MS Excel Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: The chart updates automatically

A chart is linked to its source range, so changing a value redraws the chart immediately. That link is the reason charts are built from ranges rather than from typed figures. The limit worth knowing is that the link is to a fixed range, so data added beyond it is not picked up. A chart built on A1:B12 ignores a thirteenth row. Building it on an Excel Table instead solves this, since the table expands as rows are added and the chart follows - the standard remedy for a chart that stops reflecting the data. The source can be adjusted afterwards from Select Data, or by dragging the coloured outline that appears around the range when the chart is selected. Two related details: hidden rows are excluded from a chart by default, which can be changed in Select Data; and pasting a chart into Word offers either a link to the workbook or a static copy, and the choice matters when the report is sent on.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Recognises a pattern from your examples and completes the rest of a column

Flash Fill watches the pattern in what you type and fills the rest of the column to match. Typing the first name from a column of full names, then beginning the second, prompts it to complete every remaining row. It is triggered with Ctrl + E or accepted from the suggestion that appears. It handles splitting, joining, reformatting and case changes without a formula - extracting a domain from an email address, reformatting a phone number, or building initials from names. Its limits are worth knowing. It produces static values, not formulas, so the result does not update when the source changes. It infers the rule from very few examples and can guess wrongly on irregular data, which needs checking. And it works down a column adjacent to the source, not across arbitrary ranges. Where a live result is needed, Text to Columns or text functions such as LEFT, MID and FIND are the alternatives.

Answer: A

Correct answer: You can type text directly into a PowerPoint slide but typing in text box is convenient

Text cannot be typed straight onto a slide: it always goes into a placeholder or a text box, even when the box is created automatically by the layout. The other three statements are all true.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Insert a new text box and select Insert >> slide Number

The slide number is a field, and a field must sit in a text box or placeholder. So a box is created first and the number inserted into it; the number then updates as slides are added or reordered.

Answer: D

Correct answer: None of above

The true order is: negation, then percent, then exponentiation, then multiplication and division, then addition and subtraction, then comparison. Each of the three orders offered puts at least one of these in the wrong place.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Multiplies corresponding items in the given arrays and adds the products

SUMPRODUCT multiplies corresponding elements of two or more ranges and adds the results. =SUMPRODUCT(A1:A10,B1:B10) is the standard way to total quantity times price without a helper column. Its wider usefulness comes from a second property: it handles arrays without needing Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Because a logical test returns TRUE or FALSE, which behave as 1 and 0 in arithmetic, conditions can be embedded directly. =SUMPRODUCT((A1:A10="Delhi")*(B1:B10>100)) counts rows meeting both conditions, and multiplying by a third range totals them. That made it the standard multi-condition tool before COUNTIFS and SUMIFS existed, and it remains more flexible than either, since its conditions can be any expression rather than a criteria string. All ranges must be the same size, or it returns #VALUE!. Text is treated as zero, which is why an unexpected zero usually means a column of numbers stored as text.