Is it a good practice to have a special technical Sprint focusing only on removing technical debt?

In Scrum, it is not considered a good practice to have a special technical Sprint solely dedicated to removing technical debt. The essence of Scrum embraces the idea of delivering potentially releasable increments of product in every Sprint, which should include new features, bug fixes, and maintenance activities, all while continuously addressing technical debt as part of the regular backlog refinement and planning.

Having a dedicated Sprint only for technical debt can lead to neglecting the broader scope of project goals and decrease the team's focus on delivering value to stakeholders. Instead, technical debt should be prioritized and included in the team's regular Sprint planning alongside feature development. This ensures that the increment delivered at the end of each Sprint consistently reflects improvements in both functionality and maintainability. By integrating technical debt management into the normal flow of development work, the team can promote a healthier codebase and ensure that they are delivering a balanced product that meets both user and technical needs.

This approach fosters ongoing improvement and allows the team to remain adaptable in addressing various aspects of the product, thus avoiding scenarios where technical debt may accumulate to an extent that it becomes unmanageable.