Excel practice exercises for beginners, with answers
Eight short Excel exercises on references, SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE and absolute references — each with the answer, the formula and why it works.
The fastest way to learn Excel is to type formulas and see what comes back. Watching somebody else do it looks clear and falls apart at the keyboard, because the hard part — where the brackets go, which cell to point at, when to lock a reference — is the part you were watching. So here are eight exercises to type, with the answers underneath each one. Do them in Excel, Google Sheets, or in the practice grid on this site, where the same exercises are marked as you go.
Part one: cell references
The first four exercises use this small stock list. Put it in cells A3 to C7.
| Row | A | B | C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Part | Price | In stock |
| 4 | Inner tube | 4.5 | 26 |
| 5 | Brake pad | 12 | 8 |
| 6 | Chain | 24.99 | 5 |
| 7 | Saddle | 38.5 | 3 |
Exercise 1 — point at a cell
In E4, show the price of the chain. Do not type the number: type a formula that points at the cell holding it.
Answer: =B6 → 24.99
An equals sign followed by an address means "whatever is in that cell". Next month the price changes, and only the formula is still right.
Exercise 2 — multiply two cells
In E6, work out the value of the chains in stock: the price times the quantity.
Answer: =B6*C6 → 124.95
24.99 × 5. The star is the multiplication sign in every spreadsheet.
Exercise 3 — add up a column
In C8, count how many parts are in stock altogether.
Answer: =SUM(C4:C7) → 42
26 + 8 + 5 + 3. A range is two addresses joined by a colon, and it means every cell from the
first to the last. =C4+C5+C6+C7 gives the same number, but it
breaks the moment a row is added.
Exercise 4 — combine two products
In E8, work out the stock value of the inner tubes and the saddles together.
Answer: =B4*C4+B7*C7 → 232.5
4.5 × 26 is 117, and 38.5 × 3 is 115.5. Multiplication happens before addition, so no
brackets are needed — though =(B4*C4)+(B7*C7) is easier to read
and just as correct.
Part two: SUM, AVERAGE and COUNT
The next four use a timesheet. Put it in cells A3 to B8.
| Row | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Staff | Hours |
| 4 | Alina | 7.5 |
| 5 | Marcus | 9 |
| 6 | Priya | 6.25 |
| 7 | Tomas | 8 |
| 8 | Yusuf | 5.75 |
Exercise 5 — total hours
In B9, add up every hour worked on the shift.
Answer: =SUM(B4:B8) → 36.5
7.5 + 9 + 6.25 + 8 + 5.75.
Exercise 6 — the average shift
In B10, work out the average number of hours per person.
Answer: =AVERAGE(B4:B8) → 7.3
36.5 divided by 5. AVERAGE ignores empty cells, so a blank row does not drag it down.
Exercise 7 — count what is there
Delete Tomas's 8 so that B7 is empty. In B11, count how many people have hours recorded. In B12, count how many people are on the list at all.
Answers: =COUNT(B4:B8) → 4 and
=COUNTA(A4:A8) → 5
COUNT counts cells holding a number, so the blank is skipped. COUNTA counts cells holding anything, which is why it is pointed at the names. The difference between the two is the number of people who have not filled in their hours.
Exercise 8 — lock a reference
Everybody is paid the same hourly rate, held in one cell: put 12.5 in D3. In C4, work out Alina's pay, then copy the formula down to C8. Every row should use the rate in D3.
Answer: =B4*$D$3 → 93.75, and copied down
C5 becomes =B5*$D$3 → 112.5
Without the dollar signs the copy would move the rate along with the hours — C5 would point at D4, which is empty, and show 0. The dollars lock the column and the row, so the rate stays put while the hours move. This one mistake accounts for more wrong spreadsheets than any other, which is why it gets a whole lesson.
What to do with these
Do them once from the answers, then close the page and do them again from memory. The second pass is the one that sticks. If you want the checking done for you, the same exercises are the first five lessons on this site: you type into the grid, press Enter, and it tells you what went wrong rather than only that something did.