Microsoft Excel has been on the market for nearly 40 years, and the demand for candidates with strong Excel skills remains high across industries. Companies often employ professionals who can manage spreadsheets, create charts, and perform advanced data analysis with ease. So the question is how to test a candidate’s Excel skills in the most efficient way? While technology and marketing tools evolve, Excel remains essential, particularly in data analysis, financial modeling, and spreadsheet management roles. In fact, people with certified Excel skills are more likely to get promotions and earn 12% more than non-certified users.
Testing Excel skills during the hiring process can be challenging, as interviews alone don’t always reveal proficiency and can be subjective. Excel tests, however, rank candidates by skill level, helping recruiters identify the most qualified candidates early. This allows them to focus on those with the specific Excel skills needed for the role, making hiring decisions more efficient.
In this article, you’ll discover why Excel skill testing matters, how to assess proficiency levels, effective testing methods, and tips for a more efficient hiring process.
What roles require Excel skills?
Virtually every industry needs workers with basic Excel skills; one study found that Excel skills are required for 82% of middle-skill positions. Excel skills are essential across a wide range of professions, from administrative roles to data-driven positions in finance and marketing. In fact, a study by Burning Glass Technologies found that Excel is listed as a requirement in 44% of job postings, spotlighting its importance in the modern workplace. While basic skills like data entry are expected at the entry level, employers are increasingly looking for candidates proficient in advanced functions like Pivot Tables and VBA macros.
That said, here’s a glance at some of the best jobs that require Excel proficiency, as well as their average salaries and job outlook:
| Job Title | Average Salary | Job Outlook |
| Human Resources Manager | $140,030 | 6% |
| Sales Manager | $138,060 | 6% |
| Economist | $115,440 | 5% |
| Statistician | $104,350 | 12% |
| Financial Analyst | $101,910 | 9% |
| Management Analyst | $101,190 | 11% |
| Project Manager | $100,750 | 7% |
| Operations Research Analyst | $91,290 | 23% |
| Accountant | $81,680 | 6% |
| Market Research Analyst | $76,950 | 8% |
| Administrative Assistant | $47,460 | 1% |
As you’ve likely observed, many Excel-related jobs are industry-agnostic. Roles like administrative assistants and sales managers exist across various industries, meaning your job openings will compete with companies outside your field. So, when crafting job descriptions, consider how to attract top candidates by highlighting unique benefits and growth opportunities within your organization.
How to test candidates excel skills for different levels of proficiency
Testing Excel proficiency is necessary for hiring, training, and ensuring employees can perform job-relevant tasks efficiently. Excel skills typically fall into three categories, based on level of proficiency:
- Beginner (Basic): Data entry, formatting, and simple formulas
- Intermediate: Pivot Tables, basic macros, and data visualization
- Advanced: VBA scripting, complex data modeling, and automation
These skills often vary according to specific jobs. For example, some companies see Pivot Tables as an intermediate skill, while others consider them advanced. To effectively evaluate job applicants, tailor assessments to the complexity of the role, industry standards for Excel, and existing team expertise.
How to test basic Excel skills
Basic Excel proficiency includes fundamental tasks such as saving and opening workbooks, applying basic functions (e.g., SUM, COUNT), formatting cells, sorting/filtering data, and creating simple charts. These skills are typically required for entry-level roles like administrative assistants or data entry clerks.
To test Basic Excel Skills Assessment you should offer questions covering four main areas of Excel:
- Practical exercises: You can assess candidates through practical exercises that involve formatting cells for readability, applying basic functions like SUM and AVERAGE, and sorting or filtering data. Additionally, you can ask them to create a simple chart based on provided data. These tasks help evaluate their ability to perform essential Excel functions in a real-world setting.
- Online assessments: These assessments involve using structured tests to evaluate key Excel skills through multiple-choice and interactive questions on formulas and formatting. Timed exercises, such as 20 questions in 30 minutes, measure accuracy and speed, while scenario-based tasks help assess problem-solving abilities within Excel.
To streamline this process, platforms like Vervoe offer pre-built Excel assessments specifically designed to test basic proficiency. In particular, Vervoe’s beginner-level Excel skills test evaluates candidates across four key areas, helping you quickly identify those with the foundational knowledge needed for workplace efficiency.
These areas include:
- Charts: Assess a prospective employee’s ability to create and format charts that visually represent data, making it easier to interpret trends and insights.
- Excel formulas: Test a candidate’s understanding of formulas, which help analyze relationships between spreadsheet values and perform calculations. Candidates should demonstrate proficiency in basic formulas.
- Excel functions: Evaluate knowledge of predefined formulas (functions) and their applications. A basic Excel user should understand the difference between functions and formulas and know how and when to use essential functions like SUM, COUNT, and AVERAGE.
- Data management: Measure the ability to organize and manage spreadsheets effectively by minimizing errors, avoiding duplicates, and ensuring proper formatting. Candidates should also be familiar with best practices for data entry.
A basic Excel test should analyze essential skills, including using keyboard shortcuts, applying cell references, and working with data ranges. It should also evaluate the test-taker’s ability to format cells effectively and navigate spreadsheets, including zooming into specific cells for better visibility.
How to test intermediate Excel skills
Intermediate Excel skills go beyond basic data entry and formulas, enabling users to manage and analyze data more effectively. These skills are essential for roles that require working with large datasets or performing more complex calculations.
To test for intermediate Excel proficiency, skill tests should cover a broad range of functionalities that assess a candidate’s ability to work efficiently with data, use logical functions, and create visual representations. Key areas to review include:
- Pivot Tables: Assess an applicant’s ability to create, modify, and analyze data using Pivot Tables. Candidates should be able to group data, apply filters, and use calculated fields.
- Conditional formatting: Here, you evaluate a prospective employee’s knowledge about applying rules to highlight specific data points, identify trends, and use formula-based formatting.
- Advanced Excel functions: You can test proficiency with essential functions like VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP for retrieving data from tables based on specific criteria. Other functions include COUNTIF and SUMIF for performing conditional calculations efficiently and INDEX and MATCH for more flexible and dynamic data lookups.
- Data validation: Ensure candidates can set up rules to control data entry, such as drop-down lists, number constraints, and text length limitations.
- Charts and graphs: Evaluate the test-taker’s ability to create and format various chart types, like line charts, bar charts, and scatter plots, for effective data visualization.
- Intermediate Formulas: Here, you can see if a potential employee can combine multiple functions. For example, nesting IF functions with AND/OR to create adaptive formulas.
Well-structured intermediate Excel tests are ideal for roles in finance, data analysis, and administration because professionals in these fields require more than just basic Excel skills. They often work with large datasets, use functions like VLOOKUP and pivot tables, and create reports to support business decisions. They also need to be able to organize data, spot trends, and automate tasks.
Consequently, intermediate tests ensure candidates can handle these real-world tasks with confidence. These tests typically last around 25-30 minutes and may include practical exercises.
How to test advanced Excel skills
Advanced Excel skills are often the hardest to evaluate because they require a deep understanding of Excel’s complex functions. So, if your company needs to hire an Excel expert, look for a power user who uses its advanced features for complex tasks and automation.
When testing for advanced Excel skills, ensure that the tests include tasks that evaluate the candidate’s ability to handle complex data analysis, automation, and financial modeling. Here are some necessary skill sets to review:
- Macros/VBA automation: Analyze the job seeker’s ability to write, edit, and debug VBA code to automate repetitive tasks and create custom Excel functions.
- Statistical analysis: Test familiarity with functions like AVERAGEIF, STDEV, and regression analysis, as well as proficiency with the Data Analysis ToolPak.
- Complex financial modeling: Check to see if a test-taker can build dynamic models incorporating scenario analysis, goal-seeking, and sensitivity testing.
- Power Query: Measure the ability to import, clean, and transform large datasets using Power Query’s advanced functionalities.
- Advanced Pivot Tables: An advanced job seeker should be able to create PivotCharts, use calculated fields, and apply slicers and timelines for better data insights.
- Data visualization: Review expertise in creating interactive dashboards using slicers, dynamic charts, and conditional formatting to enhance data storytelling.
- Advanced formulas: Assess knowledge of array formulas, nested functions, and custom functions (e.g., using LAMBDA in Excel 365).
- Power Pivot & DAX: Test to see if a prospective employee can create data models, establish relationships between datasets, and write DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) formulas.
With more than 475 Excel formulas available in Excel’s functions library, an assessment should focus on the functions that matter most to your company. For example, data analysis roles may need more focus on specific functions like VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, and Power Query. Similarly, finance-related positions may prioritize financial modeling skills, including proficiency in Excel’s financial functions such as NPV, IRR, and advanced scenario modelling.
Pro tip: If building a custom test feels like a heavy lift, Vervoe’s advanced Excel assessment helps recruiters measure these skills, including data manipulation and validation, Pivot Tables, and Power Query. This test replicates on-the-job tasks and provides immediate insights into a candidate’s real-world capabilities. Or feel free to download our guide Hiring An Excel Expert: Advanced Excel Skills Checklist.
Effective methods for testing Excel skills
Assessing a candidate’s Excel skills can be challenging, but hiring managers can use various methods, from online tests to job-specific assignments. A combination of these approaches provides a clear picture of a prospective employee’s capabilities, leading to better hiring decisions. These effective Excel testing methods include:
1. Pre-employment Excel assessments
Pre-employment Excel tests are essential for identifying candidates with the right technical skills for data-driven roles. These tests can evaluate a range of competencies from basic tasks like formatting and creating charts to advanced skills such as pivot tables, VBA, complex formulas, and Power Query. They help you match candidates to the right role by assessing their ability to manage and analyze data effectively.
The right pre-employment assessment software gives you a clear idea about an applicant’s technical skills. For instance, you can use Vervoe’s AI-powered assessment builder to create structured Excel tests that evaluate candidates’ proficiency. Here’s how it works:
- Job description analysis: The first step is to upload a job description for the AI to identify the key skills and competencies needed for the role
- Custom assessment generation: Next, the AI creates a custom test with three skill groups, each containing three questions. These questions are a mix of proven and AI-generated items.
- Preview and refinement: This tool allows you to review the questions and make any necessary adjustments so the test aligns with your specific needs.
- Assessment deployment: Once finalized, you can launch the assessment and invite candidates directly or save it for later use.
Overall, these tailored assessments allow you to evaluate a candidate’s speed, accuracy, and problem-solving skills under realistic time constraints, ensuring a more accurate and job-relevant evaluation.
2. Excel interview questions
ncorporating Excel-related questions in interviews help hiring managers assess a candidate’s practical skills, problem-solving abilities, and real-world experience. While technical tests measure proficiency, interview questions reveal a candidate’s thought process, how they troubleshoot, and apply their skills.
With that in mind, here are some technical interview questions to evaluate Excel skills:
- “What is the difference between VLOOKUP and INDEX/MATCH, and when would you use one over the other?”
- “How do you use a pivot table? Have you used a pivot table in the past?”
- “If you receive a dataset with duplicate entries and missing values, how would you clean and organize the data efficiently?”
- “How do you lock a worksheet to prevent others from editing it?”
- “Can you describe a time when you used Excel to automate a task or improve workflow efficiency?”
- “What are your favorite Excel shortcuts, and how do they improve your productivity?”
Why is it important to test Excel skills?
Testing Excel skills is vital for several reasons, including:
- Impact on company goals: When employees lack strong Excel skills, it can lead to costly mistakes, slow workflows, and extra training time. In addition, data analysis errors may lead to costly decisions, while clunky spreadsheets and inefficient workflows can slow down operations.
- Role-specific needs: Advanced roles, such as financial analysts, require expertise in pivot tables, macros, and data visualization, whereas basic roles, like administrative assistants, may only need foundational skills such as formatting and sorting.
- Reduced training costs: Hiring someone with proven Excel skills reduces the need for onboarding training, saving resources and allowing them to contribute to the team more quickly.
- Efficient collaboration and workflow: Since teams often collaborate on shared spreadsheets, a good evaluation of Excel skills is necessary. A proficient Excel user avoids errors that disrupt workflow, ensuring smooth collaboration and accurate data.
5 practical tips for testing Excel skills
When testing Excel skills, prioritize efficient, fair, and relevant methods. Outlined below are five practical tips to streamline the evaluation process and identify people with strong Excel skills.
- Set time limits: Use short, focused online tests (for example, 30 minutes) to efficiently review a potential employee’s Excel skills without prolonging the hiring process.
- Combine assessments: Pair Excel tests with other evaluations, such as cognitive ability tests or job-specific skill assessments, for a well-rounded view of a candidate’s capabilities. For example, assign an Excel test with a quantitative reasoning assessment for a financial analyst, or pair it with data interpretation and Google Analytics tests for a marketing analyst.
- Use proctoring tools: Implement AI-driven or live proctoring software to ensure fairness and prevent cheating, especially in remote hiring scenarios.
- Provide immediate feedback: Give candidates quick feedback after their Excel test to help them learn and improve for future opportunities. It also shows that you’re being clear and fair during your assessments, making the hiring process a meaningful experience.
- Match tests to skill needs: Choose Excel tasks that fit the specific skills required for the role. Use basic, intermediate, or advanced questions depending on what the job demands, so you can accurately assess the right level of expertise.
Streamline your hiring with Vervoe’s Excel assessments
Testing Excel skills is essential for making smart hiring decisions and ensuring your company has the right expertise to drive success. Vervoe’s AI-powered assessments provide a fast and effective way to evaluate candidates at any skill level, using real-world tasks. From basic formatting and chart creation to advanced functions like Pivot Tables and macros, our platform covers a wide range of Excel skills tailored to specific roles.
These customizable tests are job-focused, reduce hiring time, lower training costs, and ensure job-seekers meet job-specific Excel requirements. With automated scoring and detailed performance reports, Vervoe helps you spot top talent faster and make confident, data-driven hiring decisions.
Overall, Vervoe goes beyond traditional assessments and provides deeper insights into a candidate’s real-world skills, helping you hire with confidence and accuracy. Try Vervoe today to identify Excel experts and build a high-performing, data-savvy team.
