Excel Exercises for Beginners: 10 Tasks to Try First

These Excel exercises for beginners are ten short tasks on one small table, in the order most people learn them: entering data, rows and columns, a first formula, filling down, then SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, percentages and IF. Each task has the answer right below it, so you can check yourself as you go. They're for anyone opening Excel for the first time, or getting ready for a basic Excel test for a job.

How to use these Excel exercises#

Open a blank workbook and type this table, starting in cell A1. A cell is one box in the grid, named by its column letter and row number, so A1 is the top-left cell.

Try each exercise before you read the answer. If your result is different, compare your formula with the one shown, character by character. Small differences, like a missing = or a wrong cell, are the most common cause.

Exercises 1–2: Enter data and work with rows and columns#

Exercise 1. Type the table, then fix a mistake. Change the Pen price from 1.20 to 1.25 without retyping the whole cell.

Answer: click B3 and press F2 (Mac: Control+U) to edit inside the cell. The cursor goes to the end, so you can change the last digit and press Enter. Typing over a cell replaces it; F2 lets you edit it. Change it back to 1.20 before you go on, so your answers match.

Also make column A wide enough for every name: double-click the line between the A and B column letters, and Excel fits the width to the longest entry.

Exercise 2. Insert a row for a new product above Stapler. Then undo it.

Answer: click any cell in row 5, press Shift+Space to select the whole row, then press Ctrl+Shift+= (Mac: Control+Shift+=). A blank row appears above Stapler. Press Ctrl+Z (Mac: ⌘Z) to undo. The cells, rows and columns lesson practises these moves in a live sheet.

Exercises 3–4: Write your first formula and fill it down#

Exercise 3. In D2, work out the total for Notebooks (price × quantity).

=B2*C2

Answer: 42 (3.50 × 12). Every formula starts with =. The * sign means multiply. Point at the cells instead of typing =3.5*12, so the total updates if the price changes. The first formulas lesson covers the four maths signs: +, -, * and /.

Exercise 4. Copy the formula down to D6.

Answer: select D2:D6 and press Ctrl+D (Mac: ⌘D). Or double-click the small square at the bottom-right corner of D2, called the fill handle. The totals are:

Click D3 and look at the formula bar: it says =B3*C3. Excel moved the references down one row for you. This is called a relative reference.

Exercises 5–7: SUM, AVERAGE, MIN and MAX#

Exercise 5. In D7, total all the sales.

=SUM(D2:D6)

Answer: 185.25. D2:D6 is a range: every cell from D2 to D6. The shortcut Alt+= (Mac: ⌘+Shift+T) writes the SUM for you. See the SUM function guide for more ways to use it.

Exercise 6. What is the average price?

=AVERAGE(B2:B6)

Answer: 3.39. AVERAGE adds the five prices (16.95) and divides by how many there are (5). The AVERAGE function guide explains how it treats empty cells and text.

Exercise 7. What is the biggest total, and the smallest quantity?

=MAX(D2:D6)
=MIN(C2:C6)

Answers: 48 (Pens) and 3 (Staplers). MAX returns the largest number in a range and MIN the smallest. They don't tell you which product it is; that's a lookup, which comes later.

Exercises 8–9: Subtract and work out percentages#

Exercise 8. Your sales target is 200. How far short are you? Type 200 in F1, then in F2:

=F1-D7

Answer: 14.75. Excel has no SUBTRACT function; you use the minus sign. The guide to the Excel subtract formula shows how to subtract ranges, dates and percentages.

Exercise 9. What share of total sales came from Notebooks? In E2:

=D2/$D$7

Answer: 0.2267, or 22.67% after you format it as a percentage with Ctrl+Shift+% (Mac: Control+Shift+%). The $ signs lock D7, so when you fill down to E6, every row still divides by the total. Without them, row 3 would divide by D8, which is empty, and show #DIV/0!. The five shares add up to 100%.

Exercise 10: Make a decision with IF#

Exercise 10. Mark any product with fewer than 10 in stock as "Reorder", and the rest as "OK". In G2:

=IF(C2<10,"Reorder","OK")

Fill it down to G6. Answer: only Stapler (3) shows Reorder. IF has three parts: a test, what to show if the test is true, and what to show if it's false. Text goes in double quotes.

Check your answers#

Here are all the results in one place:

If you got them all, you're ready for the next level. The average price in Exercise 6 treats a pen and a stapler equally. A weighted average takes the quantities into account: =SUMPRODUCT(B2:B6,C2:C6)/SUM(C2:C6) gives 2.06, the average price per item sold. The guide to the weighted average in Excel explains it.

For harder tasks with SUMIF, COUNTIF and lookups, move on to the Excel practice exercises. If you wonder how long all this takes, see how long it takes to learn Excel, and if you're preparing for a job, read about the basic Excel test for employment.

Practise it#

The fastest way to make these stick is to type them where your answers are checked. Practise SUM in a live spreadsheet: you type the formula and it checks it instantly. Start with the first formulas lesson if formulas are brand new to you. Not sure where you stand? Take the Excel level test to see which skills to practise next, or try the basic Excel test when you're ready for a timed check.