PSPO I Exam - overlap with PSM I study?

I do have the same question. I have cleared the PSM exam and planning to enroll for PSPO exam.

I found this 7$ book interesting and helpful:

"Guide to Pass PSPO 1 Certification from Scrum.org" by Mohammed Musthafa Soukath Ali

I've thought about taking the PSPO I exam, as I assume there's a lot of overlap in terms of the material I need to study. Obviously, the questions on the PSPO I exam will be more geared towards the product owner role, but am I right to assume that if my knowledge of the scrum guide was sufficient enough to pass the PSM I, that I could also pass the PSPO I exam?

I don't think that will fly. Yes, there is overlap. Because the Scrum Guide and the other fundamentals are the same for SM and PO. So you can get a long way with the knowledge you have, sure.

But I do not think you will pass "as is", or at least that would be my guess.

PSPO has a focus on the things a PO needs to handle, also things like budget, roadmap, stakeholder management, capacity, etc etc.

Questions on these subjects can be tricky if you have no PO specific knowledge and/or experience.

So I think the PSPO-I exam is roughly "just as hard" as PSM-I, but there is different bits of knowledge involved.

I would advice you to study the learning path and suggested readings for PO, at least, before you try the exam.

At least in my perspective, it is the logical order to do PSM-I before PSPO-I, instead of the other way around, for what its worth

Assuming there are still people who want to get both PSM I and PSPO I certification. I passed both. PSM I is way more easy to pass, with many questions about Scrum Framework and the Scrum Master in few scenarios (~ 10, but it depends). The PSPO I is more difficult : around half of the questions are from Scrum Framework, the rest are about Product Owner in different scenarios (more than 10, not all of them straight forward) and questions about Product Owner role in general. Check the Evidence-based Management guide and the Product Owner Learning Path from scrum.org.

- Does anyone know how the difficulty of the PSPO I exam compares to the PSM I exam?

I have both and I think the PSPO1 is slightly difficult than PSM1.

There is overlap but you need to shift your mindset to the POs role.