PSPO Open Question ?

The answer is "yes". 

There' no need to have a complete product backlog (actually by nature the PB is an evolving artifact that lives as long their is a product). Also, you cannot have a full complete PB upfront! as the market evolves the PB becomes obsolete, so just enough PB is ok to ADAPT to the market change and uncertainty. 

Is good to keep a good flow though, so you have some PBIs ready for the next sprint.  

Hi, 2 reasons:

• to start your first sprint, you need sufficient work for this first sprint
• from a scrum perspective, it does not make sense to exhaustively elaborate all pbl items, since you might never really select them in your sprint. Hence work out the details if it necessary

HiI don't think so the answer should be yes, it is true that you need requirements... but a "complete and exhaustive product backlog" for me sounds totally oposiye to scrum principles . The Product backlog by definition is "a living artifact, never complete" ....

I am not agree with that answer!

Yes, you do not need a complete and exhaustive Product Backlog to start a sprint.  Mainly because as @diana pointed out, the product backlog is a living artifact, never complete. (some what of a trick question)

Also as @Marco pointed out, all you really need is enough for a sprint and, I will add, deliver some increment of value. 

A Sprint may start with an empty Product Backlog. Although it would be an edge-case, sufficient work for the first Sprint can be elicited during Sprint Planning and a Product Backlog may emerge from that point. There are no actual pre-conditions regarding backlog development or maturity.

Thanks Everyone. I am glad to have the same understanding as everyone here, before reading this conversation, because came across this question today in PO Open assessment and got into confusion of why.... The PB is a living document and is never complete the how is it true?

However the answer to the question is still marked yes in the PO open assessment. While we all understand that the statement in question is false, do we still have to mark it True if appears in the final exam? 

Sometimes, one point makes a difference.

Salman, unsure where your confusion rests.

"A first Sprint can start before the Product Owner has a complete and exhaustive Product Backlog in place."

If you understand that a first sprint should be able to start immediately, without a dependency on the content of the Product Backlog, then your answer will be "Yes".   

It is immaterial that the question asks if the sprint can start before a condition that can never be satisfied is met.   Can the first sprint begin before the Earth reverses direction?   I would still say "Yes", knowing that the temporal question "before" references a condition that cannot be met.