Excel Interview Questions and Answers

Ms Excel is a spreadsheet program and one of the components of the Microsoft Office Suite. MS Excel is productivity software which creates and edits spreadsheets with a file extension of .xlsx or .xls. In it, data is laid out in big tables in a number of columns and rows and shows extreme power and versatility.

As Excel is a spreadsheet program, there are various uses of Microsoft Excel., we can use it to-

• make numbers,
• grids of text
• use specified calculations to perform functions on the numbers
• records income, plan budgets, expenditures, external sources, stock market, feeds, etc

Pull in data and runs the data through the formulas for updating information in real time

• Make a comparison of data easy
• Summarization, organization, and structuring of data is less time consuming
• Ease of building great charts
• Sorting and filtering of the information takes a fraction of seconds
• Visual display of data then using graphs, pie charts

MS Excel has several features like-

• Use graphing tools
• Perform basic calculations
• create macros and pivot table

Formulas are used in MS Excel due to their trait of performing several tasks and operations automatically. Also, the users are allowed to use cell references or type numbers directly into the formulas. This lets the formulas to use whatever data is contained in the reference cells.

Basic formulas in MS Excel are

1. SUM

=SUM(number1, [number2], …)

Example: =SUM(B2:G2)

2. AVERAGE

=AVERAGE(number1, [number2], …)

Example: =AVERAGE(A1:A10)

3. COUNT

=COUNT(value1, [value2], …)

Example: COUNT(A1:C1)

4. COUNTA

=COUNTA(value1, [value2], …)

Example: COUNTA(A:A)

5. IF

=IF(logical_test, [value_if_true], [value_if_false])

Example: =IF(C2

6. TRIM

  =TRIM(text)

Example: TRIM(A4)

7. MIN

=MIN(number1, [number2], …)

Example: =MIN(B2:C11)

8. MAX

=MAX(number1, [number2], …)

Example: =MAX(B2:C11)

Resizing the column requires the row height to be changed to fit into the content. Then, you need to select the rows that you modify. Click Format on the home tab, in Cells. Then, under Cell size, click on AutoFit Row Height.

Freeze panes are used when we need to keep a spreadsheet’s area scrolling to another worksheet’s area, visit View tab. There, you can freeze panes, and split panes for creating window separation of the same worksheet.

Steps of freezing rows and columns-

1. Freezing of the first column

• Select View>Freeze Panes > Freeze First Column

2. Freezing of the first two columns-

• Now, select the third column
• Select View> Freeze Panes> Freeze Panes

To freeze rows and columns, you need to select the right of the columns and below the rows in order to make the screen visible.

Formatting of the cells in MS Excel is done in the following steps-

• Open your MS Excel
• Select a cell or a group of cells to be formatted
• Now, click on Format Cells Window
• Select the formatting options for the cell
• Click on Save

Both relative and absolute references behave indifferently when they are copied and filled to other cells. Change in the corresponding reference takes place with the copying of the formula to another cell. But, on the other hand, absolute references there are no changes here when they are copied.

Formula or syntax of the if-then statement in MS Excel-

IF (Logic_Test, Value_if_True, Value_if_False) where expression to be evaluated is denoted by Logic_Test.