Professional Scrum Developer (PSD)

Study plan

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How to Pass the Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) Exam

PSD

A study plan for the Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) certification exam, built from the official domain weights instead of a generic template. Focus heavily on combining the Scrum Guide with Agile Engineering practices (XP). Practice scenarios involving technical debt, CI/CD pipelines, and the relationship between the Definition of Done and automated testing.

4 domains
80 questions
60 min
85% to pass

Study in weight order, not topic order

The plan below follows the official blueprint weights, so the order of study is the order that returns the most points.

  1. 1

    Understanding and Applying the Scrum Framework

    30%
    • Scrum Theory and Values
    • Scrum Accountabilities
    • Scrum Events
    • Scrum Artifacts
    • +1 more topics in the blueprint

    24 practice questions tagged to this domain.

  2. 2

    Developing & Delivering Products Professionally

    30%
    • Engineering practices (TDD, CI/CD, XP)
    • Test automation and quality assurance
    • Definition of Done (DoD) application
    • Refactoring and clean code
    • +1 more topics in the blueprint

    24 practice questions tagged to this domain.

  3. 3

    Developing People and Teams

    20%
    • Self-management in technical teams
    • Cross-functionality
    • Collaboration and communication
    • Continuous improvement (Kaizen)
    • +1 more topics in the blueprint

    16 practice questions tagged to this domain.

  4. 4

    Managing Products with Agility

    20%
    • Understanding the Product Goal
    • Increment quality standards
    • Responding to change in technical requirements
    • Technical debt management
    • +1 more topics in the blueprint

    16 practice questions tagged to this domain.

Three phases, in order

Most failures are process failures, not knowledge failures.

Step 1

Phase 1 — Learn the high-weight domains

Start where the points are. The first domains on this plan carry the most weight, so a gap there costs the most. Cover the objectives, then close each topic with practice questions you actually get wrong.

Step 2

Phase 2 — Close the mid-weight domains

The middle of the blueprint is where most candidates plateau. These domains are worth less per topic than the first phase, but they add up fast, and they are the usual difference between a near miss and a clear pass.

Step 3

Phase 3 — Timed full mocks

Stop reading new material at this point. Run full-length exams under the real time limit and the real format, and use the per-domain breakdown to find which domain is still costing you the pass.

Where we put the emphasis

Technical application of Scrum principles and engineering excellence.

The order matters less than the loop. Every domain you finish should end with questions you got wrong, because the mistake is the only thing you actually needed to study. On the Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) that loop is worth 20% of the exam in the first block alone.

More about the Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) exam

Explore the rest of this page series: format, cost, difficulty, requirements and how to prepare.

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Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about the Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) exam.