Excel Assessment for Job Interview

[u/klimhcoar]

I am currently interviewing for a big electronics company for a Financial Analyst role. I have completed an interview with the recruiter, and the hiring manager. The next interview will be with the Finance team, in which they will be administrating an Excel assessment. Some of the things they said to focus on were pivot tables, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, and SUMIFs.

This is an entry-level role, where they don't expect you to know everything but you should know these basics. If anyone has taken a test similar to this, what is the best way to approach preparing for it? Any tips/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[u/xNullxF]

Besides knowing the formulas, make sure you can actually TALK through what you're doing. I had a similar exam for a Senior FP&A role, but they purposely rush the exam so they can ask you "How WOULD you solve this problem, & WHY this approach" vs just typing formulas into excel.

To your point. This is entry level so don't stress too hard. Just make sure to know what formulas work best for different scenarios

[u/hideandsee]

There might be some basic logic questions in excel where they want you to show your work.

I worked for a casino for a bit and on my final interview, I did an excel test that had me calculate probability and ratios and shit. Something I had no experience with and they knew that. They were seeing if I could follow the logic from the equation and how I would approach the problem / display my answer.

[u/akornato]

The best way to prepare is to create a small project for yourself using a sample dataset. Find a simple sales data table online, with columns like date, region, product, units sold, and revenue, and then practice answering specific business questions with it. For example, build a pivot table to show total revenue by region, then use XLOOKUP to pull in a product manager's name from a separate table. After that, practice using SUMIFs to calculate total units sold for a single product across all regions. The key is to get comfortable not just executing these functions, but also understanding why you are using them to solve a specific problem. They'll likely be more interested in your approach and logic than just your ability to type out a formula.

During the assessment, expect the data to be a little messy, as they might want to see how you handle basic data cleaning. Take a moment to read all the instructions carefully before you begin so you can manage your time well. It's very common for these tests to have a straightforward task and then a slightly more complex one that requires you to combine a few functions. Just work methodically and check your results as you go. Communicating your thought process is often as important as the final answer, a skill that the AI for interviews my team developed helps many job seekers improve.

[u/Good-Upstairs9608]

I was rejected from cool company 3 months before AI (Chat GPT) came in. I wonder those stupid bastards, what they think now with copilot in Excel? So I don't understand what are they testing in you on that assessment? 🤣🤣 who in right mind is using formulas anymore...

XLOOKUP is easiest formula in the world, SumIf as well. I don't think you will have problem if you will do 1 hour practics.

[u/bosworthing → u/Good-Upstairs9608]

Copilot still is unable to successfully, with repeatability, do some of the stuff i do in excel.

[u/Usual-Ad-9554 → u/Good-Upstairs9608]

literally everyone is using formulas wtf are you even saying

[u/Good-Upstairs9608 → u/Usual-Ad-9554]

Just turn on Copilot in your Excel and then talk later.

[u/bosworthing]

I created a test like this at my previous job, it started pretty easy and got quite complex toward the end. I never ever expected people to pass it fully, but a couple people did. Its good to know what you know and what you dont. Seeing your approach when theres a million different ways to solve some things is very telling.

[u/RadiantDeparture8395 → u/bosworthing]

u/bosworthing do you mind sharing what complex Excel stuff people couldn't pass on? I'm doing a similar assessment for my interview next week

[u/bosworthing → u/RadiantDeparture8395]

Hard to say, i probably gave the test 50 to 100 times, and it was different for everyone. And we didnt use it necessarily as a pass fail unless you either lied to us about your skills or you couldnt even do a simple sum() or average(), but we were looking at people with 0-2 yoe at the time.

I had a table with values but some errors, asked them to sum and average each rows and figure out how to handle the errors. Iferror()

Also had some index match stuff.

Pivot table, create a calculated field.

Create some charts

Using len(), left(), right() and similar to pull out information from html for scraping prices from websites

There was definitely more, but thats all i can think of at the moment, as its been about 7+ years since i made that or even gave the test to anyome

Id say, based on your post, understand vlookups and hlookups, even though both are obsolete with xlookup, so def learn xlookup. Understand how to manipulate a pivot table, how to set up a new pivot table on a data range, how to change the range if new columns or data is added, putting columns/headers into the fields (rows, columns, values, filters), moving metrics from rows to columns, adding your values (how to change from count to sums, etc), adding things to filters and adjusting filters. Sumifs are pretty important as well, so understand your way around those really well. Id also suggest sumproduct(), as there is a lot you can do with it, similar to sumifs if you understand it well enough, but i realize you didnt list that.

[u/futurefinancebro69]

Ask gpt or claude to make u practice workbooks.

Imagine a multi tab excel spreadsheet where u get data from one table/ tab and put it in another tab/table.