Free Excel exercises blog feature image showing Excel spreadsheets, charts, formulas, and PivotTables

Introduction

Free Excel practice problems help professionals and students strengthen their data analysis and accounting skills. Practicing these Excel exercises improves accuracy, productivity, and confidence across key finance and business functions. This guide consolidates essential worksheets for VLOOKUP, IF, PMT, PivotTables, and more, helping you practice and strengthen your Excel abilities.

VLOOKUP

Overview:

VLOOKUP is a cornerstone Excel function for searching a value in a table and returning related data. It simplifies data retrieval across large spreadsheets and enhances reporting accuracy.
Example: Lookup an employee ID to return the corresponding department.


HLOOKUP

Overview:

HLOOKUP works like VLOOKUP but searches data horizontally across rows. Perfect for table layouts where headers are in rows instead of columns.


INDEX MATCH

Overview:

INDEX MATCH is a powerful combination that overcomes VLOOKUP limitations, allowing dynamic row and column searches, and better handling of large datasets.


XLOOKUP

Overview:

XLOOKUP is the modern replacement for VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP, offering flexible lookups, approximate/exact matching, and reverse searches with simpler syntax.


IF Function

Overview:

The IF function is the foundation of logical decision-making in Excel. It evaluates conditions and returns results based on TRUE or FALSE outcomes.


IFERROR Function

Overview:

IFERROR helps handle errors gracefully, such as #DIV/0! or #N/A, providing alternative results instead of breaking formulas.


SUMIF & SUMIFS

Overview:

SUMIF and SUMIFS allow conditional summing based on one or multiple criteria, essential for financial analysis and reporting.


COUNTIF & COUNTIFS

Overview:

COUNTIF/COUNTIFS functions count cells meeting specific criteria. These are critical for analyzing datasets, tracking metrics, or filtering results.


LEFT, RIGHT & MID

Overview:

Text functions like LEFT, RIGHT, and MID extract specific characters from strings, useful for parsing codes, IDs, or structured text.


TRIM Function

Overview:

TRIM removes extra spaces from text, ensuring cleaner datasets and preventing errors in matching or lookup functions.


AND & OR Exercises

Overview:

AND and OR functions enable complex logical tests by combining multiple conditions, improving decision-making in formulas.


ISNUMBER & ISTEXT

Overview:

ISNUMBER and ISTEXT are validation functions to check if cells contain numbers or text, often used in conditional formulas and data cleaning.


PivotTable Skills

Overview:

PivotTables are vital for summarizing, analyzing, and visualizing large datasets quickly, offering insights without complex formulas.


Practice Problems Excel Free Download – FV & PV Skill Guide

Overview:

Future Value (FV) and Present Value (PV) functions help calculate the time value of money, crucial for financial modeling and investment planning.


PMT Function Guide

Overview:

PMT calculates loan payments based on interest rate, term, and principal, supporting financial planning and budgeting tasks.


IRR & XIRR Guide

Overview:

IRR and XIRR functions calculate internal rates of return for investment analysis, accommodating periodic or irregular cash flows.


Excel NPV Skill Practice

Overview:

NPV (Net Present Value) evaluates investment profitability, discounting future cash flows to present terms. Essential for capital budgeting decisions.


Excel DATEDIF Skill

Overview:

DATEDIF calculates the difference between two dates in days, months, or years, useful for project timelines and age calculations.


EOMONTH Skill

Overview:

EOMONTH returns the last day of a month, simplifying reporting, billing cycles, and month-end calculations.


EDATE Skill Practice

Overview:

EDATE helps calculate future or past dates by adding/subtracting months, streamlining financial and operational planning.


TODAY() & NOW() Skills

Overview:

TODAY() and NOW() provide current date and time values, vital for dynamic reports, dashboards, and real-time calculations.


TEXT Function

Overview:

The TEXT function formats numbers and dates into readable strings, supporting reporting and presentation requirements.


CONCAT & TEXTJOIN

Overview:

CONCAT and TEXTJOIN merge text from multiple cells, with TEXTJOIN allowing delimiters and ignoring blanks for cleaner outputs.


Conclusion:

Completing these Excel practice problems enhances analytical skills, improves efficiency, and prepares you for real-world Excel tasks. Download the exercises and start practicing today.