Examworthyexamworthy.comITIL 4 Foundation cheat sheet
PeopleCert / Axelos
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At a glance
Format: Multiple choice, closed book
Domain weight map
Heaviest first - spend your time hereHow this exam thinks
ITIL 4 Foundation rewards precise definitions and clean boundaries between neighbouring terms, not workplace intuition about how IT support is run.
Spot the trap
Tempting wrong answers, and why they failTempting but wrong
A known error is a problem that has been permanently resolved, so its cause can no longer generate any further incidents.
Why it fails
Tempting because both terms live within problem management, but a resolved problem is closed, not a known error. A known error specifically means the cause is understood while the problem is still open and unfixed.
Understand 7 ITIL practices
Tempting but wrong
Isn't change enablement the practice that moves new and changed hardware and software into live environments so they are available for use?
Why it fails
Tempting because moving components into live environments is a core delivery activity, but that describes deployment management. Change enablement is concerned with assessing risk, authorising, and scheduling change, not moving components.
Know the purpose and key terms of 15 ITIL practices
Tempting but wrong
Discard the existing services, processes and tools and rebuild from a clean sheet so old problems are not carried forward.
Why it fails
A fresh start feels cleaner, but Start where you are warns against wholesale removal. Discarding what already works wastes value that has already been created.
Understand how the ITIL guiding principles help adopt and adapt service management
Tempting but wrong
A service is a set of specialised organisational capabilities for enabling value to customers.
Why it fails
Tempting because it is genuine ITIL wording. But that is the definition of service management, not of a service itself, so it answers a different question.
Understand the key concepts of service management
Tempting but wrong
The organizations and people dimension is about the workflows and sequences of activities that turn demand into value.
Why it fails
Tempting because coordinated work does involve people, but that describes the value streams and processes dimension, which is concerned with how activities are organised rather than with roles, structure, and culture.
Understand the four dimensions of service management
Tempting but wrong
The activities are usually drawn left to right, so they must form a fixed linear pipeline that always runs plan through to deliver and support.
Why it fails
Tempting because the activities are often drawn as a left-to-right pipeline. It is wrong because the service value chain is explicitly non-linear: activities are used in different orders and combinations, not one mandatory sequence.
Understand the activities of the service value chain and how they interconnect
Tempting but wrong
The SVS components are plan, improve, engage, design and transition, obtain or build, and deliver and support.
Why it fails
Those are the six activities of the service value chain, not the components of the SVS. The value chain is itself one component of the SVS, so listing its internal activities confuses a part with the whole.
Understand the purpose and components of the ITIL service value system
Tempting but wrong
An incident is a cause, or potential cause, of one or more disruptions to a service that has yet to be investigated.
Why it fails
This is actually the definition of a problem, not an incident. It describes the underlying cause that problem management investigates, rather than the unplanned disruption itself.
Understand 7 ITIL practices
Key terms
Exam-day rules
- Read every option to the end before choosing. The wrong answers are near-misses that change a single load-bearing word, so the difference between right and wrong is often in the last few words.
- Answer with the ITIL 4 definition, not your workplace's usage. The exam tests the exact framework meaning of incident, problem, change, and service, which may differ from how your organisation uses those words.
- For confusable pairs, decide the discriminator first. Ask which single distinction separates the two terms - fitness for purpose versus fitness for use, output versus outcome - then match the scenario to it.
- In role scenarios, judge behaviour, not job title. Who authorises the budget is the sponsor, who defines requirements and owns outcomes is the customer, who uses the service is the user - regardless of what the person is called.
- Watch for absolute or fixed-sequence wording. Options that call the guiding principles mandatory, or the value chain a rigid pipeline, usually misread the framework and are the distractor.
Revision schedule
- Day 1Map the syllabus and book a date
- Week 1Nail the key concepts and definitions
- Week 2Learn the guiding principles and four dimensions
- Week 2-3Work through the SVS and the service value chain
- Week 3-4Go deep on the practices