Scrum Master Interview Questions & Answers | Scrum Master Interview Preparation | Invensis Learning

[Music] scrum masters are in huge demand across the world in fact glassdoor continues to include scrum master in their list of best jobs in the united states 2020 ranking at number 29 with a median salary of 100 000 us dollars if that's the career move you're making and you're preparing for scrum master interviews this session will help you prepare hey guys i am eric from invensis learning and i welcome you to our youtube channel this session is about the most frequently asked scrum master interview questions and answers to make it easier for you guys i have categorized the questions based on topics so here's the agenda we will start with theory-based scrum framework questions here the questions are divided based on topics like agile methodology scrum basics scrum events and artifacts and lastly the role of a scrum master post this we will go through scenario-based scrum master interview questions you know as a scrum master if this happens what are you going to do such sort of questions let's get started shall we first set of questions are based on agile methodology here's the first question when is the best time to use agile methodology is it suitable for all situations this is a very good interview question by asking this question the interviewer is verifying if you have a clear understanding of waterfall and agile so there are certain scenarios where agile works really well for example when you are working on complex and bigger projects when you have unclear requirements or deliverables when you have to quickly launch the product to market one the cost of change is minimal when the emphasis on teamwork transparency and continuous improvement when there is no limit on time and budget when there are frequent changes throughout the development cycle when you don't need to deliver fully functional software at once and when clients don't have a fixed budget schedule as you can see agile is more suited for small to medium-sized organizations than it is for corporations the reason is simple the fewer people there are the easier it is to make a decision and respond to change at the end of the day you need to evaluate the workflow processes and structure of your collaborating teams the budget that you have and timelines to determine if either waterfall agile or a hybrid works best for you please state the four values of agile software development as stated in the agile manifesto for such questions you need not mention the exact statement listed in the agile manifesto but it is highly necessary to know the gist of these values each agile methodology applies the four values in different ways but all of them rely on them to guide the development and delivery of high-quality working software the four core values listed in the agile manifesto are individuals and interactions over processes and tools working software over comprehensive documentation customer collaboration over contract negotiations to change over following a plan can you state some major principles of agile project management the 12 principles are the guiding principles for the methodologies that are included under the title the agile movement they describe a culture in which change is welcome and the customer is the focus of the work key principles of agile are customer satisfaction welcome change requirements continuous feedback collective teamwork focus on agile processes face-to-face communication motivate the people sustainable development technical excellence simplicity self-organization successive improvement what is the difference between agile methodology and the waterfall model this is a very common question that you will come across the waterfall methodology incorporates a stepwise approach to project development the project's progress flows downward through all the phases similar to a waterfall whereas in agile all the phases are repeated in every iteration in the waterfall model you need to finalize the requirements before initiating development activities whereas in agile changes are welcomed at all stages so it is a flexible approach in the waterfall model feedback from the end user feedback is received at the end stage whereas in the agile approach feedback is received continuously throughout the development cycle the waterfall model has poor visibility compared to agile methodology because in the waterfall model working software is not produced until it reaches the last phase agile is perfect for it software marketing and other departments whereas the waterfall model is recommended for long-term projects such as construction manufacturing etc the next question is name some drawbacks of the agile model some of the drawbacks of using agile methodology are long-term projects suffer from incremental delivery the level of collaboration can be difficult to maintain very limited documentation documentation tends to get sidetracked which makes it harder for new members to get up to speed fragmented output when teams work on each component in different cycles the complete output often becomes very fragmented rather than one cohesive unit the project can easily get taken off track if the customer representative is not clear what final outcome that they want it's more difficult to measure progress than it is in waterfall because progress happens across several cycles projects can become everlasting because there's no clear end moving to the next question are you aware of any other agile frameworks scrum is not the only framework that helps teams become agile when posed with such a question you can name other agile frameworks such as kanban test driven development feature driven development extreme programming crystal lean software development what is a user story what is the structure of a good user story a user story is a tool that captures an informal explanation of a software feature written from the perspective of the end user it basically is an informal description of user requirements spoken in plain english a key component of agile software development is putting people first and a user story puts end users at the center of the conversation a user story basically involves three things a persona an action and a benefit here are some examples of a possible user story as a marketing data analyst i need to run the salesforce and google analytics report so that i can build the monthly media campaign plans as a credit card holder i want to view my statement balance so that i can pay the balance due as a frequent flyer i want to rebook a pass trip so that i can save time booking trips i take often the next question is can you specify the features that a good user story should have a good user story includes a description has acceptance criteria defined can be delivered within a single sprint has all ui deliverables available have all probable dependencies identified has the performance criteria defined has tracking criteria defined and is estimated by the scrum team everyone we have completed the first set of questions let's start with the next set which are based on scrum fundamentals stir in the project manager as pms keep demanding new functionality what is scrum can it be applied to all types of projects scrum is a lightweight agile framework for developing delivering and sustaining complex products it works by breaking down large products and services into small pieces that can be completed by a cross-functional team in a short time frame can it be applied to all types of projects this is a very good interview question by asking this question the interviewer is verifying if you have a clear understanding of waterfall and agile so the answer is no with scrum unlike the waterfall model the main focus is on collaborative development risk is reduced because you are getting feedback early end customers are happy because they can make changes without paying exorbitant costs minimize risk in response to frequent changes you receive a high return of investment you can roll back the changes when needed 10. is there a difference between agile and scrum if yes what is the difference this is a very common question that you will come across in the scrum interviews on the surface it is easy to see why agile and scrum can often be confused as they both rely on an iterative process frequent client interaction and collaborative decision making so what's the difference a straightforward answer to this question would be to say agile is more of a philosophy that takes an incremental and iterative approach towards the completion of a project while scrum is a specific agile framework with its own unique features apart from the scrum there are other frameworks that are used to implement the agile philosophy what scrum sprint what is the ideal duration for a sprint this is a very common question that you should be aware of scrum works by breaking down large products and services into small pieces that can be completed by a cross-functional team in a short time frame these short time frames or cycles are called sprints the sprint is a time box of one month or less during which the team produces a potentially shippable product increment sprints have consistent durations throughout a development cycle and a new sprint starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous sprint the duration of the sprint in scrum depends on the complexity of the project in the size of the team working on it usually it's anywhere from two to four weeks to almost a month our next question is define the roles in scrum the three roles defined in scrum are the scrum master the product owner and the development team the people who fulfill these roles work together closely on a daily basis to ensure the smooth flow of information and the quick resolution of issues product owner the product owner defines what the product will look like and what features it should contain he or she keeps track of the project stakeholders expectations defines and gathers the required tools and resources that the scrum team needs scrum master scrum master is the coach and the gatekeeper of the scrum team in simple terms he or she helps the scrum team perform at their highest level scrum master does this by ensuring that everyone in the team understands scrum theory practices rules and values development team the development team consists of professionals who do the hands-on work of developing and testing the product put forth by the product owner this team tends to be made up of several members that are cross-disciplinary including engineers designers architects and testers what are the different artifacts that are used during the scrum process scrum defines three artifacts the scrum artifacts are designed to maximize the transparency of key information so that everybody has the same understanding of the artifact there are three scroll artifacts product backlog the product backlog is an ordered list of everything that is known to be needed in the product it is created by the product owner with the help of the development team and the scrum master sprint backlog the sprint backlog is the collection of product backlog items that the team commits to achieve in a given sprint in simple terms it is a subset of the product backlog that the team intends to complete in a sprint product increment the product increment is the sum of all the product backlog items completed during a sprint and the value of the increments of all previous sprints basically it is a step towards a vision or a goal list down the different events that take place during the scrum process scrum defines four events sometimes called ceremonies that occur inside each sprint those events are sprint planning during sprint planning the entire scrum team collaborates and discusses the work to be performed in the sprint daily scrum it is a 15-minute time-boxed event for the development team where they assess their progress toward completing the work in the sprint backlog sprint review it is held at the end of the sprint to inspect the product increment and update the product backlog if needed lastly sprint retrospective during the sprint retrospective the team reflects upon how things went during the previous sprint and identify adjustments and improvements they could make going forward can you name some of the tools used in a scrum project there are a lot of scrum tools that you and your team can use to increase your efficiency when asked to name some popular scrum tools you can mention jira version 1 trello zoho sprints sprintly vivify scrum and many others the next question that we have here is explain what empirical process control is and how the scrum framework is based on that as stated in scrum.org empiricism means working in a fact-based experience-based and evidence-based manner scrum implements an empirical process where progress is based on observations of reality not fictitious plans the three pillars of empiricism are as follows transparency this means presenting the facts as is all people involved which is the customer the ceo and the individual contributors are transparent in their day-to-day dealings with others inspection inspection in this context is not an inspection by an inspector or an auditor but an inspection by everyone on the scrum team the inspection can be done for the product processes people aspects practices and continuous improvements adaptation adaptation in this context is about continuous improvement the ability to adapt based on the results of the inspection with empirical process control you create a shippable piece of product at the end of every sprint inspect the end product and adapt based on the results of the inspection with built-in mechanisms for transparency to enable clear inspection have you heard of scrum scrumban if yes can you please explain what it is as you might know scrum is best for development projects whereas kanban is best for production support scrumman is a hybrid agile framework that combines important features of these two popular agile methodologies which are scrum and kanban it was initially created as a way to transition from scrum to kanban by extracting the best of both frameworks scrum and teams are more flexible in their ability to adapt to changes as they arise mention some cases where using scrum is not suggested there are certain cases when scrum might not be your best choice because it will either be very hard to make it work or it provides very little value for example when the requirements are not allowed to evolve when the organization is not ready to adopt agile values and practices when frequently needing to respond quicker than a sprint allows when people have had bad experiences with scrum already when looking for a one-stop solution to all our problems what do you think should be the ideal size of a scrum team this is a very basic question the scrum guide suggests having between three and nine team members who are actually executing the sprint backlog that means you wouldn't include the product owner or scrum master in the total unless either of them is implementing the sprint backlog items so the ideal size for development is between three and nine people not including the scrum master and product owner any smaller in the team couldn't accomplish enough each sprint any larger communication becomes complex and cumbersome what are some drawbacks of scrum obviously every framework or methodology has both disadvantages and advantages the scrum methodology is no exception first of all adopting the scrum framework in large teams is challenging the framework can be successful only with experienced team members it can be difficult to scale an agile or scrum approach to large complex projects often daily meetings sometimes frustrate team members if any team member leaves in the middle of a project it can have a huge negative impact on the project most of the time there is uncertainty regarding the product frequent changes in frequent product delivery remains during the scrum cycle there are no deadlines for delivering products this often leads to long discussions between the product owner scrum master and the project manager as pms keep demanding new functionality can you name some of the metrics used by the scrum team to measure the work done metrics that help to measure the work done by scrum teams include sprint goal success escape defects and defect density team velocity sprint burn down time to market roi capital redeployment customer satisfaction we are done with the second set of questions the next set of questions are based on scrum artifacts and events the next question is what is time boxing in the scrum framework time boxing is basically allotting a fixed unit of time for an activity incorporating a time-boxed approach brings in discipline predictability and creates a situation for inspect and adapt every event in scrum is time boxed and cannot be extended unless absolutely necessary what is the purpose of a daily scrum meeting is it mandatory for the scrum master to attend daily scrum the daily scrum is a 15-minute time-boxed event for the development team as the name goes this meeting takes place every day during a sprint the development team uses this time to answer three questions what have you completed since the last meeting what do you plan to complete by the next meeting are there any blocks or impediments that keep you from doing your work as for the second part of the question no it is not mandatory for the scrum master to attend the daily scrum meeting he or she just needs to set up the meeting and make sure that everyone in the development team is attending the meeting what is a sprint burndown chart apart from the three artifacts that we discussed in the previous questions there is another one called the sprint burn down chart it is a graphical way of showing how much work is remaining in the sprint typically in terms of task hours a sprint burndown chart is not an official scrum artifact but many teams use it they use it to communicate and track progress toward the sprint goal during the sprint it is typically updated during the daily scrum meeting what does the term velocity mean in scrum velocity is a metric used to measure the amount of work completed by a team during a sprint the number is obtained by adding all the story points from the last sprint stories please remember that velocity is not a measure of effectiveness efficiency competency or anything else it is merely a measure of the rate at which a given amount of problem statements are turned into tested software the next question that we have is what is the role of a scrum master in a scrum retrospective during the sprint retrospective the team reflects upon how things went during the previous sprint and identify adjustments and improvements they could make going forward the scrum master acts as a peer team member in this event he or she plays the role of facilitator for the scrum team what is the scrum of scrums this is one of the most frequently asked scrum master interview questions scrum of scrum is a daily meeting where multiple scrum masters and chief product owner meet to discuss their work and progress suppose there are five teams that are currently working on a single project each of these teams facilitates their own scrum meeting but to discuss the status of the project as a whole they facilitate a scrum of scrum meetings it is the same as that of a daily scrum but the focus is on a team level what is a storyboard in scrum as you know transparency is a very important principle on which scrum is based on so ensuring that the entire scrum process is visible for the entire team is really important storyboard is one way of ensuring transparency a storyboard is a visual representation of the progress of a software project which generally has four columns namely to do in progress test and done different colored posts its notes are placed in each column indicating the progress of individual development items what happens during a sprint review a sprint review is held at the end of the sprint to inspect the product increment and update the product backlog if needed during the sprint review the scrum team and stakeholders collaborate about what was done in the sprint and plan for the next sprint goal based on the feedback they update the product backlog as needed so the result of the sprint review is a revised product backlog that defines the probable product backlog items for the next sprint during the sprint review the team does research on the marketplaces and estimates the budget potential capabilities timeline and marketplaces for the upcoming releases note that sprint review doesn't have a fixed time frame it lasts at most for four hours for a one month sprint or can be shorter for shorter sprints the next question is what is discussed during the sprint planning meeting during sprint planning the entire scrum team collaborates and discusses the work to be performed in the sprint the scrum master ensures that the event takes place and that attendants understand its purpose to be precise in this meeting you and your team try to answer two questions which are what can be delivered in the sprint iteration how to achieve that work by the end of sprint planning you will have a sprint goal and the development team should be able to explain how it is going to accomplish that sprint goal apart from planning review and retrospective do you know of any other event in scrum yes there is one more event called product backlog refinement sometimes referred to as product backlog grooming as well during a product backlog refinement meeting the team scrum master and product owner discuss the top items on the product backlog it is a meeting that is held near the end of one sprint to ensure the backlog is ready for the next sprint apart from that the team is given a chance to ask the questions that would normally arise during sprint planning such as what should we do if the user enters invalid data here are all users allowed to access this part of the system and other sort of questions with this we move to the next set of questions based on the role of a scrum master who is a scrum master what does he do in simple words a scrum master acts as a coach facilitator mentor and teacher the scrum master helps the team do their best possible work this means organizing meetings dealing with roadblocks and challenges and working with a product owner to ensure the product backlog is ready for the next sprint the scrum master also makes sure the team follows the scrum process they enable collaboration and effective communication between the product owner the development team and other individuals involved in the project what skills and qualities do you need to possess to be a great scrum master the following is a comprehensive list of attitudes and skills that contribute to being a great scrum master well of course you do not have to meet all these requirements but you can always try be influential and motivate various teams and stakeholders at an organizational level be collaborative encourage self-organization within the team and encourage team members to make important decisions and improve their collaboration on the project be observant listen and pay attention to the challenges faced by the project team share your experience and be open to new ideas be disruptive enough to enforce a change but without causing irreparable damage instill strong leadership skills and inspire others in the team to lead and achieve their goals acquire absolute knowledge on the product and discipline you are working on protect your team from impediments and external disturbances understand that there is more than just scrum how does a scrum master help the product owner the scrum master helps the product owner the development team and the entire organization in different ways he or she servers the product owner in the following ways promoting scrum events as and when requested by the product owner help the product owner for efficient product backlog management helps product owner understand agile principles and practices assist the product owner to arrange the tasks in the product backlog to maximize value help the scrum team in adopting a shared vision how does a scrum master serve the organization apart from helping the product owner and development team the scrum master also serves the organization as a whole but how he acts as an agile change agent and facilitates the change in the entire organization helps to increase the productivity of the scrum team supports agile leadership principles and practices leading to organizational transformation help stakeholders and employees understand scrum empirical theory plan scrum implementation within the organization that's it everyone we are done with the theory based scrum master interview questions while it is important to know the theory behind the scrum it is equally important to be able to implement it certain interview questions test how you will react as a scrum master in a given scenario for the rest of the session we will be discussing such scenario-based questions are you certified if yes why did you choose that particular certification don't be fooled if you're not qualified and they ask you this question no need to panic inform the interviewer if or not you intend to take the certification in the future if you are already certified do let the interviewer know your reasons for choosing that particular certification actually some belief in certification others less so but either way it's a helpful way for interviewers to get to know your background earning a scrum master certification opens up new possibilities and can increase your paycheck at invensis learning we offer instructor-led live online certification training for different scrum master certifications such as csm psm pmi acp asm and safe scrum master through these programs you will learn to think in terms of scrum values and principles and learn how to help your scrum team perform at the optimum level they will also accelerate your journey in pursuing a career in the scrum as a scrum master how are you going to demonstrate servant leadership scrum master is often referred to as the servant leader of the scrum team as a servant leader scrum master should not blindly follow directions he or she should access the challenges that they might face and how that may benefit the scrum team in its path to eternal growth be loyal to the team and try to earn their trust shield the team from external impediments and interruptions during the project guide the development team towards self-organization instead of protecting them from the consequences of their own behavior leading the team through healthy conflict and debate this way you can justify your role as a servant leader as a scrum master what would you do when the scrum team doesn't like your ideas and instead suggests new ones this is a great behavioral question as a scrum master you should stay open to suggestions from your teammates that being said you should not blindly accept their ideas ask them to give a reasonable explanation to back up their ideas if the reasons are good and everyone in the team is agreeing to them maybe you can replace your idea with the new one your team suggests if you still think that their ideas are still not as good as yours do not be harsh on rejecting them explain to them where their ideas are lacking and that their suggestions won't be implemented what would you do if you find out that one of your team members is breaking one or more of the agile principles as a scrum master you need to know the status of your entire team so if one of your team members is breaking one or more agile principles it's high time to know why he or she is adopting such a behavior try reasoning with a team member and get to know why he or she is not following the agile principles mentor the individual miscreants to explain the agile philosophy and principles to them how their interruptions are causing delays and development progress let's say your teammates are cherry-picking tasks how are you going to help your team to work on the most important stories first it's a fact that the development team has the freedom to pick the tasks that they want to work on from the product backlog however if they are selecting secondary tasks before primary one that should be advised otherwise as s scrum master along with a product owner ensure that no secondary user stories are ranked above primary ones to help the development team on the most important user stories include them in the initial planning stages when user stories are assembled additional training might help some team members accommodate a greater variety of tasks pair programming may be a suitable first step in that direction you and your team are thoroughly implementing the agile principles but for some reasons you are not constantly meeting commitments and the velocity is very unstable what could be the possible reason and how are you going to solve those issues there are multiple reasons that might lower teams performance such as new team members are being hired team members are leaving working in uncharted territory varying levels of seniority in the team is causing issues working with legacy code probably undocumented unexpected technical debt unnecessary holidays and sick leave as a scrum master you need to keep your eyes open for any such patterns and try to help the teams get back on track through coaching and adoption of best practices if the issue is still not resolved you can set up a meeting with his reporting manager to talk about the concern and search for ways to help the team member as a scrum master how will you identify where you need to improve one of the features of a good scrum master is being susceptible to feedback be open-minded and experiment with your team's suggestions ask your team members and stakeholders how you can help them that way you can improve yourself share your experiences with peers this might be within the organization but also seminars and conferences are a great way to share experiences and gather knowledge facilitate a fully dedicated retrospective meetings spanning a few hours to discuss new ideas and then a feasibility this way you can improve yourself and your team how would you handle a scrum transition of an organization that was heavily reliant on waterfall before scrum adoption is good but this massive shift needs complete dedication to make sure that the transition from waterfall to scrum happens smoothly these are some things that you can do make sure you have experienced people in the team who have been practicing scrum previously or at least quite familiar with it to initiate the transition you can conduct scrum related workshops on-site practices and exercises about user stories time and cost estimations collaboration tools and other tasks one more thing you can do is to upgrade the project management tools you've been using till now use scrum tools that can ease your team communication while accelerating the pace at which progress moves towards the goal line try to talk to everyone in your organization qa ux ui designers product managers developers etc this way you can identify existing underlying problems in your organization then you can address and eradicate them facilitate a fully dedicated retrospective meeting some suggest that the daily stand-up doesn't work well with distributed teams what is your opinion on this as a scrum master how are you going to handle daily scrums with remote teams this is a very general question for which there is no fixed answer here's one way you can answer this question despite the issues like remote teams distributed across multiple time zones peer-to-peer status updates are interesting and relevant these scrum meetings are not just about information exchanges they involve discussion on social and complex aspects of team performance they are about building relationships straightening out the hard issues and growing a great team culture so according to me daily scrum meetings are important for remote and distributed teams as well you can answer in such a way as for the next part of the question approach this challenge and overcome it is ostensibly through video communication slack can be a perfect tool for leading your video calls with distributed teams let's say you have received a story on the last day of the sprint and you find that there are defects in the story what will you do will you mark it as done typically a user story is marked on only when its development is complete plus qa is completed plus acceptance criteria is met plus it is eligible to be shipped into production in this case the user story has defects you can mark it as partially done and move it to the next sprint next question is can agile methodology also be applied in domains other than software testing and development projects agile methodologies are being used today by a variety of businesses such as biochemistry biophysics biomedical manufacturing support marketing or supply chain management there are often people in teams who think scrum meetings are a waste of time let's say you have one such person in your team too how are you going to handle him slasher this can be quite a severe problem for the team environment there is a high chance of such persons ruining the team's spirit and productivity here's how you can address the situation first have a one-on-one meeting with the team member in question discuss their motives and attitude try to understand the situation from his slasher point of view maybe they need further training on scrum principles and values if this does not make any difference in the person's attitude schedule a meeting with the department manager even if this does not work and you still can't align the particular developers vision with your own in the teams you can consider shifting the team member to another team a kanban team for example where they won't be forced to step out of their comfort zone how will you know that agile practices are working for your organization are there any indicators to figure this out there is no standard definition of the term agile success every organization must develop its own criteria to evaluate if their adoption of agile was a success or not however here are some general indicators that might be helpful the products you deliver are resulting in higher customer retention rates upsells and more customer acquisition when team members are extremely happy and there is an increase in the number of referrals from team members stakeholders are increasingly participating in events for example during the sprint review increased software quality can be demonstrated by measurably less technical debt fewer bugs and less time spent on maintenance lead time from validated idea to shipped product has been reduced as a scrum master how are you going to communicate with your team communication skills are very essential for a scrum master it is the best way for a scrum master to get the cooperation of a product owner they should work as allies and coach the organization to become and remain agile both must serve as excellent servant leaders without being authoritative on each other they should drive the development team towards success by working together a product owner is responsible for ensuring that the entire product delivery team understands the product vision scrum master in return should support the product owner in building a high value actionable product backlog and facilitate effective collaboration between the product owner and the scrum team what anti-patterns might a scrum master fall into during a sprint to become an efficient scrum master you news to look out for these anti-patterns in your daily routine the following are some anti-patterns that focus on the mishandling of the sprint itself flow disruption the scrum master allows stakeholders to disrupt the flow of the scrum team during the sprint there are several possibilities for how stakeholders can interrupt the flow for example particularly he or she is not educating stakeholders on the negative impact of disruptions or when the scrum master does not oppose line managers assigning other tasks to team members nor does he or she object that the management invites engineers to random meetings when a scrum master turns a blind eye to mid-sprint changes of priorities made by po i mean product owner these points are for flow disruption another anti-pattern is when the scrum master does not prevent the product owner or anyone else from assigning tasks directly to members of the development team or you know when an engineer turns scrum master is now suggesting how the development team is implementing issues also when the scrum master does not support team members that need help with a task these are like very few anti patterns that can occur you guys need to be aware of other anti patterns such as scrum master anti patterns product backlog and refinement anti-patterns and others so guys these are some of the most frequently asked interview questions and answers for scrum master jobs before heading for a job you should prefer to go through such kinds of interview questions and prepare well are you planning to get a scrum master certification we can help at invensis learning we provide scrum alliance accredited certified scrum master training worldwide enroll now and take the next step in your pursuit to master agile for more updates on trending technologies subscribe to invensus learning youtube channel also if you have any queries share them with us in the comments section

Channel: Invensis Learning

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Keywords: scrum master interview questions, scrum master interview questions and answers, top 50 scrum master interview questions, scrum master interview, scrum master interview preparation, scrum master interview questions and answers for experienced, scrum master training, certified scrummaster training, invensis learning

Id: xan3olVg7hY

Length: 36min 12sec (2172 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020