Quick answer
Employer Excel tests are short, timed and practical: TestGorilla’s Microsoft Excel (General) test is 10 minutes and 16 questions drawn from a bank of 1012; its Advanced test is also 10 minutes and covers VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, PivotTables, conditional formatting, Power Query and macros3; iMocha’s advanced test is 20 minutes and 10 questions5. Indeed has discontinued its own assessments, including the Excel test1, and the old Kenexa “Prove It” tests are now sold by SHL4. You do not need a certification to pass these; you need fluency under time pressure in the features the test names. The MOS exam objectives are a good free syllabus for that practice.
Which Excel tests employers actually use
| Test | Status | Format | What it covers | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indeed Assessments — Excel | Discontinued (“Beginning in October, Indeed is discontinuing self-serve and employer-requested assessments”) | — | — | No longer offered to employers or job seekers |
| TestGorilla — Microsoft Excel (General) | Active | 10 minutes, 16 questions (bank of 101), intermediate | Everyday workplace spreadsheet tasks | Pre-screening for admin, operations, analyst roles |
| TestGorilla — Microsoft Excel (Advanced) | Active | 10 minutes; question count not published | VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, PivotTables, conditional formatting, Power Query, automation and macros | Analyst and finance roles |
| SHL — IBM Kenexa “Prove It” Excel tests | Active via SHL (IBM exited in 2020) | Normal- and Power-user variants; timing not published in the catalogue entry | Editing, developing and creating workbooks (Normal user); advanced tasks (Power user) | Staffing agencies and large employers |
| iMocha — Microsoft Excel Advanced | Active | 20 minutes, 10 questions; MCQ, multi-answer, fill-in, simulations | Expert-level tasks for 3–4 years’ experience | Corporate recruiting |
| In-house tests | Common | Varies; often a workbook exercise rather than multiple choice | Whatever the team uses daily | Finance, accounting, analytics interviews |
How we checked
We read the current pages of each assessment provider and Indeed’s product-update notice. Where a provider does not publish question counts or time limits we say so. We have not taken these tests as candidates; the preparation advice below is our reading of the published formats and of the MOS objective lists, which are the most detailed public description of “what employers mean by Excel skills”.
How to prepare
- Find out which test, and at which level. Ask the recruiter. “Excel test” can mean a 10-minute multiple-choice screen or a longer workbook exercise; the preparation is different.
- Use the MOS objective lists as your syllabus. Microsoft’s MO-210 outline covers worksheets, cells and ranges, tables, common functions and charts; the MO-211 outline adds lookups, IFS/SWITCH/LET, data validation, custom formats, conditional formatting with formulas, PivotTables and macros6. Employer tests draw from the same feature set. See Excel certifications compared for both outlines.
- Practise timed, in Excel, from memory. The tests are short. Set a timer, open a blank workbook and do each objective without looking anything up: a lookup with an exact match, a PivotTable with a slicer, a conditional-format rule with a formula, a data-validation list, a chart with a secondary axis.
- Take a formal practice test only if the format matches. Certiport’s CertPREP practice tests ($40 for one Excel title) mirror the hands-on MOS exam and are good practice for workbook-style employer tests; they are less useful for 10-minute multiple-choice screens.
- Decide whether a certificate is worth adding. It is not needed to pass a test. If the job market you are in values it, the MOS Associate exam is $104 and covers the same ground — see the certifications hub.
How often Excel is asked for
Verified fact
In Lightcast job-posting data analysed by the National Skills Coalition, Microsoft Excel was “the ninth most requested skill, mentioned in more than 4.9 million postings” out of 43 million US postings in 20217. The report does not state a percentage, and we do not derive one; round figures you see elsewhere (“80% of jobs need Excel”) are not from a citable source we could find.
Guides in this section
Frequently asked questions
Does Indeed still have an Excel assessment?
No. Indeed’s product update states that it is discontinuing self-serve and employer-requested assessments; employers will no longer ask candidates to take a skills test through Indeed, and past assessments no longer show on profiles.
How long is a typical Excel test for a job?
Screening tests are short: TestGorilla’s Excel tests are 10 minutes; iMocha’s advanced test is 20 minutes with 10 questions. In-house workbook exercises used in finance and analytics interviews are usually longer.
Do I need an Excel certification to pass an Excel test?
No. Tests measure whether you can do the tasks quickly. A certification can help a résumé, but preparation for the test itself is timed practice in the application.
What is on an advanced Excel test?
TestGorilla’s advanced test names VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, PivotTables, conditional formatting, Power Query and macros. That list overlaps closely with Microsoft’s MO-211 Excel Expert objectives.
Sources
- Product update: Indeed is discontinuing assessments — Indeed Support. Accessed September 3, 2026.
- Microsoft Excel (General) test facts — TestGorilla. Accessed September 3, 2026.
- Microsoft Excel (Advanced) test — TestGorilla. Accessed September 3, 2026.
- SHL partners with IBM for Kenexa Talent Assessments and Microsoft Excel 2019 Whole Test — SHL. Accessed September 3, 2026.
- Microsoft Excel Advanced assessment test — iMocha. Accessed September 3, 2026.
- Exam MO-210 and Exam MO-211 — Microsoft Learn. Accessed September 3, 2026.
- Closing the Digital Skill Divide (PDF), February 2023 — National Skills Coalition, using Lightcast data. Accessed September 3, 2026.
Update log
- Published. Test formats and availability verified against the sources above.