Excel practice exercises for beginners, with answers
Twelve Excel exercises on references, SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, absolute references, IF and ROUND, each with the answer 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. Then it falls apart at the keyboard. The hard part is where the brackets go and which cell to point at. It is also when to lock a reference. That is the part you were only watching. So here are twelve exercises to type. The answer is under each one, with the working beside it. Do them in Excel, in Google Sheets, or in the practice grid on this site. There each answer is checked the moment you press Enter.
They follow the order a beginner meets the ideas. First you point at a cell, then at a range. Then come the three functions the first lessons teach. Then one habit: locking a reference. That habit separates a sheet that works from a sheet that only looks right. The last four add a decision, a percentage and a rounded number. That is what the first real spreadsheet at work asks for.
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. That is the whole idea of a spreadsheet in one line. Every exercise after this one builds on it.
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. The letter x is only a letter. Type it and Excel answers with a #NAME? error.
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. It means every cell from the first
to the last. =C4+C5+C6+C7 gives the same number. But it breaks
as soon as a row is added in the middle, and SUM does not.
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. But =(B4*C4)+(B7*C7) is easier to read and just as
correct. When in doubt, add the brackets. Excel does not mind, and the next person to read the
sheet will find it clearer.
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 lower the number. It does count a zero. A person who worked 0 hours lowers the average. A person with no entry does not. That difference matters more often than you would expect.
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. That is why it is pointed at the names. The difference between the two is how many people have not filled in their hours. That is a small report in two formulas. Put the 8 back before you go on.
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 on D3 while the hours move. This mistake is common enough to have a lesson of its own. There is a shortcut. Put the cursor on D3 inside the formula and press F4. The dollars appear by themselves.
Part three: the first real report
Keep the timesheet, with the rate in D3 and the pay in C4 to C8. These four exercises are the questions a manager asks of it.
Exercise 9 — the longest and the shortest shift
In B13, the most hours anyone worked. In B14, the fewest.
Answers: =MAX(B4:B8) → 9 and
=MIN(B4:B8) → 5.75
MAX and MIN take a range and give back one number from it. They do not tell you whose it was; that is a lookup, and a later lesson.
Exercise 10 — a share of the total
In E5, Marcus's hours as a share of the whole shift.
Answer: =B5/B9 → 0.2466, shown as 24.7%
9 divided by 36.5. A share is always the part divided by the whole, and the answer is a fraction. The percent sign is a display format, not a calculation. Select the cell and press Ctrl+Shift+5. Excel then shows 0.2466 as 25%, or 24.7% with one decimal. Do not multiply by 100 and then add a percent format. That shows 2466%.
Exercise 11 — a decision
In F4, show the word Overtime if Alina worked more than 8 hours, and Standard if not. Copy it down to F8.
Answer: =IF(B4>8,"Overtime","Standard") →
Standard
Alina's 7.5 is not more than 8. Copied down, Marcus (9) shows Overtime and everyone else shows Standard. That includes Tomas, whose 8 is not more than 8. IF takes three things in this order. First the question. Then what to show when the answer is yes. Then what to show when it is no. Text goes in quotation marks. A number or a cell address does not.
Exercise 12 — a number you can pay
Priya's pay in C6 comes out with three decimal places. In G6, show it to two decimal places.
Answer: =ROUND(C6,2) → 78.13
6.25 × 12.5 is 78.125, and ROUND to two places makes it 78.13. Formatting the cell to two decimals would show 78.13 but still hold 78.125. A column of such cells adds up to a total that is wrong by a small amount. ROUND changes the number. The format only changes the look.
The five mistakes everybody makes first
- Typing the number you can see instead of the cell that holds it. It looks right today and is wrong the first time the number changes. Exercise 1 is the cure.
- Forgetting the equals sign. Without it, B6*C6 is text, and Excel shows it back to you as typed.
- Copying a formula that pointed at one fixed cell. The reference moves with the copy and lands on an empty cell. Exercise 8 is the cure, and F4 is the shortcut.
- Summing a column that holds numbers stored as text. They look like numbers and add up to 0. A green triangle in the corner of the cell is Excel telling you.
-
Brackets in the wrong place.
=SUM(B4:B8/5)and=SUM(B4:B8)/5are different formulas. When the answer looks strange, read the formula from the inside out.
Questions people ask
How long does it take to learn Excel basics?
The twelve exercises above cover the formulas the first five lessons teach. Type them twice: once from the answers, once from memory. After that you have them. Speed comes from weeks of ordinary use, not from more study.
Excel or Google Sheets?
Every formula on this page works in both, unchanged. Sheets is free and in the browser; Excel is what most workplaces run. Learn in whichever is in front of you; the skill carries over.
Do I need to remember the functions?
No. You need to know that SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX, MIN, IF and ROUND exist. You also need to know roughly what they do. Excel shows you the arguments as you type. What has to become automatic is the reference. Point at a cell, and lock it when a copy must not move it.
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. Do you want the checking done for you? The same exercises are the first five lessons on this site. You type into the grid and press Enter. It tells you what went wrong, not only that something did.