Two item types arrived with the July 2026 PMP exam. A case-study set hangs several questions on one scenario: read it once, fix delivery approach, phase and who wants what, then answer each separately. Graphic-based items start from a chart, graph, diagram or image; read axes, units and labels first. PMI's 2026 outline puts the case-study section first.
The July 2026 PMP exam changed more than what is tested — it changed how questions are asked. Two item types are marked new in PMI's July 2026 exam content outline: case or scenario sets, and graphic-based questions. They join formats already in use — multiple choice with single and multiple response, matching, point and click, pull-down list — which PMI presents as examples rather than a closed set. Check the current outline for the position on your test date.
Neither is harder than a classic question once you know its shape. Both punish candidates who meet them for the first time on exam day. Here is the shape.
A case-study set opens with a longer scenario — PMI describes it as a business, a project, a decision-making process, or a combination of these, sometimes with charts or graphs attached — and then asks a series of questions that all hang off it. The format tests sustained judgment: can you hold a situation in your head and make more than one good decision inside it?
The method: read the case once, the way you would read a project brief. Fix three anchors before touching any question — what delivery approach is in play (predictive, agile, hybrid), what phase or moment the project is in, and who wants what. The questions in a set share one scenario rather than build on one another, and PMI publishes no rule for how items inside a set are scored — so take each one on its own merits and do not carry doubt forward.
The trap to avoid is re-reading the whole case for every question. Anchor once, then trust your anchors.
A graphic-based item gives you visual information to interpret — PMI describes it as charts, graphs, diagrams or images — and asks you to answer questions based on what it shows. PMI does not publish which project artifacts appear; its one worked example is a requirements traceability matrix, so treat burn charts, earned-value readouts and network diagrams as likely rather than confirmed.
The method is the opposite of instinct: read the graphic before the question, and read its frame before its data. Axes, units, labels, the time period covered. The risk on these items is often in the reading rather than the judgment — a favorable-looking line can sit on an axis that is not. PMI publishes no error data by question type, so treat that as a precaution rather than a measured pattern.
Where numbers are involved, the exam's favorite move is one reassuring metric next to one deteriorating one. Read both before you conclude anything.
Format familiarity is cheap to buy before the exam and expensive to buy during it. Our PMP guide gives the new formats a dedicated chapter, and its three full-length practice tests present them inside complete papers rather than as a separate quiz. PMI's 2026 outline sets out the shape they mirror: a case-study section, then an independent-question portion, 180 questions in total, with breaks between sections and no returning to a section once you have left it. Confirm the current format with PMI before you book.
Practice them under time. The formats cost more minutes than classic questions, and the skill you are building is not just answering — it is answering at pace.
Sets vary — the point of the format is several questions on one scenario. Practice holding a scenario across multiple questions rather than memorizing a fixed count.
Mostly they require careful reading. Where formulas appear — earned value is the classic — the arithmetic is simple once you read the graphic correctly. Misreading the chart, not the math, is what costs points.
PMI does not publish per-question scoring, so treat every question as worth answering well. What the new formats reliably cost is time — which is why practicing them inside full-length sittings matters.
Rules change. Where a figure or a procedure can move, the issuing agency’s current published instructions win over anything here.
