20 PMP Live Questions

and Answers!

20 PMP Questions to
help Pass Your PMP!

David Geoffrey Litten

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp
20 PMP

20 PMP Questions
Question 1
A project may need to update its schedule baseline to:
A. Report schedule updates
B. Show that the project is not behind schedule
C. Provide realistic data to measure performance
D. Mask deviations within schedule tolerance
Question 2

To ensure that all of the project work is included, which of the following should be
used?
A. Create a contingency plan
B. Create a WBS
C. Create a risk management plan
D. Create a scope statement
Question 3
The purpose of attribute sampling is to:
A. Determine whether a batch conforms to the specifications
B. Check on the quality of the inspection process
C. Ensure that every item is tested individually
D. Identify which employees are creating defective items

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

20 PMP Questions
Question 4

An organisation has a strong competitive advantage due to its adherence to

pollution laws and regulations. While planning the scope for a potential new project,
one of the alternative approaches provides a quick to market and high revenue
option but includes a low probability risk to meeting pollution legislation. What
should the project team do?
A. Plan all precautions to avoid the risk
B. Work out a mitigation plan
C. Procure an insurance against the risk
D. Drop the alternative approach
Question 5
Adjusting when non critical tasks occur without delaying the project is known as:
A. Resource levelling
B. Resource smoothing
C. Resource balancing
D. Resource optimising

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

20 PMP Questions
Question 6

The three tasks shown below are the entire critical path of a project network. The
three estimates of each of these tasks are tabulated below. How long would the
project take to complete expressed with an accuracy of one standard deviation?
Task
A
B
C

Optimistic
15
12
16

Most likely
Pessimistic
25
47
22
35
27
32

Which of the following:

A. 74.5 plus or minus 7.00
B. 75.5 plus or minus 7.09
C. 75.5 plus or minus 8.5
D. 73.5 plus or minus 2.83

Question 7
The Total Point of Assumption is when:
A. The project is formally handed over to the client
B. Actual costs equal the project budget
C. When the project manager assumes full control of the project after the
project management plan is signed off
D. None of the above

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

20 PMP Questions
Question 8

When the completion of a successor is dependent on initiation of its predecessor?

What is the relationship called?
A. SF
B. FF
C. SS
D. FS
Question 9
A quality audit team advises the project manager that the wrong quality standards
were being used on her project, and that this could lead to the need for rework.
What was the objective of the project manager in initiating the quality audit teams
action?
A. Quality control
B. Quality planning
C. Checking adherence to processes
D. Quality assurance
Question 10
Which of the following provides the foundation for team development?
A. Motivation
B. Individual Development
C. Conflict Management
D. Organizational development

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

20 PMP Questions
Question 11
Which of the following is NOT an input to project plan execution?
A. Corrective action
B. Project plan
C. Work authorization system
D. Preventive action
Question 8

Which of the following options should a project manager do or follow to ensure that
clear boundaries are set and agreed for project completion?
A. Scope verification
B. Complete a scope statement
C. Scope definition
D. Risk management plan

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

20 PMP Questions
Question 9
A project manager has a team of 16 hardware developers out of which 4 are
integration specialists. In addition the team has 3 technical writers. As a result of a
recent audit, the project manager has agreed to add 2 hardware testers to assist
the developers. This will add to the project cost, but is seen as improving quality
and reliability of the hardware products.
To ensure that effective communication occurs, the project manager is updating the
Communications Management Plan. How many additional communication channels
will be added as a result of the above team additions?
A. 28
B. 41
C. 2
D. 21
Question 10

In which form of organisation would the project manager find team development
most difficult?
A. Weak Matrix organization
B. Balanced Matrix organization
C. Projectized organization
D. Tight Matrix organization

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

20 PMP Questions
Question 11

Which of the following options is a common format for performance reporting?

A. Pareto Diagrams
B. Responsibility Assignment Matrices
C. Bar charts
D. Control Charts
Question 12

You are checking the progress of your project and determine that both schedule
and cost variance are positive. Which of the following options does this signify?
A. Project is under budget and ahead schedule
B. Project is over budget and behind schedule
C. Project is under budget and behind of schedule
D. Project is over budget and ahead of schedule

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

20 PMP Questions
Question 13

As part of progressive elaboration a new risk is identified during the execution

process of your project. Due to the remedial actions and additional resources
required for risk management, an additional amount of cost will be added and an
extra 4 days to the critical path.
Your project already has provisions for contingency and management reserves, so
how should the extra time and cost be accounted for?
A. Contingency reserves
B. Residual risks
C. Management reserves
D. Secondary risks
Question 14

Which of the following options is a tool used to secure expert judgment?

A. Peer review
B. Delphi technique
C. Expected value technique
D. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

20 PMP Questions
Question 15

Which one of the following is the last step of the Close Project or Phase process
when used at the end of the project?
A. Client has accepted the product
B. Lessons learnt are documented
C. Client appreciates your product
D. Archives are complete
Question 16

An organization based in the USA Midwest, is signing a contract to outsource a part

of its software development services to a highly skilled, efficient and lower cost
company based in the Philippines.
The project manager of a current project will be using these new services as part of
their project engineering development and wants to provide their team with the
best approach to aid working with their new co-workers. Which of the following
options would be most sensible?
A. A training course on the laws of the country
B. A course on linguistic differences
C. An exposure to the cultural differences
D. A communication management plan

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

10

20 PMP Questions
Question 17

While reviewing project progress, the project manager assesses that an activity has
been missed out from the implementation plan. A milestone, scheduled to be
achieved within another week, would be missed with the current implementation
plan.
Which of the following options should be the first action for the project manager to
take?
A. Report the error and the expected delay
B. Omit the status update on the milestone
C. Report the error and the planned recovery actions
D. Assess alternatives to meet the milestone
Question 18

During a meeting with senior management, you are discussing four potential
project choices resulting from the recommendations of a recent feasibility study.
The details of these four projects are:
Project
Project
Project
Project

Whizz with BCR (Benefit Cost ratio) of 1:1.6;

Bang with NPV of US $ 500,000;
Rocket with IRR (Internal rate of return) of 17%
Launch with opportunity cost of US $ 500,000.

Which option would be your recommendation?

A. Project Whizz
B. Project Rocket
C. Either Project Bang or Launch
D. The information provided is ambiguous and a clear choice cannot be made

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Question 19

The three tasks shown in the table below are the entire critical path of a project
network. How long would the project take to complete expressed with an accuracy
of one standard deviation?
A. 74.5 plus or minus 7.00
B. 75.5 plus or minus 11.08
C. 75.3 plus or minus 7.11
D. 73.5 + plus or minus 2.83

Task A
Task B
Task C
Critical
Path

Optimistic Most
Likely
10
26
14
24
18
24

Pessimistic
42
34
38

Question 20
Who should be involved in the creation of lessons learned, at closure of a project?
A. Stakeholders
B. Project team
C. Management of the performing organization
D. Project office

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
ANSWERS:
Question 1
A project may need to update its schedule baseline to:
A. Report schedule updates
B. Show that the project is not behind schedule
C. Provide realistic data to measure performance
D. Mask deviations within schedule tolerance
Answer: C
The baseline is the standard used to measure project performance, in this case, the
schedule reference, and should not be changed unless approved by management.
Therefore, it is not changed just because a report is due, nor to hide the truth to
management whether this is acceptable or unacceptable deviation.
Question 2

To ensure that all of the project work is included, which of the following should be
used?
A. Create a contingency plan
B. Create a WBS
C. Create a risk management plan
D. Create a scope statement

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Answer: B

A WBS is a deliverable oriented grouping of project components that organizes and

defines the total scope of the project.
Question 3
The purpose of attribute sampling is to:
A. Determine whether a batch conforms to the specifications
B. Check on the quality of the inspection process
C. Ensure that every item is tested individually
D. Identify which employees are creating defective items
Answer: A
There is no middle ground in attribute sampling, it either conforms or it is nonconforming in terms of a specification or requirement. It is not there to check the
process, not insist that each item is tested individually, nor to identify who creates
the defects.
Question 4

An organisation has a strong competitive advantage due to its adherence to

pollution laws and regulations. While planning the scope for a potential new project,
one of the alternative approaches provides a quick to market and high revenue
option but includes a low probability risk to meeting pollution legislation. What
should the project team do?
A. Plan all precautions to avoid the risk
B. Work out a mitigation plan
C. Procure an insurance against the risk
D. Drop the alternative approach

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Answer: D

Because the organizations reputation is at stake, the impact is high, therefore the
threshold for such a risk would be very low.
Mitigation plan against avoiding the threat to pollution laws would mean reducing
the impact, which may not be a plausible response.
Procuring an insurance against the risk would only transfer the monetary impact of
the risk, and not the intangible impact, for example, the reputation of the
organization.
Planning precautions against the occurrence would still leave a probability of
occurrence, and cannot be completely avoided.
The best option would be to drop the approach that is, to plan complete
avoidance of the risk.
Question 5
Adjusting when non critical tasks occur without delaying the project is known as:
A. Resource levelling
B. Resource smoothing
C. Resource balancing
D. Resource optimising

Answer: B
Smoothing tries to smooth out resources and reduce peaks by adjusting the start,
end, or duration of non-critical tasks and hence protect the project end date.
Resource levelling may move the project end date. Resource balancing and
optimising do not refer to any particular technique and are just general phrases.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Question 6

The three tasks shown below are the entire critical path of a project network. The
three estimates of each of these tasks are tabulated below. How long would the
project take to complete expressed with an accuracy of one standard deviation?
Task
A
B
C

Optimistic
15
12
16

Most likely
Pessimistic
25
47
22
35
27
32

Which of the following:

A. 74.5 plus or minus 7.00
B. 75.5 plus or minus 7.09
C. 75.5 plus or minus 8.5
D. 73.5 plus or minus 2.83
Answer: B
The critical path is the longest duration path through a network and determines the
shortest time to complete the project. The PERT estimates of the tasks listed are
27, 22.5 & 26. Therefore, the length of the critical path of the project is
27+22.5+26 = 75.5
The standard deviations of the estimates of the three tasks are determined as (PO)/6 = 5.33, 3.83 & 2.66 respectively. The standard deviation of the total path is
determined as the square root of the sum of the squares of standard deviation.
Hence, standard deviation of critical path = square root of (28.44+14.66+7.07) =
7.09

of critical path =

(1) + (2) + (2)

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Question 7
The Total Point of Assumption is when:
A. The project is formally handed over to the client
B. Actual costs equal the project budget
C. When the project manager assumes full control of the project after the
project management plan is signed off
D. None of the above
Answer: B
When the actual costs equal the budget at completion, the entire budget is spent,
and for a fixed price contract, is the point where the contractor assumes
responsibility for all further costs.
Question 8

When the completion of a successor is dependent on initiation of its predecessor?

What is the relationship called?
A. SF
B. FF
C. SS
D. FS
Answer: A

A start-to-finish (SF) relationship between two activities implies that the completion
of successor is dependent on the initiation of its predecessor.
A finish-to-start (FS) relationship between two activities implies that the initiation of
successor is dependent on the completion of predecessor.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
A finish-to-finish (FF) relationship between two activities implies that the
completion of successor is dependent on the completion of predecessor.
A start-to-start (SS) relationship implies that the initiation of successor is
dependent on the initiation of predecessor.
Question 9
A quality audit team advises the project manager that the wrong quality standards
were being used on her project, and that this could lead to the need for rework.
What was the objective of the project manager in initiating the quality audit teams
action?
A. Quality control
B. Quality planning
C. Checking adherence to processes
D. Quality assurance
Answer: D

Determining validity of quality standards, followed by the project is a quality

assurance activity.
Compliance of work results to required specifications is a quality control activity.
Determining quality standards is a quality planning activity.
Checking adherence to processes is a quality audit activity to ensure that relevant
standard procedures or guidance documents are being followed to ensure
adherence for producing the process deliverables.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Question 10
Which of the following provides the foundation for team development?
A. Motivation
B. Individual Development
C. Conflict Management
D. Organizational development
Answer: B

Individual development (managerial and technical) is the foundation of a team.

Question 11
Which of the following is NOT an input to project plan execution?
A. Corrective action
B. Project plan
C. Work authorization system
D. Preventive action
Answer: C

A Project plan is the basis of project plan execution and is a primary input.
Work authorization system is a tool used for orchestrating execution of various
project tasks.
Whereas, Corrective and Preventive actions are inputs to the project plan execution
process from various controlling processes.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Question 8

Which of the following options should a project manager do or follow to ensure that
clear boundaries are set and agreed for project completion?
A. Scope verification
B. Complete a scope statement
C. Scope definition
D. Risk management plan
Answer: B

The project team must complete a scope statement for developing a common
understanding of the project scope among stakeholders. This lists project
deliverables summary level sub-products, whose full and satisfactory delivery
marks the completion of the project.
Scope verification is the process of securing a formal acceptance of the project
scope by stakeholders.
Scope definition is the process of subdividing the major project deliverables into
smaller, more manageable components.
A risk management plan involves setting up processes for identifying and dealing
with project risks.
Question 9
A project manager has a team of 16 hardware developers out of which 4 are
integration specialists. In addition the team has 3 technical writers. As a result of a
recent audit, the project manager has agreed to add 2 hardware testers to assist
the developers. This will add to the project cost, but is seen as improving quality
and reliability of the hardware products.
To ensure that effective communication occurs, the project manager is updating the
Communications Management Plan. How many additional communication channels
will be added as a result of the above team additions?

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
A. 28
B. 41
C. 2
D. 21
Answer: B

Number of communication channels with n members = n*(n-1)/2

Originally the project has 20 members (including the project manager), which
makes the total communication channels as (20*19)/2 = 190
With the addition of the two hardware testers, the communication channels
increase to (22*21)/2 = 231
Therefore, the additional channels as a result of the change is, 231-190 = 41
Question 10

In which form of organisation would the project manager find team development
most difficult?
A. Weak Matrix organization
B. Balanced Matrix organization
C. Projectized organization
D. Tight Matrix organization

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Answer: A

In a functional organization, the project team members have dual reporting to two
bosses the project manager and the functional manager.
In a weak matrix organization, the power rests with the functional manager.
In a balanced matrix organization, the power is shared between the functional
manager and the project manager. A projectized organization is grouped by
projects and the project manager has complete control on the project and its team.
A Tight matrix organization refers to co-locating the project team and has nothing
to do with a matrix organization.
Therefore, a project manager would find it difficult to drive team development in a
weak matrix organization.
Question 11

Which of the following options is a common format for performance reporting?

A. Pareto Diagrams
B. Responsibility Assignment Matrices
C. Bar charts
D. Control Charts

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Answer: C

Common formats for Performance Reports are, bar charts (also called Gantt
Charts), S-curves, histograms and tables etc.
Question 12

You are checking the progress of your project and determine that both schedule
and cost variance are positive. Which of the following options does this signify?
A. Project is under budget and ahead schedule
B. Project is over budget and behind schedule
C. Project is under budget and behind of schedule
D. Project is over budget and ahead of schedule
Answer: A
Positive Schedule Variance means the project is ahead of schedule; Negative Cost
Variance means the project is over-budget.
Question 13

As part of progressive elaboration a new risk is identified during the execution

process of your project. Due to the remedial actions and additional resources
required for risk management, an additional amount of cost will be added and an
extra 4 days to the critical path.
Your project already has provisions for contingency and management reserves, so
how should the extra time and cost be accounted for?
A. Contingency reserves
B. Residual risks
C. Management reserves

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
D. Secondary risks
Answer: A
Reserves are meant for making provisions in cost and schedule, to accommodate
for consequences of risk events.
Provisions for risks that were not originally identified and accounted for are in
management reserves. Risks that were identified and provisions made are
accommodated in contingency reserves.
Management reserves are at the discretion of senior management while the
contingency reserves are at the project managers discretion.
Residual and secondary risks are remaining unmitigated risks and resultant risks of
mitigation, respectively. These are not reserves.
In this case, the risk event is one of the identified risks and therefore, contingency
reserve is the option where the cost and schedule impact would be added.
Question 14

Which of the following options is a tool used to secure expert judgment?

A. Peer review
B. Delphi technique
C. Expected value technique
D. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Answer: B

The Delphi technique is a commonly used tool to secure expert judgment while
initiating a project.
Peer review is a project selection tool, Expected value is a method quantitative
risk analysis, and WBS is a project planning tool.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Question 15

Which one of the following is the last step of the Close Project or Phase process
when used at the end of the project?
A. Client has accepted the product
B. Lessons learnt are documented
C. Client appreciates your product
D. Archives are complete
Answer: D

Archiving is the last step in the project closing.

Question 16

An organization based in the USA Midwest, is signing a contract to outsource a part

of its software development services to a highly skilled, efficient and lower cost
company based in the Philippines.
The project manager of a current project will be using these new services as part of
their project engineering development and wants to provide their team with the
best approach to aid working with their new co-workers. Which of the following
options would be most sensible?
A. A training course on the laws of the country
B. A course on linguistic differences
C. An exposure to the cultural differences
D. A communication management plan

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

25

20 PMP Questions
Answer: C

Understanding cultural differences is the first step towards an effective

communication amongst the project team involving outsourced work from a
different country. So, what is needed in this case is an exposure to the cultural
differences, which is being mentioned as choice C.
A training course on the laws of the country is a subject of legal experts and not of
the project team.
A course on linguistic differences would not serve the purpose of understanding and
appreciating cultural differences, for better teaming.
A communication management plan is a document that provides data gathering and
dissemination amongst stakeholders of the project. It is necessary for the project
but does not help in bridging communication gaps across different cultures.
Question 17

While reviewing project progress, the project manager assesses that an activity has
been missed out from the implementation plan. A milestone, scheduled to be
achieved within another week, would be missed with the current implementation
plan.
Which of the following options should be the first action for the project manager to
take?
A. Report the error and the expected delay
B. Omit the status update on the milestone
C. Report the error and the planned recovery actions
D. Assess alternatives to meet the milestone
Answer: D

D indicates confronting the issue with an attempt to resolve the issue. Hence this
would be the first action to take followed by reporting the issue correctly.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Options A and C, that is, report the error and the expected delay or report the
error and the planned recovery actions do not make any attempt to solve the
problem.
Option B is unethical.
Question 18

During a meeting with senior management, you are discussing four potential
project choices resulting from the recommendations of a recent feasibility study.
The details of these four projects are:
Project
Project
Project
Project

Whizz with BCR (Benefit Cost ratio) of 1:1.6;

Bang with NPV of US $ 500,000;
Rocket with IRR (Internal rate of return) of 17%
Launch with opportunity cost of US $ 500,000.

Which option would be your recommendation?

A. Project Whizz
B. Project Rocket
C. Either Project Bang or Launch
D. The information provided is ambiguous and a clear choice cannot be made
Answer: B

Project Rocket has an IRR of 17%, which means the revenues from the project
equal the cost expended at an interest rate of 17%. This is a definitive and a
favourable parameter, and hence can be recommended for selection.
Project Whizz has an unfavourable BCR and hence cannot be recommended.
Information provided on Project Bang and Project Launch is not definitive, and
hence neither of these options qualifies for a positive recommendation.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
Question 19

The three tasks shown in the table below are the entire critical path of a project
network. How long would the project take to complete expressed with an accuracy
of one standard deviation?
A. 74.5 plus or minus 7.00
B. 75.5 plus or minus 11.08
C. 75.3 plus or minus 7.11
D. 73.5 + plus or minus 2.83

Task A
Task B
Task C
Critical
Path

Optimistic Most
Likely
10
26
14
24
18
24

Pessimistic
42
34
38

Answer: C
The critical path is the longest duration path through a network and determines the
shortest time to complete the project. The PERT estimates of the tasks listed are
26, 24 & 25.3. Therefore, the length of the critical path of the project is
26+24+25.3 = 75.3.
The standard deviations of the estimates of the three tasks are determined as (PO)/6 = 5.33, 3.33 & 3.33 respectively. The standard deviation of the total path is
determined as the square root of the sum of the squares of standard deviation.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions

Task A
Task B
Task C
Critical
Path

Optimistic Most
Likely
10
26
14
24
18
24

Pessimistic Pert
Duration
42
26
34
24
38
25.3
75.3

Std
Deviation
5.33
3.33
3.33
7.11

28.44
11.08
11.08
50.6

Question 20

Who should be involved in the creation of lessons learned, at closure of a project?

A. Stakeholders
B. Project team
C. Management of the performing organization
D. Project office
Answer: A

Stakeholders include everyone who are actively involved in the project or whose
interests may be affected as a result of the project execution or completion.
The project team creates the lessons learned on the project.
The role of the project office depends on the function defined for it within the
performing organization and it could be either facilitating best practices for all
projects or could constitute the project team.
As lessons learned should capture all variations and what could have been done
better for future deployment, stakeholders should be involved in creation of
lessons learned.

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten June 2014

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20 PMP Questions
How Did You Do?
I hope you found these questions helpful on your path to become a Project
Management Professional!

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