Most people find out how good they are at Excel from someone else's test, usually halfway through a job application. This one is yours to take first. Each item is a small task in a working spreadsheet: write the formula, sort the list, build the summary. When you finish, you see the level you're working at and roughly how many of the skills you already hold.
Free · nothing to install · your level when you finish
Whoever runs it, an Excel assessment draws from the same ladder. At the basic rung: entering and editing data, formatting cells, sorting a list, and
the everyday functions SUM, AVERAGE, MIN and MAX. The intermediate rung is where most employment screens sit:
absolute references, IF logic, conditional counting and summing with COUNTIF and SUMIF, lookups with VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP, and filtering real data. The advanced rung adds pivot tables,
multi-criteria aggregation, and cleaning messy data with text functions.
There's no "choose your level" screen. Keep getting tasks right and they climb; miss a couple and they settle where you are.
Employer Excel tests come in three shapes: multiple-choice quizzes about Excel, simulations where you perform tasks in a mock spreadsheet, and work samples in real Excel. Five you may meet:
Two names you'll still see in older guides are gone. Indeed announced the end of its assessments in October 2024 and phased them out through 2025 (what replaced the Indeed Excel test), and LinkedIn's Skill Assessments ended in 2023–24.
Formats and timings as of October 2026, from vendors' published test information and prep guides. They change, so treat the numbers as typical rather than fixed.
Whichever you face, the preparation is the same. A skill you can perform answers the quiz question, completes the simulated task, and holds up in a live exercise where an interviewer watches you work. That last one has its own interview guide.
Multiple-choice quizzes reward people who have read about Excel and penalise people who use it every day without knowing what each feature is called. Employers have been moving the other way: SHL, eSkill and Criteria's interactive version all test by doing. So this test skips the vocabulary. Every item is a task, and you either complete it or you don't.
What you get is a measure of capability, not a certificate. Your level shows on screen when you finish; a free account opens the full skill map, shows which skills you hold and which are shaky, and picks the lesson to start with. For targeted drills on a single skill, the practice pages each run a graded exercise in the same spreadsheet.
Not in any useful way. Employer tests draw from large rotating banks, simulations mark the work rather than the final answer, and adaptive tests choose the next question from your last one. A memorised answer key prepares you for a test you won't get, and the score it buys falls apart at the next interview. The reliable shortcut is narrower: find your two or three weak skills and drill those.
Mostly the intermediate rung: a lookup, an IF, a conditional sum, a sort or
filter, an absolute reference, and for analyst roles a pivot table. There's a page of realistic practice questions you answer by doing, in a spreadsheet on the page.
There's no universal pass mark. Each employer sets its own bar, and vendors report bands or percentiles rather than pass or fail. You can't aim at a bar you can't see, but you can arrive with the skills every bar is made of.
Take the test above to see where you are, then spend your time on the skills below your level rather than re-reading what you already know. The practice test page lays out a short study plan.
Better to meet a weak spot on your own time than in someone else's test. Start with your level, then spend your preparation where it counts.
Take the free Excel test