How do you handle impediments in Scrum?

Impediments are any obstacles that prevent the Scrum Team from making progress. Managing them effectively is a primary Scrum Master responsibility. Process: (1) Surface — impediments are raised during Daily Scrum, directly to the Scrum Master, or tracked on an impediment board visible to the team; (2) Categorize — team-level (Developers can resolve with Scrum Master support) vs. organizational (require management/stakeholder action); (3) Track — maintain an impediment backlog with owner, date raised, and target resolution date; (4) Escalate — the Scrum Master escalates organizational impediments to the appropriate level (manager, director) with urgency and business impact; (5) Resolve and verify — confirm the impediment is actually removed, not just addressed. Common impediments: unclear requirements (PO availability), environment issues (broken CI/CD), external team dependencies, missing access/permissions, interpersonal conflicts. An effective Scrum Master distinguishes impediments (external blocks) from problems (team-solvable) and handles each appropriately.