Scrum & Agile Practitioner Path: What to Take After PSM I
PSM I is where most people arrive at Scrum certifications. It is 80 questions in 60 minutes at a 45‑second pace, with an 85% pass mark that punishes any weakness. But it is an entry paper. The Scrum and agile practitioner ladder above it splits into three genuinely useful directions, and picking the wrong one wastes a year.
The five‑exam ladder below is the practitioner path from PSM I. Every question count and pass mark below comes from Scrum.org's own assessment page verbatim.
The ladder at a glance
| Stage | Code | Exam | Questions | Time | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start here | PSM-I | Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) | 80 | 60 min | 45s/q |
ALLIANCE-CSM | Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) | 50 | 60 min | 72s/q | |
| Core | PSPO-I | Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) | 80 | 60 min | 45s/q |
ACP | PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) | 120 | 180 min | 90s/q | |
| Go deeper | PSM-II | Professional Scrum Master II (PSM II) | 30 | 90 min | 180s/q |
The whole ladder costs $73.95 in pack pricing today across the 5 sittable exams — entry pack per exam, bought as you reach each rung, no subscription.
Start here: PSM I and CSM are the entry papers
Most people arrive with PSM I already. Scrum Alliance CSM is the alternative entry — requires a two‑day in‑person course, opens different employers. Neither is better; they open different rooms.
Core: PSPO I is the product owner half
Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) certifies the other end of the Scrum team. Most senior practitioner adverts now expect both PSM and PSPO on the CV. PMI-ACP is the broader agile paper — it covers Kanban, Lean and XP alongside Scrum, and it is the paper that opens non‑Scrum agile roles.
Go deeper: PSM II is the ceiling of this ladder
PSM II is 30 questions in 90 minutes at 180 seconds each, with an 85% pass mark. That is 25 questions of 30 to pass — there is nowhere to hide a weak area. The reputation for difficulty is deserved. Above this paper the ladder shades into coaching, consulting and organisational change work, and certification stops carrying the signal.
Practise against the paper you are booked for. A full-length SCRUM PSM II mock test reproduces the published question count and time limit exactly. Buy a mock test pack and find out where your preparation actually stands.
How do I pass Professional Scrum Master II? The specifics
The flagship paper on this ladder is Professional Scrum Master II (PSM II). 30 questions in 90 minutes (180s per question). Scored on a 0 to 100 scale with 85 to pass. The single most useful thing to know before you sit it is the domain breakdown, because studying in proportion to the published weights is the highest‑return decision you can make.
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Developing People and Teams | █████████████ 40% |
| Understanding and Applying the Scrum Framework | ████████████ 35% |
| Managing Products with Agility | ████████ 25% |
If you are searching for a “Professional Scrum Master II question dump” or a shortcut, understand what that trades off: dumps are frequently stale, are often against a retired exam version, and breach the candidate agreement you sign at the start of the paper. A full-length practise exam for Professional Scrum Master II written to the current published outline is the legitimate version of what a dump promises, and unlike the dump it teaches you the material you paid to learn.
How to use this ladder
Sit each rung in order. The exams higher up assume the instincts the exams below teach, and skipping a rung is visible in the resulting score. If you are wondering how do I pass the paper you are booked for, the single most useful step is to sit a full-length practise exam for that exact code end to end — every exam page on this site publishes the code, the question count, the time limit and the domain weightings from the awarding body's own outline.
Buy a mock test pack for the paper you are working on next, or see the full certification catalogue to match a rung to the role you are targeting.