Is this a free Excel test for an accounting interview?

Yes, if you want a free Excel test for accounting interview prep: lessons 1 to 4, including the task on this page, are free and fully usable with no sign-up. They work as a free Excel practice test for accounting basics. Lessons 5 to 14, including the timed mock test, are part of a one-time $9 unlock.

Do I need to sign up?

No. There is no account on this site, and lessons 1 to 4 need nothing at all. Progress is saved only in your browser. If you buy the $9 unlock, Gumroad asks for an email address at checkout and sends the license key there.

Is this the actual test my employer will use?

No. This site is not connected to any employer or test provider and does not use real test questions. It practices the skills those tests often cover, using original exercises and fictional companies and figures.

Excel or Google Sheets?

You do not need either installed: everything runs in your browser. The functions practiced here, such as SUM, SUMIF and IF, work the same way in Excel and Google Sheets for these tasks. Ask the recruiter which one the test uses, and do a few tasks in that program before the day.

Yes. Each exercise is graded instantly against a reference answer, offers a hint, and lets you reveal a correct answer after two wrong attempts. The practice workbook includes answer-key sheets with the working formula for every exercise.

Who wrote this guide?

This guide, the lessons and the exercises were created with AI assistance and checked by automated tests that confirm every reference answer passes and listed wrong answers are caught. See About. The site is not affiliated with Microsoft. Excel is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

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Excel test for an accounting interview: free practice with graded formulas

If a recruiter has told you there will be an Excel test as part of an accounting interview, this guide shows what to practice, in what order, and lets you try a real trial-balance task right here. Every exercise linked below is graded in your browser, and a wrong answer gets a correction that names the mistake. Lessons 1 to 4 are free, with no sign-up.

What an accounting Excel test usually looks like

There is no single standard test. Some employers send a short online quiz with multiple-choice questions about functions. Some use a simulated spreadsheet in the browser where you complete one task at a time. Many accounting and finance teams simply hand you a small workbook, often a ledger, a list of journal lines or an invoice list, and ask you to write formulas that total, summarise or reconcile it within a time limit. Sometimes someone watches you work; sometimes it is a take-home file.

Because the format varies, the most useful thing you can do first is ask the recruiter which kind of test it is, how long it takes and whether you will use Excel itself or a browser tool. It is a normal question to ask. Whatever the answer, the skills underneath tend to repeat: totals, locked references, running balances, conditional totals with SUMIF, lookups, simple logic with IF, dates, and clean rounding. This site is not an official employer test and does not use real test questions; it practices those underlying skills with original exercises and invented data.

Try one now: a free SUMIF trial-balance task

This is task 1 of lesson 4, SUMIF trial balance. It is a useful warm-up because it checks three things at once: whether you know SUMIF, whether you lock the right references, and whether you understand debits. Click into the formula bar, type your formula and press Enter. The grid fills it down to G8 and checks every cell.

Free exercise · Lesson 4, task 1

Copperleaf Design Co. posted the journal lines in A2:D13. In G2, total the debits for the account in F2, then fill to G8.

Finished it? The full lesson continues with the credit column and a balance check: open lesson 4 (free).

The skill map: what to practice, in order

The free lessons build on each other. Each step below uses the one before it, so working through them in order is the quickest route.

Totals and averages on a cash ledger (free). SUM, AVERAGE and MAX over the right range, without catching the total row. Lesson 1: SUM, AVERAGE and MAX on a cash ledger.
Absolute references (free). Locking a tax rate or commission rate with $ so a formula survives being filled down. Most fill-down errors come from this one idea. Lesson 2: Absolute references.
Running balances with debits and credits (free). A balance that points at the row above, plus the difference between an asset account and a liability account. Ends with an IF that flags an overdrawn balance. Lesson 3: Running balances with debits and credits.
SUMIF trial balance (free). Total debits and credits by account from journal lines, then check that the two columns agree. Lesson 4: SUMIF trial balance.
Next steps (part of the $9 unlock). Once the four free lessons feel easy, the common next topics are lookups against a chart of accounts (lesson 5: VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP), aging receivables with dates and nested IF (lesson 6: AR aging) and matching a bank statement to the books (lesson 7: bank reconciliation). Their explanations and worked examples are free to read; their interactive exercises are part of the paid unlock.

See all lessons for the full list, including SUMIFS, depreciation, INDEX and MATCH, cleaning exports, loan payments and a timed mock test.

Two wrong answers, and what the checker says

Getting the first cell right is not the same as passing. Here are two mistakes that are easy to make under time pressure, with the exact feedback this site's checker gives for them on the task above.

1. Filling down without $

Suppose you type =SUMIF(B2:B13,F2,C2:C13) in G2. Cash comes out right, so it looks finished. But when the formula is filled down, both journal ranges slide one row per row: by G8 the range has moved to B8:B19 and misses the rent entry in row 4. The checker answers:

"Your first cell (G2) is right, but G8 goes wrong once the formula is filled down. A reference that should stay fixed is moving: lock it with $ (press F4 on the reference). The journal ranges B2:B13 and C2:C13 need $; F2 does not."

Notice that the error hides until the last row. On a real test, a reviewer will often check the bottom of a column for exactly this reason. The fix is =SUMIF($B$2:$B$13,F2,$C$2:$C$13): lock the journal ranges and leave the criterion F2 relative, so each row picks up its own account. Lessons 2 and 3 drill the same idea from both directions: one asks you to lock a rate, the other asks you not to lock the balance above.

2. SUMIF criteria without quotes

If you type the account name straight into the criterion, as in =SUMIF($B$2:$B$13,Cash,$C$2:$C$13), Excel treats Cash as a name it does not know. The checker answers:

"Your formula returns #NAME?. Usually that is text without double quotes ("Cash") or a misspelt name."

Adding the quotes, "Cash", gives the right number in G2, but it still is not the answer this task wants. The checker then says: "You typed the account name. Point at F2 instead so the same formula works for every account when filled down." The same quoting rule applies to comparisons. In the SUMIFS lesson, a COUNTIFS criterion written as >500 without quotes gets: "Put the comparison inside quotes: ">500"."

Excel practice test for accounting: a one-week plan

If your interview is about a week away, here is one way to split the work. Days 1 and 2 use only the free lessons.

Day 1: lesson 1 and lesson 2 (totals and absolute references).
Day 2: lesson 3 (running balances and IF) and lesson 4 (SUMIF trial balance).
Day 3: lesson 5 (lookups) and lesson 11 (INDEX and MATCH).
Day 4: lesson 9 (SUMIFS summaries with mixed references).
Day 5: lesson 6 and lesson 7 (aging and bank reconciliation).
Day 6: lesson 8, lesson 10 and lesson 13 (depreciation, prepaids, loans) and lesson 12 (cleaning exports).
Day 7: redo every exercise you needed a hint for, without the hint, then take the timed mock test if you have access to it.

If you only have one evening, do the four free lessons in order. They cover the fill-down and SUMIF habits that most of the later topics depend on.

How to work during the test

Write formulas, not results. A number typed by hand cannot be checked and will not update. This site rejects a correct number typed without a formula for the same reason.
Write one formula and fill it. One formula filled down a column is easier to review than a different formula in every row, and it is faster.
Check the last row, not just the first. As the first example shows, an unlocked range often goes wrong only near the bottom.
Prove the totals. A trial balance should balance. Add a quick check cell that compares total debits and total credits, as lesson 4 does in its last task.
Follow the normal balance. Assets increase with debits; liabilities and revenue increase with credits. Lesson 3 practices both directions.
Round to the cent when amounts are divided. Unrounded monthly amounts leave penny differences that reviewers notice.

Excel test for accountants with answers: how the checking works

Every exercise on this site has a reference answer. When you press Enter, your formula is calculated against the sample data, filled across the marked cells if the task says so, and each resulting cell must match the reference result to the cent. Common wrong answers have their own written corrections, like the two above. A hint is always one click away, and after two wrong attempts you can reveal one correct answer, though you still type it yourself to complete the exercise.

The grid is a practice tool, not Microsoft Excel. It supports the functions used in the lessons and follows Excel's rules for them, with commas between arguments as in US versions of Excel. If you prefer to practice in Excel itself, the downloadable practice workbook (below) has a practice sheet and an answer-key sheet for each lesson.

After the free lessons

When lessons 1 to 4 feel easy, lessons 5 to 14 add lookups, AR aging, bank reconciliation, depreciation, SUMIFS, prepaids, INDEX/MATCH, cleaning exports, loan payments and a timed mock test. Their 36 interactive exercises unlock with one $9 Gumroad purchase, All 14 lessons + the practice workbook (license key), which also includes the Excel practice workbook (.xlsx) with a practice sheet and an answer-key sheet for every lesson.

Unlock lessons 5 to 14 + the workbook, $9

Not ready to pay? The free sample workbook is pay what you want, from $0: 3 lessons (1, 2 and 4), 9 exercises, answer keys with formulas. What's included.

Questions

Is this a free Excel test for an accounting interview?: Yes, if you want a free Excel test for accounting interview prep: lessons 1 to 4, including the task on this page, are free and fully usable with no sign-up. They work as a free Excel practice test for accounting basics. Lessons 5 to 14, including the timed mock test, are part of a one-time $9 unlock.
Do I need to sign up?: No. There is no account on this site, and lessons 1 to 4 need nothing at all. Progress is saved only in your browser. If you buy the $9 unlock, Gumroad asks for an email address at checkout and sends the license key there.
Is this the actual test my employer will use?: No. This site is not connected to any employer or test provider and does not use real test questions. It practices the skills those tests often cover, using original exercises and fictional companies and figures.
Excel or Google Sheets?: You do not need either installed: everything runs in your browser. The functions practiced here, such as SUM, SUMIF and IF, work the same way in Excel and Google Sheets for these tasks. Ask the recruiter which one the test uses, and do a few tasks in that program before the day.
Are there answers?: Yes. Each exercise is graded instantly against a reference answer, offers a hint, and lets you reveal a correct answer after two wrong attempts. The practice workbook includes answer-key sheets with the working formula for every exercise.
Who wrote this guide?: This guide, the lessons and the exercises were created with AI assistance and checked by automated tests that confirm every reference answer passes and listed wrong answers are caught. See About. The site is not affiliated with Microsoft. Excel is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

All company names, accounts and figures in the exercises are fictional sample data. This guide was written with AI assistance. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft or any test provider.