EXIN Agile Scrum Foundation Interview Questions

The EXIN Agile Scrum Foundation exam ensures your understanding of agile principles and Scrum practices and the framework’s use in establishing cross-functional and self-managing teams. To pass the interview, you ought to showcase a thorough understanding of the following Agile principles:

• Cross-functional and self-managing teams
• Building working software
• Each increment of production As a potentially shippable product
• Short iterations or Sprints

You must be able to identify and manage risks, create an environment that fosters creativity and innovation, and deliver a potentially shippable product at regular intervals to come out of the interview with flying colors. To get a better idea of the topics to study, you can read through our EXIN Agile Scrum Foundation online tutorial. For additional preparation, try our EXIN Agile Scrum Foundation Free Practice Tests as well!

To increase your chances of getting hired, you can prepare yourself for the interview by studying our list of commonly asked EXIN Agile Scrum Foundation Interview Questions. So let’s begin!

1. Why is mindset important in agile?

An Agile mindset helps you to quickly adapt to unexpected obstacles and make changes easily. Without it, you can sink into a fixed mindset that tries to reduce uncertainty by planning extensively and fixing as much as possible.

2. What are the 4 principles of agile?

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change by following a plan

3. How do agile and scrum differ from one another?

In contrast to the Agile philosophy, which encompasses a core set of values or principles, the Scrum methodology is a specific approach to project management that leverages flexibility, transparency, and collaboration. 

4. How is agile different from DevOps?

Agile and DevOps are similar in that they both focus on making developers more efficient and project delivery processes more streamlined. However, DevOps also promotes communication between the operations team and application developers.

5. Could you explain how agility is connected to flexibility?

Flexibility and agility are sometimes used synonymously, as both concepts relate to an organization’s ability to adapt to changes in the business environment; flexibility is, however, a specific agility capability, along with responsiveness and speed.

6. What are the 6 principles of the Agile Manifesto?

• Satisfying customers with timely delivery
• Adapting to changing demands
• Delivering value frequently
• Breaking the silos of any project
• Building the projects around highly motivated individuals
• Communication is most effective when face-to-face

7. Can you name the roles that are defined in Scrum?

• Product Owner
• Development Team
• Scrum Master

8. Could you elaborate on the key feature of the sprint?

The key feature of the Sprint approach is its fixed time frame. During the first part of the Sprint, a product owner and a development team define some goals and then diligently work together toward them throughout the remainder of the Sprint. If a review reveals that adjustments to the product’s features are needed, these changes are made as soon as possible to limit further undesirable variation from what was originally envisioned.

9. How would you differentiate between sprint Review and retrospective meetings?

In a nutshell, a sprint review meeting helps you to keep the product on track with what your customers want, whereas a sprint retrospective concentrates on helping the team to become faster, smarter, and happier. And these are only two of the methods available to you within this framework.

10. Who is responsible for sprint review?

The sprint review is an informal meeting in which the development team, the scrum master, the product owner, and the stakeholders participate. The team gives a demo of the product and determines what features are ready for release and which require additional work.

11. Can you tell me what all is included in a Sprint Backlog?

A sprint backlog is a subset of the product backlog and identifies work items to complete during a sprint. The product owner prioritizes the items on the sprint backlog using data from past sprints. It helps the team plan the work required by including only information pertinent to that sprint.

12. Could you explain what is done in product backlog refinement?

When the product owner and some, or all, of the rest of the team review items on the backlog to make sure they meet specifications, are properly prioritized and are deliverable in the near future, they are brainstorming and refining the backlog.

13. What is meant by the term definition of done?

A Definition of Done (DoD) is an established set of prerequisites for a project or user story group that must be completed in order to move from “in progress” to “done.” It is agreed upon and applied consistently. The DoD serves as an official gate separating items from being in progress to ready for production.

14. Why is Sprint planning important?

The outcomes of the Sprint Planning meeting are a Sprint Goal, a plan for delivering an Increment, and the contents of the Sprint Backlog. The results allow the Development Team to forecast the time and work needed for their commitment during that Sprint.

15. Can you highlight some of the benefits of sprint planning?

Sprint planning is a two-hour to a four-hour meeting in which team members discuss the work ahead, clarify their understanding of priorities, and identify potential roadblocks. The result is a forecast for what can be delivered in the next sprint. By implementing sprint planning, teams can improve control of projects and manage product backlogs, so that small parts of projects can be delivered faster and more frequently, which will increase customer satisfaction.

16. What are agile estimation techniques?

• Three-point estimate
• Planning poker
• Affinity grouping
• Random distribution
• T-shirt sizes (Estimation units)
• Buckets
• Large, small, uncertain
• Dot voting.

17. What do you know about planning poker in agile?

Planning poker is a gamified technique that development teams use to estimate project management tasks. Estimates are based on the entire group’s input and consensus and are thus more engaging and accurate than other methods.

18. Could you define affinity estimating in simple terms?

A technique called affinity estimating is used by some agile teams to assign story points to user stories. This is a great technique as long as the team is working on a project where the backlog of user stories hasn’t been estimated yet or in preparation for release planning.

19. How do you estimate how many Story points a user story maybe?

We assess that a story is worth a certain number of story points. We estimate the relative size of each task in comparison to other tasks, rather than assign raw values. A pair of tasks that are estimated as 2 story points should be twice as big as a single task estimated at one. They should also be two-thirds the size of a task estimated at 3 story points.

20. What is the best way to estimate story points?

• Use Fibonacci sequence numbers
• Determine a matrix
• Hold a round of planning poker

21. Specifically, how should the backlog be sorted based on its priority?

The Product Backlog should be maintained in a particular order. The Development Team should review the sequence of Product Backlog items with the Product Owner, but it is ultimately up to the Development Team to deliver Product Backlog items in Product Backlog order.

22. What is an information radiator in Scrum?

An information radiator is a large visual representation of an agile project’s information kept on display in plain sight in the team’s shared work area. The Big Visible Chart (BVC) is an information radiator that displays project information on a large Internet-connected display.

23. What are the characteristics of an information radiator in agile?

• accurate information
• continuous updates
• simplicity for a better readability
• all stakeholders can easily access and see it
• in some cases, anonymity can foster sincerity
• boosting communication efficiency
• sharing the progress status openly

24. What is meant by the Kanban board in agile?

Kanban is a project management framework that focuses on maximizing flow and efficiency through continuous communication, analysis, and rigorous prioritization of work. Team members communicate real-time capacity issues, ensuring full transparency of work. The status of each piece of work is represented visually on a Kanban board, which everyone can view at any time.

25. Can you tell what all is on a Kanban board?

• Visual signals
• Columns
• Work-in-progress limits
• Commitment point
• Delivery point

26. What are the six important rules of Kanban?

• Never Pass Defective Products
• Take Only What’s Needed
• Produce the Exact Quantity Required
• Level the Production
• Fine-tune the Production or Process Optimization
• Stabilize and Rationalize the Process

27. Could you tell me how is a Kanban board structured?

To-do, in-progress, and done are the three columns on a Kanban board online. Each column represents the stage for development, from the beginning when ideas are conceived, to when work is in progress, and finally, to completion when the work has been completed.

28. Why is Scrum not suitable for large projects and teams?

Using the Scrum framework on large teams can be difficult. The framework works best when team members are very experienced with the system’s workflow. Some members of a Scrum team may be frustrated by the daily meetings. If any team member leaves in the middle of a project, that person’s absence can have a negative impact on the project’s outcome.

28. What are the three pillars of Scrum?

• Transparency
• Inspection
• Adaptation

30. Could you tell me where is Scrum best suited?

Scrum is an agile method for developing software. As such, it works best with a cross-functional team of five to nine developers working on a medium to large size project (from four months to multiple years). Scrums are a good way to scale your project if it is large. Each sprint lasts about one month.