Scrum Master interview questions
Scrum master interviews — the framework, yes, but mostly the team: impediments, conflict, an absent product owner, and what changed because you were there.
23 questions, and for 9 of them what a good answer has to cover. This is the bank Answers Ready practises you against — the same questions, marked on the same points.
introduction
Tell me about yourself.
What a good answer covers
- A shape, not a life story: the teams they serve now, what those teams build, why this role.
- How many teams and for how long — scrum master CVs are vague about this and interviewers notice.
- Under two minutes, ending pointed at the job.
Why do you want to be a scrum master?
What a good answer covers
- Something about teams and how they work, not about disliking the technical work they came from.
- Specific: a moment a team changed and they were part of why.
- Connected to this employer — their product, their scale, their stage of maturity.
- Under a minute.
the role
What does a scrum master actually do?
What a good answer covers
- Accountable for the team's effectiveness, not for the delivery of the work — that distinction is the question.
- Three directions: serving the team, the product owner and the wider organisation. A candidate who only names the first has half the role.
- Removing impediments, coaching, and changing what the organisation does to the team.
- Said without reciting the Scrum Guide. An answer that is only quotation reads as someone who has read it rather than done it.
How is a scrum master different from a project manager?
What a good answer covers
- A PM owns scope, schedule and budget; a scrum master owns none of them and influences all three.
- Authority: the scrum master does not assign work or manage people, which is exactly why the job is hard.
- Said generously. Interviewers hire in organisations that still have PMs, and a candidate who is sniffy about them will not last.
- Honesty about hybrid reality — plenty of UK roles are advertised as scrum master and are partly PM, and saying so is a strength.
How do you know whether you are doing a good job?
Senior. Marked against your own answer in the app.
framework
What are the three accountabilities in Scrum, and what is each one for?
What a good answer covers
- Product owner, scrum master, developers — accountabilities, not roles, since the 2020 Scrum Guide.
- PO owns the product backlog and maximising value; developers own how the work gets done and the increment; scrum master owns effectiveness.
- That 'developers' means everyone building it, testers and designers included — a routine misreading.
- Where they overlap in practice and how the candidate handles it.
Walk me through the Scrum events and what each is for.
What a good answer covers
- Sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, retrospective — and the sprint itself as the container.
- The purpose of each, not the duration. Someone who leads with timeboxes is describing a timetable.
- Daily scrum is for the developers to re-plan their day, not a status report to the scrum master.
- Review is with stakeholders and is about the product; retrospective is the team and is about how they work.
What is the difference between the definition of done and acceptance criteria?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
When would you use Kanban instead of Scrum?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
metrics
Your manager wants to compare two teams' velocity. How do you respond?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
Which metrics do you find genuinely useful?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
impediments
Give me an example of an impediment you removed.
What a good answer covers
- A specific one, with what was actually blocking and who was involved.
- Ideally organisational rather than technical — a slow approval, a dependency on another team, an environment nobody owned.
- What they did, not who they told. Escalating is sometimes right, and by itself it is not removal.
- Whether it stayed removed.
The team is blocked by another team that will not prioritise their request. What do you do?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
stakeholders
Your product owner is never available and the backlog is a mess. How do you handle it?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
A stakeholder keeps going directly to developers with requests mid-sprint. What do you do?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
coaching
Two developers on your team are in open conflict. What do you do?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
Retrospectives have gone quiet and nobody raises anything. What is going on and what do you do?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
You join a team that says it does Scrum but the sprints are really just two-week deadlines. Where do you start?
Senior. Marked against your own answer in the app.
What does servant leadership mean to you in practice?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
delivery
It is the last day of the sprint and the work will not be finished. What do you do?
What a good answer covers
- Nothing dramatic on the last day — the conversation should have happened when it became visible, and the candidate should say when that was.
- Unfinished work goes back to the backlog and is re-estimated; it is not 'carried over' as if it were half done.
- The sprint is not extended. This is the point interviewers listen for.
- The sprint goal: whether it was met even if not every item finished, which is often the real answer.
- Retrospective picks up why, without blame.
How does your team estimate, and what do you do when they are consistently wrong?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
scaling
What experience do you have of scaling Scrum across multiple teams?
Senior. Marked against your own answer in the app.
certification
Which Scrum certifications do you hold?
What a good answer covers
- The straight answer: PSM I/II from Scrum.org, CSM or A-CSM from Scrum Alliance, SAFe SM, or none.
- The difference matters to some interviewers — PSM has an exam and no mandatory course; CSM requires attending one.
- Never claim a level not held; both registries are public and searchable in seconds.
- If uncertified, what they have instead — teams served, years, outcomes — without apology.