Sales Excel Interview Questions With Worked Answers

Sales Excel interview questions test whether you can turn a raw list of deals into the numbers a sales team lives by: won revenue, win rate, deal size, quota attainment and growth. This guide gives ten typical questions with worked answers, all on one small deal list, so you can type every formula yourself and check the result. It suits candidates for sales, sales operations and sales analyst roles.

How to answer an Excel question in a sales interview#

A good answer has three parts: the formula, the result, and how you'd check it. Say which function you chose and why ("two conditions, so SUMIFS"), give the number, then name a check, such as a PivotTable or a filtered total. Interviewers can see your thinking that way, even if you make a small typing slip.

All the answers below use this deal list in A1:E8:

Revenue questions (1–3)#

Revenue questions are about adding the right rows, which is SUMIFS. See the SUMIFS function guide for the full syntax.

1. What is the total won revenue?

=SUMIFS(E2:E8,D2:D8,"Won")

43,000. Lost deals are left out. A common trap is =SUM(E2:E8), which gives 58,000 because it counts lost deals too.

2. How much won revenue did Ana bring in?

=SUMIFS(E2:E8,B2:B8,"Ana",D2:D8,"Won")

18,500 (12,000 + 6,500). Her lost 7,000 deal doesn't count. Two conditions means SUMIFS, not SUMIF.

3. What share of won revenue came from Chen?

=SUMIFS(E2:E8,B2:B8,"Chen",D2:D8,"Won")/SUMIFS(E2:E8,D2:D8,"Won")

46.5% (20,000 ÷ 43,000), once you format the cell as a percentage. Share of total is the rep's part divided by the whole.

Win rate and deal size questions (4–5)#

Win rate and deal size are counts and averages with conditions: COUNTIFS and AVERAGEIFS.

4. What is the win rate?

=COUNTIFS(D2:D8,"Won")/(COUNTIFS(D2:D8,"Won")+COUNTIFS(D2:D8,"Lost"))

71.4% (5 won out of 7 closed deals). Divide by closed deals, not by every row. If the list also had "Open" deals, COUNTA(D2:D8) would put them in the bottom number and make the win rate look worse than it is. For one rep, add the rep to every COUNTIFS: Ana won 2 of her 3 closed deals, so 66.7%.

5. What is the average size of a won deal?

=AVERAGEIFS(E2:E8,D2:D8,"Won")

8,600 (43,000 ÷ 5). If the interviewer asks why you didn't use AVERAGE, say that AVERAGE would include the lost deals and give 8,286 instead.

Growth and quota questions (6–7)#

Growth and attainment are both ratios, so the answer is a division formatted as a percentage. The percent change guide explains the formula in more detail.

6. Revenue was 120,000 last quarter and 138,000 this quarter. What is the growth? (Example figures, not from the table.)

=(C2-B2)/B2

With last quarter in B2 and this quarter in C2, the result is 15%: an increase of 18,000 on a base of 120,000. Always divide by the old number. Dividing by the new one gives 13%, which is a classic wrong answer.

7. Chen's quota is 25,000. What is his quota attainment?

=SUMIFS(E2:E8,B2:B8,"Chen",D2:D8,"Won")/25000

80% (20,000 ÷ 25,000). In a real file, the quota would sit in a table of reps, and you'd fetch it with XLOOKUP instead of typing 25,000.

Lookup and logic questions (8–9)#

Lookup questions ask you to find one value and bring back another. XLOOKUP handles them in Excel 2021 and Microsoft 365. The XLOOKUP function guide shows each argument.

8. Which rep closed the biggest deal?

=XLOOKUP(MAX(E2:E8),E2:E8,B2:B8)

Ana. MAX finds 12,000, and XLOOKUP returns the rep on the same row. Mention the edge case: if two deals tie for the biggest, XLOOKUP returns the first one. In older Excel, =INDEX(B2:B8,MATCH(MAX(E2:E8),E2:E8,0)) does the same.

9. Pay 5% commission on won deals of 10,000 or more and 3% on other won deals. What is the commission on each row?

In F2, fill down:

=IF(D2<>"Won",0,IF(E2>=10000,E2*5%,E2*3%))

D-101 gets 600 (5% of 12,000), D-104 gets 270 (3% of 9,000), and the lost deals get 0. Check the order of the tests: rule out lost deals first, then apply the tiers. In a real model, keep the rates in cells and lock them with $.

A PivotTable question (10)#

10. Show won revenue by region. Answer with a PivotTable: Insert > PivotTable, drag Region to Rows, Amount to Values and Stage to Filters, then pick Won. You get East 20,000, North 18,500 and South 4,500, which add up to the 43,000 from question 1. Matching the two totals is exactly the kind of check worth saying out loud. For more on this topic, see the PivotTable interview questions.

How to prepare for a sales Excel test#

Prepare by typing these formulas, not just reading them. A few habits help:

• Build the deal list yourself and work through all ten questions without looking at the answers.
• Time yourself. Many Excel tests have a time limit, so speed with SUMIFS and COUNTIFS matters.
• Learn the wider set. Review the general Excel interview questions, the scenario-based questions and, for senior roles, the advanced Excel interview questions.
• Know the job. The guide to Excel skills for sales operations shows which skills these roles use day to day.

Not sure where you stand? Take the Excel level test to find your gaps, then try a timed intermediate Excel mock test.

Practise it#

Start with the exercise on this page, then do the sales report interview drill: you build revenue, totals by region, the top order and its rep, and a % of total column, and each answer is checked instantly. Strengthen the two skills behind most answers with the COUNTIFS and SUMIFS lesson and the percentages and % change lesson.