Excel and Google Sheets practice, free to start
Practice Excel online and get good at it, one formula at a time
Short, interactive exercises that make Excel easy to learn and easy to remember.
- Formula basics and key terms
- Keyboard shortcuts
- VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP
- IF and SUMIF
- And plenty more
152 exercises. No sign-up needed.
Try it now
Find your way around the grid. Click cells by their address and type in one.
Follow the steps and try it yourself, right in the sheet.
Cells, rows and columns
A spreadsheet is a grid of cells. Columns are named with letters and rows with numbers, so every cell has an address: its column letter, then its row number.
The shaded cell is B3: column B, row 3.
Click Continue when you're ready.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Month | Sales | ||||
| 2 | January | 120 | ||||
| 3 | February | 95 | ||||
| 4 | March | 140 | ||||
| 5 | ||||||
| 6 | ||||||
| 7 | ||||||
| 8 |
+5 points
The fun way to learn Excel
We've all been there. You watch a video on VLOOKUP, nod along, and the moment you need it at work, it's gone. That's not on you. Nobody learns Excel by watching. You learn it by doing it.
That's why PracticeExcel is built around small exercises where you type the formulas yourself in a real spreadsheet. You try, you slip up, you get a hint, and it clicks. It's how most people who are great at Excel learned it: by using it. Here you just get the practice without spending years on the job first.
Excel practice for busy people
You don't need a free afternoon. Each exercise takes a couple of minutes, so you can do one on your lunch break or a few while the coffee brews. You only move on once your formula works, so you know you've got it before the next one. And because the exercises are short, it's easy to practice a little every day, which is what makes formulas stick.
No more boring Excel videos
Videos are fine for seeing how something works, but it's hard to stay focused, and what you watch fades fast. On PracticeExcel you type every formula yourself and practice shortcuts on your own keyboard. The grid behaves like Excel, with F2, F4, Ctrl+Arrow and the rest, so what you learn here works the moment you open Excel at work.
It's actually fun
You earn points for every exercise you solve and keep a streak going by practicing a few days in a row. You start with the easy stuff and work your way up, so you never get lost along the way. Stuck? Cello, our little helper, gives you a hint about what went wrong.
And let's be honest: when you're jumping around a spreadsheet with Ctrl+Arrow and locking references with F4, the person next to you will notice.
Runs in your browser, no Excel needed
There's nothing to install. Everything runs in your browser on Windows, Mac or Chromebook, and you don't even need Excel. Most exercises work in Google Sheets too, so you learn the same skills whichever spreadsheet your job uses.
Get better at your job with Excel
Excel shows up almost everywhere there are numbers: finance and accounting, operations, sales and analysis. When you're good at it, you finish faster, make fewer mistakes, and often become the person coworkers ask when a spreadsheet acts up.
Finish a topic with premium and you get a certificate with your name and a link anyone can check. Add it to your résumé or LinkedIn so an employer can see what you can do.
Start practicing for free
No account needed. Solve your first exercises right away, and create a free account whenever you want to save your progress.
For beginners and experienced users
If you've never written a formula, you start with the basics: finding your way around the grid and writing your first SUM. From there it gets gradually harder with IF, SUMIF, VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, dates and text. And if you already use Excel every day, there's still plenty to dig into, like INDEX and MATCH, FILTER and the shortcuts that make you faster.
Excel exercises by function
Start anywhere. Each topic opens with a free exercise and gets harder from there.
- The gridNew to spreadsheets? Start here. Learn how cells, rows and columns are named, how to select a range and how to type text and numbers, one small step at a time.
- First formulasA formula is how a spreadsheet does the math for you. Write your first ones here, add, multiply and click cells into a formula, with each idea explained before you try it.
- SUMAdd up a column or a range with SUM, the first function everyone learns. These drills cover a single column, several ranges and the AutoSum shortcut.
- AVERAGEFind the mean of a range with AVERAGE, and see how it treats blank cells and text differently from zeros.
- COUNT, COUNTA and COUNTBLANKCount cells: COUNT counts numbers, COUNTA counts anything that is not empty, and COUNTBLANK counts the gaps.
- MIN, MAX and LARGEFind the smallest and largest values in a range, and the second or third largest with LARGE.
- ROUND, ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWNRound numbers to a number of decimals, or to the nearest ten or hundred, and always up or down when the task needs it.
- IFMake a formula choose between two answers with IF: pass or fail, bonus or none, and nested IFs for more than two outcomes.
- AND and ORCombine conditions with AND (all must be true) and OR (one is enough), usually inside IF.
- COUNTIFCount the cells that meet a condition: a text match, a number comparison or a criterion kept in its own cell.
- SUMIFAdd up only the rows that meet a condition, with the condition in the same column or in another one.
- AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFSTake the average of only the rows that meet one condition, or several with AVERAGEIFS, and leave zeros out of an average.
- SUMIFSAdd up rows that meet several conditions at once, such as a region and a minimum amount. Note that the sum range comes first.
- COUNTIFSCount rows that meet several conditions at once, including a number between two limits.
- VLOOKUPLook up a value in the first column of a table and return a value from another column, with an exact or approximate match.
- INDEX and MATCHMATCH finds the position of a value; INDEX returns the value at a position. Together they look up in any direction, also to the left.
- XLOOKUPXLOOKUP replaces VLOOKUP and INDEX/MATCH in Excel 365 and Google Sheets: separate lookup and return ranges, exact match by default and a built-in value for not found.
- IFERRORCatch errors like #N/A and #DIV/0! and show something friendlier with IFERROR.
- Moving and selectingStop scrolling and dragging. Jump to the end of your data, go back to A1 and select whole tables, rows and columns from the keyboard, the way fast Excel users do.
- Editing and fillingEdit a cell without retyping it, fill a formula down a column, add a total in one keystroke and undo your way out of mistakes.
- TRIM, PROPER and UPPERTidy up text that came from somewhere else: strip extra spaces, and fix names and codes typed in the wrong case.
- LEFT, RIGHT and MIDTake a piece out of a text by position: the first characters, the last characters or a run from the middle, such as a prefix or a year inside a code.
- FIND and SEARCHFind where a character sits in a text, then use that position with LEFT, MID and LEN to cut text that has no fixed length, like names and email addresses.
- Joining text with & and TEXTJOINPut text from several cells together into one, with spaces or other separators between the parts, and skip the cells that are empty.
- SUBSTITUTE, TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTERReplace characters inside a text, and split a text at a separator without counting positions yourself.
- Dates and DATEA date in a spreadsheet is a number of days, so you can subtract dates, add days to them and build them from a year, a month and a day.
- EDATE and EOMONTHMove a date by whole months, and find the last or first day of a month, for contract ends, renewals and payment terms.
- NETWORKDAYS, WORKDAY and WEEKDAYCount the working days between two dates, find the date a number of working days ahead, and tell which day of the week a date falls on.
- DATEDIFCount the whole years or months between two dates, the way an age or years of service is counted.
- IFS and SWITCHChoose between more than two outcomes without stacking IF inside IF: IFS for a list of tests, SWITCH for a list of exact values.
- Summary tablesBuild the summary a pivot table gives you, with formulas: totals, counts, averages and shares per group, in a table you can fill down and across.
- Relative and absolute referencesFill one formula down and across without breaking it: lock a cell with $, lock only a row or a column, and build a range that grows as you fill.
- PercentagesThe percentage math that comes up in every office job and Excel test: change from last year, a markup, a discount and the price before VAT.
- SUMPRODUCTMultiply two columns row by row and add up the results in one formula: order totals, weighted averages and sums with conditions written as tests.
- FILTERReturn every row that matches, not just the first: FILTER spills the matching rows into the cells below, with one condition, two conditions or a message when nothing matches.
- SORT and UNIQUESort a table by any column and pull out a list without duplicates, with formulas that update the moment the data changes.
- Week numbers and weekendsNumber the weeks the way calendars in Europe do, tell weekends from weekdays and find the Monday that starts a date's week.
- Loans: PMT and NPERWork out the monthly payment on a loan, how many months it takes to pay one off and how much interest it costs in total.
- Investments: FV, NPV and IRRWhat savings grow to, what future cash flows are worth today and the return an investment makes: the three formulas behind most finance test questions.
Everything you need to get good at Excel
Four ways in, one grid. You can start on any of them right now.
Excel exercises
Short, graded exercises from SUM to XLOOKUP. Each one is a real grid with real data, and you move on when your formula gives the right answer.
Browse all exercisesExcel guides
In-depth guides to lookups, IF formulas, dates, pivot tables and cleaning up data, with exercises to practice what you read.
Read the guidesExcel functions
Syntax, worked examples and common errors for the functions that matter, each with a drill so you actually remember it.
Look up a functionKeyboard shortcuts
Windows and Mac keys for every shortcut worth knowing, with drills in a grid that behaves like Excel.
Learn the shortcutsExcel and Google Sheets
The functions you practice here work the same way in Google Sheets: SUM, IF, SUMIFS, VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP and INDEX/MATCH all behave alike. Most exercises are marked for both, so you practice once and use it in whichever spreadsheet your job runs on.
Start free, upgrade when you need to
Getting started, the keyboard shortcuts and the first exercise in every topic are free, with no account needed. Premium unlocks every exercise, the timed mock tests and certificates for $19 a month, or $4.92 a month on the annual plan. Not for you? Get a 100% refund within 14 days, for any reason.
See pricing →Questions
Can I start if I've never used Excel?
Yes. Start with the topics The grid and First formulas. They show you how to move around and write your first formula, and they're free.
How much time do I need?
An exercise takes a couple of minutes, and a topic has three to six. A topic a day is a realistic pace, and short sessions most days work better than one long one.
Will this help me at work?
Yes. You practice the same functions and the same keyboard shortcuts you use in Excel. Most of it works in Google Sheets too.
What does an exercise look like?
You get a small spreadsheet with data and a task. You type the formula in the answer cell and press Check. If it's wrong, you get a hint, and if you're really stuck, you can see the solution.
Do I need Excel installed?
No. Everything runs in your browser on Windows, Mac or Chromebook.
What's free, and what does premium cost?
The beginner topics, the shortcut trainer, all of SUM, AVERAGE and COUNT, and the first exercise in every other topic are free. Premium unlocks every exercise and certificates for $19 a month or $59 a year.
What if it's not for me?
Email us within 14 days of a payment and you get a 100% refund, for any reason. You can cancel your subscription anytime.
Ready to get good at Excel?
Start with your first exercise now. It's free, and you don't need an account.
Start the first exercise