These are three sample questions from Bryq’s Microsoft Excel assessment, a spreadsheet skills test for hiring roles that work with data every day. The full assessment covers three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced, from formula basics to conditional calculations and dynamic array functions. Each question has four options and one correct answer.
Beginner
Question
Which symbol is used to start a formula in Excel?
Select your answer
`=`
`$`
`#`
`&`
WHY IS THIS THE CORECT ANSWER
Excel recognises an entry as a formula when it begins with an equals sign; without it, the content is treated as plain text or a number.
Intermediate
Question
You have a list of sales figures in column B and their corresponding regions in column A. You want to calculate the total sales only for the “North” region. Which formula should you use?
Select your answer
`=SUMIF(A2:A10, "North", B2:B10)`
`=SUM(A2:A10, "North")`
`=SUMIFS(A2:A10, B2:B10, "North")`
`=COUNTIF(A2:A10, "North")`
WHY IS THIS THE CORECT ANSWER
SUMIF checks the criteria range (regions in A) and adds the matching values from the sum range (sales in B). COUNTIF only counts matches, and the SUMIFS option has its arguments in the wrong order.
Advanced
Question
You want to return a dynamic list of all products from column A where the value in column B equals “In Stock”, without manually filtering the data. Which function should you use?
Select your answer
`=FILTER(A2:A20, B2:B20="In Stock")`
`=SORT(A2:A20, B2:B20="In Stock")`
`=VLOOKUP("In Stock", B2:B20, 1, FALSE)`
`=MATCH("In Stock", B2:B20, 0)`
