Advanced Excel Interview Questions & Answers for Professionals

Are you already familiar with the basics of Excel - It is time to get to the next level of your EXCEL skills with this advanced level interview questions.

This blog at TrainingHub.io will include Excel interview questions that take the test of your excellence in data analysis, automation, and business reporting, which will also be the key factors that make you stand out among the rest in the job market.

Section 1: Advanced Formulas Mastery

1. What makes INDEX-MATCH better than VLOOKUP?

INDEX-MATCH can look left, is faster with large data, and won’t break if columns are rearranged.

Example:Find salary for Employee ID 102:

=INDEX(C2:C100, MATCH(102, A2:A100, 0))

→ Looks up ID in column A and fetches salary from column C.

2. How do you use INDIRECT for dynamic referencing?

Example:

Cell A1 = "B5"

=INDIRECT(A1)

→ Fetches the value of cell B5.

Use Case: Changing A1 to "C10" will now fetch C10 automatically. Useful in dynamic models.

3. Explain OFFSET with a business case.

Example: Monthly sales data in B2:B13. To calculate the last 3 months:

=SUM(OFFSET(B2,COUNTA(B2:B13)-3,0,3,1))

→ Always sums the last 3 months, even as new data is added.

4. How can CHOOSE be used creatively?

Example: For quick what-if scenarios:

=CHOOSE(D1, A2, B2, C2)

→ If D1=1, returns A2; if D1=2, returns B2. Handy for scenario selection in financial models.

5. How do array formulas help?

Example: Total revenue across multiple regions in one step:

=SUM(A2:A10 * B2:B10) entered as Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

→ Multiplies Price × Quantity for each row and sums total.

6. Explain a real use of FORMULATEXT.

Example: In audits, =FORMULATEXT(D5) shows the exact formula in D5, ensuring accuracy and documentation.

Section 2: Power Query & Data Modeling

7. What is Power Query and why is it powerful?

It’s a data transformation tool for cleaning, combining, and reshaping.

Example: Automatically importing and merging monthly sales CSVs into one master table.

8. Difference between Append and Merge in Power Query?

Example:

Append → Stack Jan, Feb, Mar sales tables into one.

Merge → Join Customers table with Orders table on CustomerID.

9. How do you remove duplicates using Power Query?

Example: Import Customer data → right-click column → “Remove Duplicates”. No formulas required.

10. How do relationships in Power Pivot help?

Example: Link a Sales table (ProductID, Revenue) with Products table (ProductID, Category). Then, analyze revenue by category without writing formulas.

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11. What’s DAX CALCULATE?

Example:

=CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Revenue]), Sales[Region]="West")

→ Returns total revenue only for West region.

12. How would you use Measures instead of Calculated Columns?

Measures are calculated on demand (efficient for large data).

Example: Total Profit = SUM(Sales[Revenue]) - SUM(Sales[Cost]).

Section 3: PivotTables & Advanced Analysis

13. How do you extract data using GETPIVOTDATA?

Example:

=GETPIVOTDATA("Revenue",$A$3,"Region","East")

→ fetches East’s revenue from PivotTable at A3.

14. How do slicers improve interactivity?

Example: Add slicers for Region & Product

→ instantly filter PivotCharts for managers.

15. How do you group dates in a PivotTable?

Example: Right-click → Group by Months/Quarters

→ useful for quarterly sales analysis.

16. Can PivotTables handle calculated fields?

Example: Add “Profit” field: =Revenue - Cost directly inside PivotTable.

17. How do you use multiple consolidation ranges?

Example: Consolidate Q1–Q4 sheets into a single PivotTable to summarize yearly totals.

18. How to refresh multiple PivotTables at once?

Right-click one Pivot → Refresh All.

Or automate with VBA: ActiveWorkbook.RefreshAll

Section 4: Advanced Charting & Dashboards

19. How do you create a Waterfall Chart?

Example: Visualize Profit = Revenue – Expenses

→ each step shown as increase/decrease blocks.

20. How do Combo Charts help?

Example: Column chart for Revenue + Line chart for Profit Margin

→ combined in one view.

21. What are Sparklines and where to use them?

Example: Add sparkline next to each row in a sales report to show monthly trend at a glance.

22. How do you create dynamic named ranges for charts?

Example: Named range = =OFFSET($A$2,0,0,COUNTA($A:$A)-1,1)

→ chart updates automatically when new data is added.

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23. How to highlight top 5 performers in a chart?

Example: Add helper column with IF formula to separate top 5

→ plot in different color.

24. How do interactive dashboards work?

Combine PivotTables, Slicers, Drop-down menus, and Charts.

Example: A CEO dashboard with filters for Region, Year, Product

→ All charts update instantly.

Section 5: VBA & Automation

25. How do you write a simple loop in VBA?

For i = 1 To 10

Cells(i,1).Value = i

Next i

→ Writes 1 to 10 in column A.

26. How to automate formatting with VBA?

Sub FormatReport()

Range("A1:D1").Font.Bold = True

Columns("B:D").AutoFit

End Sub

27. How do you copy data between sheets in VBA?

Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:C10").Copy _

Destination:=Sheets("Sheet2").Range("A1")

28. Difference between Sub and Function in VBA?

Sub → performs actions.

Function → returns a value usable in a cell.

29. How to create a custom function in VBA?

Function AddTax(Amount As Double) As Double

AddTax = Amount * 1.13

End Function

Usage:

=AddTax(100)

→ 113.

30. How to handle errors in VBA?

On Error Resume Next

x = 10/0

If Err.Number <> 0 Then MsgBox "Error!"

Section 6: Advanced Scenarios & Security

31. How do you automate sending emails from Excel?

Sub SendEmail()

Dim OutApp As Object, OutMail As Object

Set OutApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

Set OutMail = OutApp.CreateItem(0)

OutMail.To = "hr@company.com"

OutMail.Subject = "Sales Report"

OutMail.Body = "Please find attached."

OutMail.Send

End Sub

32. What are UserForms in VBA?

Custom dialog boxes for data entry.

Example: An Employee Registration form with textboxes and dropdowns.

33. How do you protect your VBA project?

Tools → VBAProject Properties → Protection → Lock Project for Viewing.

34. How do you use Scenario Manager?

Example: Create scenarios for “Best Case”, “Worst Case”, “Expected Case” to compare business forecasts.

35. How do you use Goal Seek?

Example: Find the sales needed to achieve $100,000 profit:

Data → What-If Analysis → Goal Seek.

36. What is Solver and how is it different?

Solver handles optimization problems with multiple constraints.

Example: Maximize profit while limiting expenses and resources.

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