Scrum Master - Common Interview Questions

My biggest suggestion would be to read the scrum guide prior to the interview. The types of questions they will ask will tell you how well they follow Scrum and how well they understand the actual role of the Scrum Master. My best interviews were the ones where I was given a marker and told to teach me Scrum in less than 5 minutes using the marker board in the room. 

I wouldn't worry with going through all of these 50 plus questions and preparing an answer for them. Read the Scrum Guide so you know Scrum and how to answer questions. Then prepare the typical "tell me about a time..." kind of questions. They will likely ask about team conflicts, when you failed as a SM, etc trying to get a gauge of your real-world experience. 

Best of luck!

Hi Curtis,

Thank you for sharing your point of view.

And you are right about that, since the candidate understand the Scrum Guide he/she will be prepared for all kind of questions, even the trick ones :)

> Best of luck!

Thank you! :)

Thank you very much!! 

I just started to learn and this is a great collection of questions to be conscious of.

I second Curtis. Focus entirely on the Scrum Guide. Many of those questions aren't good. They can easily reinforce a false understanding of Scrum and Agile. This is more true for the Real World section but it's littered throughout.

Here are some examples, but I encourage you to take a serious look at the validity of the questions and their wording:

Basic

13. What are the three main artifacts of Scrum Process? There aren't more than three so get 'main' out of there.

14. What is a user story in Scrum? How does a good user story look? Story/Story Point/Velocity are all not a part of Scrum and don't exist in the Scrum Guide. Try to understand why that is the case.

15. What are burn-up and burn-down charts in scrum? Also not a part of Scrum design.

        

Advanced

23/24. Do you know about Agile Manifesto and its Principles? Explain in brief. This is should be a part of Basic and probably question number 1 IMO Without this, there's no Scrum.

27. What are the qualities that should be present in a good Agile tester have? Scrum Masters are not managers of the Scrum Team so this isn't an appropriate question to ask one.

28. Mention some scenarios where using scrum is not suggested? Most people think a benefit of Scrum is to deliver Customer Value, but Scrum doesn't provide this...your product/services do. Better to know what the benefits of Scrum actually are before thinking about why you shouldn't use Scrum.

    

Real World

39. How would you introduce scrum to senior executives? Better question, how would you introduce Agile to senior executives?

42. You are in the middle of a sprint and suddenly the product owner comes with a new requirement. What will you do? Answer this to the best of your ability before checking out the Scrum Guide under Sprint Backlog. This isn't the only thing to consider when answering this question, but it's a start.

46. One of the Agile Manifesto values says "People over processes" Isn't the Scrum Master role which enforces the "process" a contradiction? All sorts of wrong with this question, so be able to identify what that is and why

prepare the typical "tell me about a time..." kind of questions. They will likely ask about team conflicts, when you failed as a SM, etc trying to get a gauge of your real-world experience. 

This!

Also, please, get your PSM1 if you haven't already. It's really not that difficult and it will save you some blushes if they ask for simple Scrum framework knowledge. Because a) they will likely have someone interviewing you who already has it, and b) if not then even better, they will ask the kinds of questions where you can go into "teacher" and "change agent" stances. (Also, read Overeem's stances blog / whitepaper, it's gold.)

My general suggestions in terms of how to answer anything in such a role are: in general, focus not on what you think they want to hear, but on what you think they would benefit to be told. Be the clear and present proactive consultant, lean forward, look eager to help them. Ask questions about their circumstances and their agile journey and discuss their challenges. Make them the case study like you're already working there, instead of waiting for them to offer you one. If that makes sense.

Remember: they're not looking for a lackey, they're hiring someone who can help them achieve greatness!

I do have some gut reactions to a few of the questions, that I would not be afraid to use if people actually posed them like that. At least, if I have the presence of mind and the composure during an interview. It keeps stressing me out, no matter how confident I am up right to the moment they ask me to sit down, and no matter how often I've been on that hiring side of the table :) But if I feel good, I will respond in these kinds of ways.

> How did you enforce the scrum or how did you teach it to your team/organization?

"Whips and flogging, mostly! <grin> But seriously... It entirely depends on the people I'm trying to convince. Can you be more specific or would you like me to offer a few examples?"

> How did you solve organizational impediments?

"Well... That's complicated. Obviously there's no cookbook for that, or it'd have been solved already. I could offer a few examples if you like. But are you asking because your own teams are expressing things they consider impediments? Maybe we could discuss them?

> If you had to remove one Scrum event, which would you choose and why? (trick question)

"Well, if you had to remove one wheel from your motorbike, which one would you remove?"

> <any simple question that tests my verbatim knowledge of the scrum guide, i.e. PSM1 questions>

"Ha, that's a typical PSM1 question! Of course, it's <answer>. Do your people have your PSM1's? I offer trainings, you know... <wink>"

> How would you introduce scrum to senior executives?

"Introduce? I haven't met one in 20 years that didn't already know it. Or think they did, anyway <wink> So I like to start by asking them what they think about it, and see if they're willing to discuss insights or learn things. Then I take it from there."

Bouke, I hope you don't mind if I borrow your analogy!

> If you had to remove one Scrum event, which would you choose and why? (trick question)

"Well, if you had to remove one wheel from your motorbike, which one would you remove?"

I will substitute auto for motorbike, but I love the response!

Well, first I thought car as well, but then I thought weeeellll maybe you can limp on with three wheels and still get where you're going. We've all seen road videos from Russia, haven't we? :D

But come to think of it, maybe that's actually a better analogy. No one is saying you can't get anywhere if you don't do daily scrum - you just wouldn't be driving a car called Scrum and suddenly it matters much less how good your steering is or how powerful your engine is.

But yeah, by all means. Another way of putting it is saying: ok, say you're sitting on a kitchen chair with four legs. Which of those legs would you like removed?

That is also why I liked the auto analogy.   Removing a wheel doesn't render the auto immobile, but it sure doesn't drive as smoothly and efficiently as it did with 4 wheels.

Hello Friends , i am sharing my learning, in this video, with my recent interview with Royal Dutch Shell with all questions being asked during interview, please comment in video in case any kind of help is required for preparation of Scrum master interview, thanks

https://youtu.be/MwsQTqNPktM