Somewhere between "application received" and "offer", many jobs now put an Excel test. It helps to know how those screens work before you sit one: where they come in the process, what the employer receives, and why preparing from an answer key backfires. The free test below is a dress rehearsal on the same skills, and the result goes to nobody but you.
Free · nothing to install · your level when you finish
At the application. Some listings ask for a skills test before a human reads your CV, common on high-volume roles such as admin, data entry and operations. It's a filter: quick, unforgiving, and sometimes the only gate your application faces.
Before the interview. The usual slot: your CV got through, and a link from a testing vendor arrives with a deadline. Recruiters use the score to decide who gets interview time, so this is where an hour of preparation is worth the most.
As the final check. Late-stage tests, usually a live or take-home exercise, confirm what earlier rounds assumed. By then the bar is specific to the role, and fluency matters more than breadth.
Most screens come from a handful of testing vendors, either as a multiple-choice quiz or as a simulation where you perform tasks in a mock spreadsheet. The guide to the employer tests lists who runs which format and how long each takes. If you were expecting the Indeed test, it has been retired.
What the employer gets back is a summary, such as a score, a band or a ranking against other applicants, not your working. A borderline result gives them nothing to weigh in your favour, so the skills themselves are the only thing on the table.
Nobody can promise you a pass: question banks rotate, pass marks are hidden, and formats vary. What doesn't change is the small set of skills the tests sample, and those can be built in days rather than months.
Employment screens sample the same handful of skills this test does. Find the weak ones while fixing them is still your own business.
Take the free Excel test