Top 40 Agile Scrum Interview Questions
Top 40 Agile Scrum Interview Questions
Top 40 Agile Scrum Interview Questions
Agile Scrum is the best methodology to meet today’s demand for accurate projects. Agile
is used in almost the majority of the organizations by now. Each member of the agile and
scrum team is responsible to play an important role in the organization. For this, the
interviewer seeks candidates with some good knowledge of Agile and Scrum concepts.
So, it becomes essential to prepare yourself for some common and frequently asked Agile
Scrum interview questions.
2. What is Velocity?
Answer: Velocity question is generally posed to understand if you have done some real
work and familiar with the term. Its definition “Velocity is the rate at which team
progresses print by sprint” should be enough. You can also add saying the important
feature of velocity that it can’t be compared to two different scrum teams.
The similarity between Agile and Scrum – The Agile involves completing projects in
steps or incrementally. The Agile methodology is considered to be iterative in nature.
Being a form of Agile, Scrum is same as that of the Agile. It is also incremental and
iterative.
Iteration
Re-factoring
Dynamic code analysis
Short feedback cycles
Reviews and inspection
Standards and guidelines
Milestone reviews
10. Do you know about Agile Manifesto & its Principles? Explain in
brief.
Answer: This is the theory which most of agile/scrum roles aspirant should be on tips.
Four manifesto values and 12 principles should be explained as much as possible as part
of this question. Even if it’s not explained in 100% accurate manner it should be fine but
intentions of values and principles should come out e.g.
1. It is not easy to make a prediction about the effort required to complete a task.
It becomes more problematic in case of large projects as it becomes difficult to
get an idea of the total effort required.
2. At sometimes, it’s not possible to properly focus on the design and
documentation of the project
3. In case the requirements of the client are not understood properly, the final
project will not meet the customer requirements. Thus, it will lead to the
customer dissatisfaction.
4. Only the leader who has considerable experience in Agile methodologies is
capable to take important decisions. The team members with little or no
experience are not involved in decision-making, thus they don’t get chance to
advance their knowledge.
It’s not always the case that you will be asked the questions about the characteristics and
advantages of the agile and scrum in an agile scrum interview. So, just prepare yourself
for the drawbacks and disadvantages related agile scrum interview questions.
Zero sprint – Zero Sprint can be defined as the preparation step of the first sprint in
Agile. There are some activities that are required to be done before actually starting the
project. These activities are considered as the Zero sprint; the examples of such activities
are – setting the environment for development, preparation of backlogs etc.
Spike – Spike is the type of story that can be taken between the sprints. Spikes are
commonly used for the activities related to the design or technical issues such as research,
design, prototyping, and exploration. There are two types of spikes – functional spikes
and technical spikes.
The scrum master is the leader as well as coach of the Scrum team. The scrum master is
responsible to serve and protect his team from any kind of distractions that could affect
their performance. The main role of the scrum master is to motivate his team to achieve
the sprint goal. He is focused to build a self-organized and motivated team where each
member is familiar with the implementation of Agile and Scrum principles and
applications. The scrum master keeps a proper check on the scrum team if they are
executing committed tasks properly. He is also responsible to increase the efficiency and
productivity of the team so that they can achieve the sprint goal effectively.
Product owner – A product owner is actually the stakeholder of the project. He
represents the project requirements before the team. He is responsible to have a vision of
what to build and convey his detailed vision to the team. He is the starting point of an
agile scrum software development project.
Scrum master – Scrum master is the leader and the coach for the scrum team who
checks whether the scrum team is executing committed tasks properly. He is also
responsible to increase the efficiency and productivity of the team so that they can
achieve the sprint goal effectively.
Scrum planning, Scrum – Daily stand up, Scrum review & scrum retrospective
ceremonies should be clearly expressed with the purpose of the ceremony. It’s
important to remember the time-boxing of the ceremonies for a standard 4
weeks of Sprint or as per the Sprint you have used in your projects.
Agile Testing Interview Questions
Agile testing is the software development practice using practices of agile software
development. In an interview for the Agile job, you may be asked agile testing questions,
so have a look at the agile testing interview questions.
Customer satisfaction
Face to face communication
Sustainable development
Quick respond to changes
Continuous feedback
Successive improvement
Self-organized
Focus on essence
Error-free clean node
Collective work
Time Coverage – It is the time that is given to a code during testing. It is calculated
in percentage as a factor of the number of lines of code called by the test suite and the
total number of relative lines of code.
Business Value Delivered – It is a term which denotes the working efficiency
of the team. The business objectives are assigned numerical values 1,2,3.. and so on, as
per the level of priority, complexity, and ROI.
Defect Removal Awareness – It is the factor that helps the team to deliver a
quality product. The identification of an active number of defects, their awareness, and
removal plays an important role in delivering a high-quality product.
Defect Resolution Time – It is a procedure through which the team members
detect the defects (bugs) and set a priority for the defect resolution. The procedure of
fixing errors/bugs or defect resolution comprises of multiple processes such as clearing
the picture of defect, schedule defect fixation, completing defect fixation, generation, and
handling of resolution report.
Sprint Burn Down Matric – The sprint burndown chart is a graph to represent
the number of non-implemented or implemented sprints during as Scrum cycle. This
matric helps to track the work completed with the sprint.
27. Why does Scrum encourage the use of automated testing for
projects?
Answer: Scrum encourages the use of automated (automated performance or automated
regression) testing to make the fastest possible delivery of the project. While answering
this question, you may explain some tools that you have used for automated testing.
1. Each estimator has a deck of poker cards with the values such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 5,
and so on, to denote story points, ideal days or something else that the team
uses for estimation.
2. Each estimator has a discussion with the product owner and then privately
selects a card on the basis of their independent estimation.
3. If the cards with same value are selected by all estimators, it is considered as
an estimate. If not, the estimator discusses the high and low value of their
estimates.
4. Then again, each estimator privately selects a card and reveals. This process of
poker planning is repeated to reach a general agreement.
Crystal methodologies
Lean software development
Dynamic development
Feature-driven development
32. How have you done user story mapping & estimation of stories in
your projects?
Answer: This question is to under how you have done story writing, mapping, and
estimation. Have you used any estimation technique like planning poker, t-shirt, sizing
etc? Whatever technique you used in your project just mention it very clearly.
33. What is the biggest challenge you faced in your project while
handling the Scrum team members?
Answer: This question is pure to judge your experience. The better you articulate your
challenges working in agile better it will be. Challenges generally faced in the initial
stages of scrum is stabilizing the velocity, team members conflicts, sticking to time-
boxing etc..
35. What is the difference between the agile & traditional way of
working?
Answer: This question is to judge whether one is aware of the environment of the agile
way of working. Here the answer is expected to cover few or all of below:
36. What is the difference between Sprint Planning Meeting and Sprint
Retrospective Meeting?
Answer: The difference between Sprint Planning Meeting and Sprint Retrospective
Meeting is as follows:
Sprint Planning Meeting – A meeting in which all the Scrum roles (product
owner, scrum team, and scrum master) have a discussion about the team’s priority
features and product backlog items is known as sprint planning meeting. This meeting is
held every week and lasts for almost 1 hour.
Sprint Retrospective Meeting – A meeting in which all the Scrum roles
(product owner, scrum team, and scrum master) have a discussion about the good part of
the sprint, the bad part of the sprint, and the sprint improvements is known as sprint
retrospective meeting. This meeting that is held at the sprint review meeting or at the end
of the sprint; it lasts for 2-3 hours.
This is one of the frequently asked Agile Scrum interview questions. You may be asked
to define the above terms separately or the difference between these two.
The agile testing methodology involves the division of the whole testing process into
multiple small segments of codes. In every step, these segments of codes undergo testing.
There are a number of additional processes involved in agile testing methodologies such
as team communication, strategic modifications for optimal results and many others.
38. What is the difference between agile & scrum?
Answer: This question will test whether you are aware of a broader picture of agile and its
different frameworks or flavors. Below image will help you explain this answer where
you can say agile is an umbrella of values and principles and under it, one of the
lightweight frameworks is called Scrum.
40. Do you hold any agile certification? Why did you choose this
certification?
Answer: Agile and scrum certifications are hot in the market and organizations are
expecting the candidates to hold one or more out of it. Certifications generally looked by
organizations are:
Basically, the following questions should be answered to consider a user story ready:
How: Is the strategy for the implementation of user story clear? Is the story is small
enough?
The conditions for the user story are defined by scrum master in coordination with the
product owner. Although the conditions vary for the different projects, some of the
common conditions for user story are –
2. How do you manage if the story is high priority and resources left
before last day of sprint completion?
Answer: The answer to this question will fully depend on the number of resources left.
If one or two members leave the story just before a day of the sprint completion, a scrum
master can handle the situation as described below –
First, analyze the pending tasks and the impact on the overall sprint. According to that, try
to find an alternative solution around to manage the situation. As a leader, you can decide
to work for some extra hours to complete the sprint and can also ask (remember to ask,
not to tell) other team members to do so. And this way, you can do the sprint completion
on time.
In case, more or all the members leave just before a day of the sprint completion, then the
situation can be handled as –
Analyze the amount of pending work and its impact on the overall sprint.
Check if you can manage the situation and finish the task by yourself or try to get some
other resources to work. (Although this won’t be feasible as you will have to first explain
everything about the sprint and task done to the new team; of course it won’t be possible
in a day.) So, if you can’t manage to complete the sprint by yourself, it’s better to tell this
to your product owner. You can ask him to give some more time to complete the sprint,
so you can get a new team or get it done by yourself by working extra hours.
Obviously, one common range can’t define the optimal size of the team for everyone. So,
there are some factors that should be considered while determining the number of
resources required to form a scrum team. These are not just the factors but the need for
the development of the scrum team, let’s have a look.
In that case, two teams will be formed according to the nexus Guide for scaling Scrum.
But having a larger team won’t be that effective. In that case, there will be no room for
error as going off the tangent will affect large team more. Remember that the events
depend on sprint length, not on the team size. So, just follow scrum guide along with the
consideration of some factors while determining team size.