement, have members choose tasks from the sprint backlog, and step back as they grow in confidence.

6. You're planning the rollout of a new warehouse management system at a distributor's three sites. A month into planning, you learn that the union representing the warehouse staff isn't on the stakeholder register, and the new system will change shift patterns. What should you do?

A. Add the union to the stakeholder register, analyze its interests and influence, and update the stakeholder engagement plan to involve it.
B. Leave the union to the HR department, since labour relations are outside the project's scope.
C. Send the union representative the project charter and schedule, and invite questions by email before the plan is baselined.
D. Ask the sponsor to tell the union that the decisions have already been made.

7. The only person who understands a legacy interface your hybrid project depends on is moving to another assignment in six weeks. Which TWO actions best protect the project? (Choose two.)

A. Pair her with a team member on all interface work for the remaining six weeks.
B. Ask her manager to delay the new assignment until the project ends.
C. Ask her to document how the interface works in the team's shared knowledge base, and make that part of the definition of done for interface work.
D. Record her departure in the lessons learned register at project closure.
E. Give her extra interface tasks so more gets finished before she leaves.

8. Your sponsor says the 12-page weekly status report is too long and she can't see what needs her decision. Other stakeholders say they rely on the detail. What should you do?

A. Stop sending the report to the sponsor.
B. Ask the sponsor what she needs, then update the communications plan: for example, a one-page summary of decisions, risks and progress for her, keeping the detailed report for others.
C. Cut the report to one page for everyone.
D. Put the decisions in bold in the existing report.

9. Your agile team is split between Vancouver and Halifax. Sprint reviews show the two groups understand the product goal differently: one thinks it's about saving staff time, the other about letting customers serve themselves. Features are pulling in different directions. What should you do first?

A. Bring both groups together with the product owner to restate the product vision, check how each group understood it, and find where the mismatch started.
B. Give each location its own backlog so the groups stop getting in each other's way.
C. Ask the product owner to rewrite the vision statement more clearly, add it to the project charter and email it to both groups.
D. Wait for the next retrospective to raise it.

Process (questions 10 to 16)

10. A provincial agency wants an online portal for licence renewals. The licensing rules are set by regulation and won't change, and the portal must connect to an existing payment system. The agency doesn't know how the public will want to use the portal and wants early feedback. Which approach should you recommend?

A. Predictive for the whole project, because the regulations fix the requirements.
B. Agile for the whole project, with the regulations written as user stories in the backlog.
C. Hybrid: plan and baseline the regulated rules and the payment integration up front, and build the public-facing portal in short iterations with user feedback.
D. Hold off on choosing an approach until the agency has confirmed every user requirement.

11. This is your 12-month project's cost status at the end of month 6. Which statement best describes the project?

A. It's ahead of schedule and over budget. It will cost about C$990,000 in total.
B. It's behind schedule and under budget, with a cost performance index (CPI) of 1.25.
C. It's on schedule and over budget, with a schedule performance index (SPI) of 1.11.
D. It's behind schedule and over budget. If cost performance stays the same, it will cost about C$1,125,000 in total.

12. Your agile team's velocity for the last five sprints is shown below. The release backlog still holds 210 story points, estimated the same way. The product owner asks when the release is likely to be done. What's the best answer?

A. In about seven more sprints, based on the average velocity of 30 points, with the forecast updated every sprint.
B. In just under seven sprints, based on the best sprint of 32 points, and commit to that date.
C. In five sprints, if the team raises its velocity to 42 points.
D. It can't be forecast until every backlog item has been built.

13. (Matching) Match each scope item to its description.

Items: 1. Project scope statement. 2. Work breakdown structure (WBS). 3. WBS dictionary. 4. Scope baseline.

A. The agreed scope statement, WBS and WBS dictionary that progress is measured against; it changes only through change control.
B. A hierarchy that breaks the total work down into deliverables and work packages.
C. Details for each work package, such as its description, owner, acceptance criteria and estimates.
D. A description of the project scope, major deliverables, exclusions and acceptance criteria.

14. Your product backlog holds more work than the agile team can deliver before a funding review in three months. Which TWO actions best protect the value the project delivers? (Choose two.)

A. Ask the team to cut testing so every item fits before the review.
B. Rank the backlog with key stakeholders by value, risk and cost of delay, and build the highest-ranked items first.
C. Freeze the backlog so priorities can't change before the review, and share the frozen list with the funders.
D. Build the easiest items first to show a high velocity at the review.
E. Release a minimum viable product to a small group of users early, and use their feedback to re-rank the backlog.

15. During acceptance testing of a payroll system upgrade, the client finds that tax deductions are wrong for employees in one province. The requirement was documented, but no test case covered it. What should you do?

A. Fix the defect, trace every requirement to at least one test case, make that a standard check in the quality management plan, and re-test.
B. Fix the defect, re-run the failed test case with the client, and record the miss in the issue log.
C. Ask the client to accept the system with a workaround and fix the defect after launch.
D. Add more testers for the final week of testing.

16. The client has signed formal acceptance of the last deliverable for a new billing system. Two vendor contracts are still open, and the operations team hasn't confirmed it's ready to support the system. What should you do next?

A. Release the project team and archive the project files.
B. Send the final report to the sponsor and hold a team celebration.
C. Keep the project and team in place until the system's warranty period ends, in case defects appear.
D. Confirm the operations team is ready for handover, close the vendor contracts, then finish the lessons learned and release the team.

Business Environment (questions 17 to 20)

17. A stakeholder asks one of your developers directly to add a new report. The developer says it's only two days' work and agrees. You find out a week later. What should you do?

A. Let it go: the change is small and the stakeholder is happy.
B. Remove the report and remind the developer, in front of the team, that this isn't allowed.
C. Have the request written up as a change request and taken through change control for impact analysis and a decision, and remind the developer privately how change requests work.
D. Add the report to the scope baseline and adjust the schedule.

18. Your hybrid project's risk register shows that the cloud hosting provider may raise its prices when your contract renews halfway through the project. You've rated the probability medium and the budget impact high. Which TWO responses are appropriate? (Choose two.)

A. Do nothing until the renewal date, then decide based on the new price.
B. Remove the risk from the register because the provider's pricing is outside the team's control.
C. Negotiate a fixed price for the full project term now, before the renewal.
D. Set aside a contingency reserve based on the risk's expected monetary value, agreed with the sponsor.
E. Reduce testing now to build a cushion in case prices rise.

19. For the third day running, a developer on your agile team says at the daily stand-up that she's blocked, waiting for the security team to give her access to test data. What should you do?

A. Ask her to raise it again tomorrow if she's still blocked.
B. Take the blocker on yourself: talk to the security team today, agree a fix or workaround, and keep the blocker visible on the team board until it's cleared.
C. Move her to other stories and push this one to the next sprint.
D. Add it to the risk register as a possible delay.

20. Your hybrid project's governance lets you approve changes up to C$20,000 or two weeks of schedule. Anything larger goes to the steering committee. The product owner asks for a change that would cost C$35,000 and says it's essential. What should you do?

A. Approve it, because the product owner says it's essential.
B. Split it into two changes of C$17,500 so each falls within your limit.
C. Analyze the impact and send it to the steering committee with a recommendation, as the escalation threshold requires.
D. Reject it and ask the product owner to cut it down to a version that costs less than C$20,000.

PMP practice questions: answers and explanations

Count a multiple-response or matching question as right only if every part is right. That's our rule for this set, not PMI's.

Case study answers

1. D. Outline task: Evaluate external business environment changes. Assess the impact on scope and the backlog first. In a hybrid project it can touch both halves, and a fixed-date rule may need a governance decision.

• A covers only the agile half, and nobody has assessed the impact yet.
• B treats a certainty as a risk. The guidance has been issued and will apply, so it needs action now.
• C jumps to a solution before any analysis, and puts screens (an app feature) into the vendor's integration work.

2. B. Outline task: Plan and manage procurement. Know the contract, assess the vendor's performance, and keep the schedule and its dependencies current.

• A jumps to a legal remedy before you've checked the contract or given the vendor a chance to recover.
• C duplicates work the credit union is already paying for and pulls the team off its own backlog.
• D ignores that the delay uses up slack. If it slips again, you'll find out too late.

3. C. Outline task: Align stakeholder expectations. The product owner owns the backlog order. Your job is to get the feedback acted on quickly without breaking the current sprint.

• A bypasses the product owner and abandons the sprint goal on one stakeholder's request.
• B is wrong for agile work. Change is welcome through the backlog, and the next sprint is only days away. Refusing it damages trust.
• D uses overtime to avoid a priority decision, at an unsustainable pace.

People answers

4. B. Outline task: Manage conflicts. Find the source of the conflict first, then resolve it collaboratively, using criteria the team agrees.

• A forces a decision without finding the cause, and takes ownership away from the experts.
• C escalates before you've tried to resolve it within the team.
• D avoids the conflict, which keeps slowing the work.

5. D. Outline task: Lead the project team. Fit your leadership style to the team's stage: coach it toward organizing its own work.

• A keeps the team dependent on you and stalls it whenever you're unavailable.
• B punishes a normal stage of team development.
• C misreads the role. The product owner decides what gets built and in what order, not who does each task.

6. A. Outline task: Engage stakeholders. Identify the stakeholder, analyze their interests and influence, and plan how to engage them.

• B ignores that the project causes the shift changes, so the union can affect its success.
• C is one-way. Sending documents isn't engagement, and you haven't analyzed what the union needs.
• D shuts the union out, which invites resistance when the system goes live.

7. A and C. Outline task: Help ensure knowledge transfer. Pairing passes on knowledge that's hard to write down, and documentation in the definition of done keeps the rest after she leaves.

• B isn't yours to decide, and the knowledge would still sit with one person.
• D comes too late. A note at closure won't help in six weeks.
• E gets more done but leaves the knowledge in one head.

8. B. Outline task: Plan and manage communication. Tailor communication to each stakeholder's needs and record it in the plan.

• A leaves the sponsor without information she needs.
• C fixes it for one person and takes away detail others rely on.
• D helps a little, but doesn't ask what she needs or update the plan.

9. A. Outline task: Develop a common vision. Confirm the vision with the team and stakeholders, and trace the misunderstanding to its cause.

• B makes the split permanent: two backlogs heading toward two different products.
• C resends the vision without checking understanding or finding why the groups diverged.
• D waits while more features drift.

Process answers

10. C. Outline task: Develop an integrated project management plan and plan delivery. Stable, regulated work suits up-front planning and a baseline; uncertain, user-facing work suits short iterations with feedback.

• A fits the fixed rules but gives no early feedback from the public, which the agency asked for.
• B could suit the portal, but treats the stable rules and fixed integration as uncertain and loses a useful baseline.
• D waits for certainty that only testing with users can bring.

11. D. Outline task: Plan and manage finance. Schedule variance is EV minus PV: C$360,000 minus C$400,000 is minus C$40,000, so the project is behind schedule (SPI = 360,000 / 400,000 = 0.9). Cost variance is EV minus AC: minus C$90,000, so it's over budget (CPI = 360,000 / 450,000 = 0.8). If cost performance stays the same, the estimate at completion is BAC / CPI: C$900,000 / 0.8 = C$1,125,000.

• A uses AC + (BAC minus EV), which assumes the rest of the work will go exactly to budget. It also misreads the SPI of 0.9 as ahead of schedule.
• B divides AC by EV, the formula upside down. The CPI is 0.8, and anything below 1 means over budget.
• C divides PV by EV, also upside down. The SPI is 0.9, so the project is behind.

12. A. Outline task: Plan and manage schedule. The average velocity is 30 points (150 points over five sprints), and 210 / 30 is 7 sprints. Agile forecasts use real data and are updated as things change.

• B uses the best sprint, which is optimistic, and turns a forecast into a fixed commitment.
• C treats velocity as a target, which tends to inflate estimates or cut quality.
• D is wrong. Agile teams forecast all the time and keep the forecast current.

13. 1-D, 2-B, 3-C, 4-A. Outline task: Develop and manage project scope. The usual mix-ups are between the scope statement and the scope baseline (the baseline is the approved set of all three documents), and between the WBS and its dictionary (the WBS is the structure, the dictionary holds the detail for each work package).

14. B and E. Outline task: Help ensure value-based delivery. Prioritize by value with stakeholders, and deliver value in small increments so you can learn and re-prioritize.

• A creates defects and rework, which reduces the value delivered.
• C throws away the chance to act on what you learn before the review.
• D confuses velocity with value. The easiest items may be worth the least.

15. A. Outline task: Plan and optimize quality of products/deliverables. The root cause is a gap in the testing process. Fix the defect, close the gap and re-test; payroll tax is also a compliance matter.

• B treats the symptom. If one documented requirement had no test case, others may not have one either.
• C pushes the client to accept a known compliance defect.
• D adds people to run the same test cases, which still won't cover requirements that have no test case.

16. D. Outline task: Manage project closure. Confirm readiness for handover and close procurements, financials and resources, with final lessons learned.

• A releases the team before handover and contract closure are done.
• B is worth doing, but only after the closure work is finished.
• C ties up the team and budget. Warranty support is normally covered by the contract and the operations team.

Business Environment answers

17. C. Outline task: Manage and control changes. Every change goes through change control, so its impact is assessed and the right person decides.

• A allows scope creep. Small changes add up and may affect testing or other work.
• B removes work the stakeholder wants without assessing it, and the public reprimand damages the team.
• D changes the baseline without approval, which is exactly what change control exists to prevent.

18. C and D. Outline task: Plan and manage risk. A high-impact risk with a known trigger date needs a planned response. Locking in the price deals with the cause, and a contingency reserve covers the cost if the negotiation fails or only partly succeeds.

• A is passive acceptance, which suits small risks, not this one.
• B is backwards. Risks outside your control belong in the register, because that's when planned responses matter most.
• E swaps a budget risk for a quality risk, without anyone approving it.

19. B. Outline task: Remove impediments and manage issues. Removing blockers is a core part of the job: assess the impact, act, and keep it visible until it's gone.

• A lets a three-day blocker run longer. Reporting it again doesn't remove it.
• C leaves the cause in place, so the story is still blocked next sprint.
• D treats a current problem as a possible one. It's an issue, not a risk.

20. C. Outline task: Define and establish project governance. Above your limit, analyze the change and give the decision-makers a recommendation.

• A uses authority you don't have. Calling a change essential doesn't change who approves it.
• B gets around the rules and hides the real cost from the people meant to decide.
• D confuses "over my limit" with "no". The steering committee decides.

What is the PMP passing score?

PMI doesn't give a pass mark in its Certification Handbook or the Exam Content Outline. The handbook says only that the passing score is set by psychometric analysis. Your score report shows whether you passed, plus diagnostic information for each domain.

So use two checks. Short sets like these 20 questions show you where to study; they're too small to forecast a result. Full-length practice exams tell you when you're ready: as our PMP guide suggests, aim to score well above 70% on them before you book. That's a readiness target, not PMI's pass mark.

Then check your misses by domain and approach:

• People: questions 3 to 9 (7 questions)
• Process: questions 2 and 10 to 16 (8 questions)
• Business Environment: questions 1 and 17 to 20 (5 questions)
• Predictive: questions 2, 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 17. The other 12 are agile or hybrid.

If your misses cluster in one domain or approach, start there. If you've already sat the exam and didn't pass, see what a PMP retake costs and how the attempt rules work.

How should you use practice questions in your PMP study plan?

Build your plan around the outline, and use practice questions to test it.

PMI offers its own PMP practice exam and a study tool, PMI Study Hall, and publishes an Exam Reference List alongside the outline. Whatever you use, check it was written for the July 2026 outline. For a week-by-week version of this plan, see how to prepare for the PMP exam.

How we prepare PMP candidates at TCA

Our PMP course is live and online over five days (35 contact hours), on weekday or weekend schedules. It's updated for the July 2026 exam and its Exam Content Outline, and covers predictive, agile and hybrid approaches. It includes practice questions, full-length mock exams and help with your PMP application. It costs C$499, or two payments of C$275.

From 1 December 2026, PMI counts live training toward the 35 hours you need to apply only if it comes from an Authorized Training Partner, a China Registered Education Provider or an eligible accredited academic program. Self-paced courses from any provider still count, and training finished before that date stays eligible. Hours from our live PMP course count if you finish it by 30 November 2026. The self-paced part of our Project Management Coaching course gives you all 35 hours, with a completion certificate, before and after that date.

PMP exam questions FAQs

Are these real PMP exam questions?
No. TCA wrote them for practice, in the exam's style, and mapped each one to a task in PMI's July 2026 outline. None is taken or adapted from PMI, prep books or question banks.

How many questions do you need to get right to pass the PMP?
PMI doesn't say. It sets the passing score by psychometric analysis and gives no number in its handbook or outline.

Are there drag-and-drop questions on the PMP exam?
Yes. Matching and enhanced matching questions can ask you to drag items into place. PMI's outline marks both as computer-based testing only, and it doesn't say how many appear on an exam.

How many agile questions are on the PMP exam?
About 60% of questions are agile or hybrid, which would be roughly 108 of the 180. PMI says the exact mix varies by exam form.

Can I take the PMP exam online?
Yes, with a remote proctor through Pearson VUE (not available to citizens of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, per PMI's handbook). The outline lists multiple choice, multiple response, case and graphic questions for every way of testing, and marks the four other formats as computer-based testing only.

Stephen's tip: For every practice question you miss, write down the outline task it tested and why your answer didn't fit. That list tells you what to study next far better than your total score does.

Ready to start your PMP?

Our PMP course is updated for the July 2026 exam, with practice questions, full-length mock exams and help with your application. Book a free call to plan your study around your exam date.

Related reading: how to get PMP certified, an 8-week PMP study plan and what a PMP retake costs.

Sources

• PMI: PMP Examination Content Outline, July 2026, for the domains, weights and 26 tasks, the question count, timing and breaks, the eight question formats and where each is used, the predictive and agile split, and PMI's note that the exam isn't based on a single text
• PMI: Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification, for the 1 December 2026 date
• PMI: What's new in the updated PMP exam, for the July 2026 update, the previous domain weights, the new topics, the providers whose live training counts and that training completed before the change stays eligible
• PMI: Certification Handbook (revised June 2026), for how the passing score is set, the score report, the built-in calculator and who can't test online
• PMI: PMP exam preparation, for PMI's practice exam, PMI Study Hall and the Exam Reference List
• TCA's PMP course page and course records (October 2026), for the course format, price and the 35-hour routes