top 20 scrum Master interview questions and answers in a scrum team the scrum Master is an important member responsible for supporting and promoting scrum he or she helps other team members to understand the scrum values rules practices and Theory besides a scrum Master assist people outside the scrum team to comprehend the best way to interact with the team thus the role of a scrum Master is challenging to fill owing to the needs and demands involved including assisting the team in reaching an agreement on activities and timelines coordinating daily scrum meetings and ensuring the team is not distracted these demands may make the process of hiring problematic in terms of finding the right individual but knowing what to ask candidates and the answers to expect can simplify this process here are interview questions to ask scrum Master interviews an answer to expect from the right candidate one what is Scrum the interview seeks to know whether you understand certain Basics like the meaning of scrum sample answer scrum consists of a processed framework for helping teams develop a project in an incremental and iterative manner the process is executed using work Cycles called Sprints which usually last for 2 weeks in are time boxed meaning they are concluded within the allocated time two as a scrum Master how can you track the Sprint progress tracking the progress of a Sprint is vital to ensure work is performed as planned the interviewer seeks to know whether you are familiar with how to measure the progress sample answer I would use the burndown chart to track a Sprint's progress the horizontal axis indicates the number of Sprints while the vertical one shows the remaining work three what is the objective of user story in scrum the interviewer wants to know if you understand user stories and their purpose in agile software development sample answer in agile software development a user story is a tool that describes a feature based on the end user's perspective written in natural language use stories act as boundary objects that facilitate communication and sense making in other words they enable the software development team to understand the system and its context four as a scrum Master how will you help the product owner the scrum Master does not work in isolation thus the interview wants to know how you can work with other scrum framework rules such as the product owner sample answer I can support the product owner in various ways I can help him or her with efficient management of the product backlog and in practicing and understanding agility besides I can assist the product owner by promoting scrum events as needed or required and enabling the scrum team to adopt a shared Vision five why is it necessary to adopt the agile methodology in order to execute his duties effectively the scrum Master needs to know certain Basics like the necessity of agile methodology sample answer the agile methodology enables developers to achieve customer satisfaction by delivering useful software swiftly with agile potential changing requirements are eased even later on after a company develops it facilitates daily and better Partnerships between the developers and the company besides agile methodology offers Simplicity in software development and promotes face-to-face communication six what techniques can you use to perform estimations in scrum projects the interviewer wants to assess whether you can do scrum project estimation sample answer the agile estimation techniques that I can use to carry out estimations in scrum projects are the T-shirt estimation planning poker estimation estimation by analog and disaggregation estimation techniques seven what is scope creep and how would you prevent its occurrence the interviewer is looking out for the individual who can prevent undesirable happenings such as a scope creep sample answer a scope creep occurs when new features whose requirements were not clearly defined at the beginning are added to a produ that is being developed it can be prevented by specifying all the requirements clearly from the start ensuring to monitor the project progress and grooming the Sprint backlog effectively eight how is the change management in waterfall different from an agile scrum the interviewer wants to understand whether you know the difference between waterfall and agile scrum with regard to change management sample answer in waterfall change management is based on the change management plan the change tracker and a release plan based on which the Consultants deliver their work however in agile a change management plan doesn't exist thus work delivery is based entirely on what is defined in the product backlog nine and scrum what is minimum viable product nvp the interviewer is interested in assessing whether you understand MVP sample answer minimum viable product or MVP consists of the smallest product part available to the public that clearly shows its main functionality the MVP doesn't have to be functioning it can be just a prototype the main aim of MVP is to receive feedback from users or stakeholders 10 as a scrum Master what is your role during the daily scrum the right candidate should understand his or her role during the daily scrum and that's exactly what the interviewer wants to know sample answer my role would be to arrange the scrum meeting whose main player is the development team besides I would guide the team to ensure that the daily scrum is performed within the set time box I would also ensure that there are no other participants other than the development team members 11 as a scrum Master what would you do when you realize agile principles are being broken here the interviewer wants to assess your ability to ensure agile principles are adhered to sample answer first I would make sure the customer and development team agree on a regular Sprint as well as release schedule and ensure that they adhere to it second I would make sure that the product owner retains a well organized product backlog so that all change requests are addressed by the product owner thirdly I would ensure Sprint and release workshops are attended by all development team members 12 what artifacts are maintained in scrum the interviewer wants to know whether you are aware of the artifacts in scrum sample answer the product backlog and Sprint backlog are the two scrum artifacts the product backlog consists of the private prioritized list of requirements while the Sprint backlog comprises user stories which the scrum team will do for a Sprint 13 what role does a product owner perform in the scrum framework there are several players in the scrum framework and the interviewer wants to understand a product owner in his rules sample answer the product owner acts as a point of contact between the business and the scrum team here she identifies and refines the items of the product backlog ultimately the product owner concentrates on the product success 14 state three main tools utilized in a scrum project familiarity of the tools used in scrum projects is what the interviewer is looking for here sample answer the main tools that are used in scrum projects are jira rally and version one Jura is mainly used for tracking issues and bugs associated with the software rally assists in tracking every phase of development releases and iterations similarly version one makes reporting tracking and planning in Easy across programs and teams 15 describe your daily routine as a scrum Master the interviewer wants to understand if you are familiar with the daily responsibilities of a scrum Master sample answer resolving problems or removing impediments is at the top of the daily tasks performed by a scrum Master this is particularly at the onset of the project when many internal and external issues arise heoi reports team performance which helps to improve the team the scrub Master offers facilitation to the team and helps out as need arises to enable the team to achieve Sprint goals other daily responsibilities include driving organizational change educating the organization and breaking up fights or quarrels 16 what do you understand by time boxing time boxing is applied regularly in various activities in scrum and the interviewer wants to assess whether you are aware of it sample answer time boxing is the practice of assigning specific amount of time to an activity the fix time unit allocated to the activity is known as a time box in scrum the maximum time box is 15 minutes 17 what is done during Sprint review and retrospective the interviewer seeks to know whether you are conversent with what happens during these processes sample answer Sprint review involves walking through stakeholders or demonstrating to them the story or feature implemented by the scrum team on the other hand retrospect Ive consists of identifying what went well collaboratively as well as determining what may be done better including coming up with action items for continuous Improvement 18 do you find any disadvantage with scrum here the interviewer wants to know whether you have identified any drawbacks when using scrum sample answer I've not found any shortcomings with scrum however problems occur when the members of the scrum team lacks understanding of the principles and values of the scrum issues may also arise if they're not flexible to change 19 in your opinion can scrum be applied in the development of all kinds of software the interviewer invites your opinion concerning whether scrum can be applied in developing all types of software sample answer scrum is particularly useful When developing complex projects in addition it is appropriate for projects with a strict or early deadline besides scrum is most suitable When developing an application from scratch 20 describe velocity and scrum here the interviewer seeks to know if you understand what is meant by velocity and scrum sample answer and scrum velocity is the measure of the total work that a team can handle during one Sprint the measure is determined by adding story points from the previous Sprint velocity acts as a guide for understanding the stories that the scrum team can perform conclusion these questions and answers offer a broader understanding of the scrum Master role they they will help you conduct a successful hiring process use these questions to find the most qualified candidate for the position of a scrum master