Excel or Microsoft Excel is one of the most crucial tools, a spreadsheet, that is almost strong-handedly ruling the software and business workplaces around. In the competitive world, the more you know about the tool, the more the chances of you getting recruited. As we know that Excel increases the weightage of your resume, here we are presenting the compilation of 101 Important Excel Interview Questions and Answers that help the freshers ace the Interview. Ready?

Excel is a commendable computer program without which no computer operations and computations are getting completed in any work out there. A piece of strong knowledge of Excel can place you in any kind of industry, as almost every industry is using Excel somewhere. It enriches the process of business be it stockings, rating analyzing, etc.

So, we know that it is a bit tough to crack interviews, although you have a good knowledge of this particular skill. To boost up confidence levels in you, we strongly suggest you go through our predicted and reliable compilation of 101 Excel Interview Questions and Answers which helps in polishing the basic knowledge you have, much stronger.

Q1. Define Excel in your own words

Excel is a software of the type spreadsheet, that helps in storing data by arranging the information into rows and columns.

Q2. Excel was developed by which company?

Excel was developed by the Multinational Technological Company, Microsoft Corporation. It was launched by them in the year 1985. Since then, Excel is prominently known as Microsoft Excel.

Q3. List any three operating systems that support Excel.

• Windows
• macOS
• Android
• iOS

Q4. Name some important features of Microsoft Excel.

The most important features one would notice in Microsoft Excel are:

• Graphing tools
• Visual Basic
• Calculations are done using predefined functions
• Pivot tables, etc.

Q5. Name some characteristics of Microsoft Excel.

Here are a few characteristics of Microsoft Excel.

• Workbooks, and worksheets to arrange the data.
• Pre-defined functions like count, sum, subtotal, date, etc. make computations easier.
• Rows and columns make work easier.
• A supportive hand to microprogramming through the application, Visual Basic.
• Filters, tables, and graphs make data visualization and understanding easy.

Q6. Name the languages and tools used in developing Microsoft Excel.

• C#
• C++
• Microsoft Foundation Class Library
• .NET Framework

Q7. List the file formats Microsoft Excel uses.

• Excel Workbook – .xlsx
• Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook for code – .xlsm
• Excel Binary Workbook – .xlsb
• Template – .xltx
• Template for code – .xltm
• Excel 97- Excel 2003 Workbook – .xls
• Excel 97- Excel 2003 Template .xlt
• Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook – .xls
• XML Spreadsheet 2003 – .xml
• XML Data – .xml
• Excel Add-In – .xlam
• Excel 97-2003 Add-In – .xla
• Excel 4.0 Workbook – .xlw
• Works 6.0-9.0 spreadsheet – .xlr, etc.

Q8. Which excel type is the smallest of all?

The Excel Binary Workbook with an extension of .xlsb is considered as the smallest one among all the supportive extensions.

Q9. Tell us a few ways you use to reduce the size of an excel.

Here are a few ways using which we can reduce the size of Excel.

• Compress the size of images.
• Remove the extra or hidden spreadsheets.
• Remove conditional formatting
• Clear data formatting.
• Clear watches.
• Remove rows and columns that are hidden or not needed.
• Remove unnecessary function usage (formulas).
• Converting the excels of other extensions to the .xlsb (binary) format.

Q10. How will you clear formatting in Excel?

First of all, we need to select the rows and columns which we want to de-format. Then, the path we need to follow to clear the formatting is:

Home -> Editing group -> Clicking the arrow next to the clear button -> selecting a clear format from the dropdown.

Q11. Define Macro.

In Excel, a Macro is a code or a set of actions that we use to perform certain tasks repeatedly. In such a case, we record the action or actions as a unit, called macro, to automate the tasking. Now, we can run the tasks numerous times with just a click.

Q12. What is the key that helps in debugging the formulas, quickly?

In Microsoft Excel, selecting a function and clicking the F9 key on the keyboard helps in checking the formulas and debugging them, quickly.

Q13. What does the F12 key do in Excel?

In Excel, clicking a simple F12 key on the keyboard pops up a dialog box telling you to save the current file. Simply, It just works exactly like a “Save as” button.

Q14. Explain the basic cells present in Microsoft Excel.

Each basic cell is nothing but the junction where a cell of each row and column meets. It is where we can fill with an element of the data to be stored. Each cell is assigned a unique address, and as the columns are named A, B, C… while rows are assigned with labels 1, 2, 3…, by default, the first cell/junction’s address is A1, the next one is B1, and so on…

Q15. Coming to the Excel formulas, What is their order of precedence of operations?

Excel follows the ‘PEMDAS’ rule, i.e., (We can use BODMAS rule too)

• 1st priority to the Parentheses ‘()’
• 2nd priority to the Exponent ‘^’
• 3rd and equal priority to the Division ‘/’ and the Multiplication ‘*’
• 4th and equal priority to the Addition ‘+’ and the Subtraction ‘-’

Q16. Is it possible to rearrange the cells in Excel?

In Excel, we can perform the insertion and deletion operations in the following ways

• Shifting cells to the right
• Shifting cells up
• Shifting cells to left
• Shifting cells down
• Inserting/Deleting entire row
• Inserting/Deleting entire column

Q17. List the data formatting ways for cells, in Excel.

In excel, the cells can be formatted using the main attributes and their elements such as:

• Number
• Alignment
• Font
• Border
• Fill
• Protection

Q18. How to add a comment in a cell, in Excel.

In Excel, to add a comment to a cell, all you need to do is to give right-click on the cell and then select the ‘insert the comment’ option. You can always edit or delete the comment you entered.

Q19. How can the cell with a comment differ from the cell with the data?

To make it easy for recognition, the cell in which you add a comment will be marked with a red/purple flag on the top right corner of the cell.

The cell with the red mark in the L column represents that the cell has a comment.

Q20. Define Ribbon.

In Microsoft Excel, a Ribbon is a header or topmost part that contains a set of buttons and tabs through which you can navigate to perform certain commands. They help in understanding and using the commands easily and quickly, and each component is further divided into a group of commands making up a category. These are the generally asked Excel Interview Questions and Answers for the fresher candidate in the Interview.

Q21. What are the major components you find in the ribbon?

Mainly, there are 4 basic components present in the ribbon, namely:

• Tabs
• Dialog launchers
• Groups
• Command Buttons

Q22. Name the tabs that are present in the ribbon.

On one sight, we find 7 tabs in the ribbon. However, each tab has several other commands within. The 7 tabs are:

• Home
• Insert
• Page Layout
• Formulas
• Data
• Review
• View

Q23. How does the freeze pane help us in excel?.

The freeze pane helps in locking the cells which may be the headers of the rows or columns or any other data in any of the cells such that, even when we roll down the sheet to a larger extent, the frozen cells are always visible up there displaying on the sheet.

Q24. How do you apply the freeze pane to a cell?

Select the cell that you want to lock up so that it could be visible on the sheet even if you scroll down. Then follow the path:

Select View -> Go to Freeze Panes -> Choose Freeze Panes.

Q25. What are the forms in which protection can be applied to an excel?

By using the following techniques, we can enable security to Excel.

• Via password to open a workbook
• Against the manipulations being done on the worksheet.
• Protecting the window positions/ sizes from getting modified.

Q26. Define Relative Cell Address

Relative Cell Address is the address or reference of the cell which has been modified and replaced either by using an automatic filling feature or by copying.

Q27. Define Absolute Cell Address.

In some cases, the cell address should remain unchanged, when the autofill or copy happens. Such an address is called an absolute cell address and ‘$’ is used to keep the cell’s address constant.

Q28. Tell us a technique to protect the cells of a worksheet from getting copied.

To protect the worksheet’s cells from being copied, all you need to do is to go for the menu bar of ‘Review’, click on the Protect Sheet, and then give a password to the worksheet.

Q29. Tell us how you enable macros in Excel.

File tab -> Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings -> Macro Settings -> (Choose the selections based on your need) -> Click OK

Q30. I want Named ranges. How to make it happen in Excel?

The path goes as:

Select a range to be named -> formulae from ribbon -> Define name -> Provide the name.

Q31. List the formats available for reports.

• Tabular format
• Compact format
• Report format

Q32. How to add values to the list in Excel?

Data in Ribbon -> Data Validation -> From Allow dropdown, select the List option -> Add the values as per your choice to the list under the source field.

Q33. Define the Pivot Table

A pivot table can be simply called a summary table of the data of a table with huge data. It helps you to report and explore the data based on the information given.

Q34. How pivot tables are useful?

Pivot tables help us in keeping a track of the comparisons and statistics like summarize, group, count, total, sum, averages, sort, etc. of the table that contains a huge amount of data. The tables on which a pivot table can be made can be a database or a spreadsheet. The pivot table helps in transposing the data of the table too.

Excel is a vast topic, an ocean. We have tried to cover almost every topic with the motto of preparing you to face the Interview Questions in ‘Excel topic, strongly. However, these 101 questions are the most popular and are predicted to be asked in the interview, by our team. We think that these lists of Interview Questions will help you. Hope you will ace the interview questions asked in ‘Excel’ with your answers. Good luck!