Real situations from working spreadsheets — sales targets, commission tiers, messy exports, aged invoices. Numbered in recommended order: start at 1 and work down, or filter to what you need.
33 exercises — for Business Analyst
Turn separate year, month and day columns into a real date Excel understands.
DATE
Express clicks as a percentage of the impressions that earned them.
Divide leavers by average headcount to get a turnover percentage.
Divide a unit count by the case size to see how many cases were ordered.
Count how many people sit in a single department on a staff list.
COUNTIF
Divide campaign spend by the leads it generated.
Use the median to describe a set of orders that one huge deal has skewed.
MEDIAN
Cycle a reference through its absolute and relative forms while editing.
Extend a selection to the last filled row in one press.
Cut a combined location field at the comma without counting characters by hand.
LEFT · FIND
Pick the right summary statistic for a set with one huge outlier.
AVERAGE · MEDIAN
Return one of three labels depending on where a value falls.
IF
Count rows that satisfy several criteria at once.
COUNTIFS
Guard a division so cancelled lines do not fill the report with errors.
IF
Build a conditional average out of a conditional sum and a conditional count.
SUMIF · COUNTIF
Narrow a count with three criteria at once rather than filtering by hand.
COUNTIFS
Apply an upper and a lower bound to the same column at once.
COUNTIFS
Count people in one department whose last review was long enough ago.
COUNTIFS
Match a customer ID against a reference table to return their region.
XLOOKUP
Compare the second-best and second-worst weeks to get a fairer range.
LARGE · SMALL
Add up spend for a single channel out of a mixed campaign list.
SUMIF
Apply two conditions at once to a conditional sum.
SUMIFS
Recall the argument order that differs between SUMIF and SUMIFS.
SUMIF · SUMIFS
Identify the one situation VLOOKUP genuinely cannot handle.
VLOOKUP · XLOOKUP
Produce a summary line combining count, total and average for one region.
COUNTIF · SUMIF
Return a readable message instead of #N/A when a lookup finds nothing.
XLOOKUP
Use absolute references so a lookup does not break when copied down a column.
XLOOKUP
Anchor one end of a range so it grows as the formula moves down the column.
SUM
Write one formula that stays correct filled both across and down a grid.
SUMIFS
Repair a formula written in SUMIF's argument order instead of SUMIFS'.
SUMIFS
Combine ranking with a lookup to return a name, not just a number.
LARGE · INDEX · MATCH
Return a name from one column based on a ranked value in another.
INDEX · MATCH · SMALL
Add up the top three values without sorting the data or using a helper column.
LARGE
| # | Exercise | Functions | Difficulty | Time | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Assemble a delivery date with DATEHarbor Supply — inbound delivery schedule | DATE | Beginner | 5 min | 15 pts |
| 4 | Calculate click-through rateHarbor Supply — campaign performance export | — | Beginner | 4 min | 10 pts |
| 6 | Calculate the annual turnover rateHarbor Supply — annual turnover summary | — | Beginner | 4 min | 10 pts |
| 8 | Convert loose units into full casesHarbor Supply — pick list, units to cases | — | Beginner | 3 min | 10 pts |
| 9 | Count the headcount in one departmentHarbor Supply — staff list by department | COUNTIF | Beginner | 4 min | 10 pts |
| 26 | Work out cost per leadHarbor Supply — spend and leads by campaign | — | Beginner | 4 min | 10 pts |
| 29 | Find the typical order size with MEDIANHarbor Supply — October orders, one outlier | MEDIAN | Beginner | 5 min | 15 pts |
| 35 | Add the dollar signs without typing themNo dataset — this one is about your hands | — | Intermediate | 4 min | 20 pts |
| 39 | Select to the bottom of the dataNo dataset — this one is about your hands | — | Intermediate | 4 min | 20 pts |
| 40 | Split a city away from its stateHarbor Supply — carrier destination export | LEFT · FIND | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 44 | Average or median for this data?Conceptual question — no dataset | AVERAGE · MEDIAN | Intermediate | 4 min | 20 pts |
| 45 | Band orders by size with nested IFHarbor Supply — October orders | IF | Intermediate | 9 min | 25 pts |
| 46 | Count orders meeting two conditionsHarbor Supply — orders across regions | COUNTIFS | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 49 | Work out fill rate without a divide errorHarbor Supply — fill rate by line, some cancelled | IF | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 51 | Average one region without AVERAGEIFHarbor Supply — orders by region | SUMIF · COUNTIF | Intermediate | 9 min | 30 pts |
| 52 | Count backorders on three conditionsHarbor Supply — open order lines by warehouse | COUNTIFS | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 53 | Count orders inside a value bandHarbor Supply — order values, last month | COUNTIFS | Intermediate | 7 min | 25 pts |
| 54 | Count staff overdue a reviewHarbor Supply — months since last review | COUNTIFS | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 57 | Look up a customer's region with XLOOKUPHarbor Supply — orders plus a customer reference table | XLOOKUP | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 58 | Measure the spread, ignoring the extremesHarbor Supply — weekly revenue, one quarter | LARGE · SMALL | Intermediate | 7 min | 25 pts |
| 59 | Total marketing spend for one channelHarbor Supply — campaign spend by channel | SUMIF | Intermediate | 7 min | 25 pts |
| 62 | Total sales for a region and month with SUMIFSHarbor Supply — orders across regions and months | SUMIFS | Intermediate | 9 min | 25 pts |
| 65 | Which range does SUMIFS want first?Conceptual question — no dataset | SUMIF · SUMIFS | Intermediate | 3 min | 20 pts |
| 69 | When can VLOOKUP not do the job?Conceptual question — no dataset | VLOOKUP · XLOOKUP | Intermediate | 3 min | 20 pts |
| 71 | Build a regional summary from raw ordersHarbor Supply — raw October order export | COUNTIF · SUMIF | Advanced | 16 min | 40 pts |
| 73 | Handle missing lookups gracefullyHarbor Supply — orders including a new customer | XLOOKUP | Advanced | 10 min | 40 pts |
| 74 | Lock ranges so a lookup survives fill-downHarbor Supply — orders and customer reference | XLOOKUP | Advanced | 12 min | 40 pts |
| 75 | Build a running total that fills downHarbor Supply — monthly sales, cumulative column | SUM | Advanced | 12 min | 35 pts |
| 77 | Fill a two-way summary with SUMIFSHarbor Supply — order log, two months | SUMIFS | Advanced | 14 min | 40 pts |
| 79 | Fix a SUMIFS with its arguments swappedHarbor Supply — regional totals, formula under repair | SUMIFS | Advanced | 11 min | 35 pts |
| 80 | Name the second-best rep with LARGE and INDEXHarbor Supply — Q3 sales by rep, unsorted | LARGE · INDEX · MATCH | Advanced | 14 min | 40 pts |
| 81 | Name the third-fastest supplierHarbor Supply — supplier lead times | INDEX · MATCH · SMALL | Advanced | 13 min | 40 pts |
| 83 | Total the three biggest ordersHarbor Supply — order values, unsorted export | LARGE | Advanced | 10 min | 35 pts |