Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.
About Infosys hiring for Advanced Excel roles
Infosys is an Indian multinational IT services and consulting company offering digital transformation, cloud, application management, testing and data services to global clients. It is known for its Mysuru training campus where new hires go through foundation programmes. In India it recruits for roles such as systems engineer, test engineer, data analyst and data engineer, often through campus and off-campus drives.
For Advanced Excel roles, this Infosys practice set focuses most on Excel Fundamentals and Formatting (5), Charts and Dashboards (4), Macros and VBA Automation (4), Pivot Tables and Data Summaries (4). It has 13 easy, 15 medium, 2 hard questions, so you can start easy and work up to the harder ones.
Typical pattern based on public candidate experiences. Rounds vary by role, team and year.
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A histogram groups numeric values into bins and shows how often each bin occurs, for example how many orders fall between 0 to 1,000 rupees or 1,000 to 5,000 rupees. A Pareto chart sorts categories by frequency and adds a cumulative percentage line, showing the vital few, such as the 20 percent of complaint types causing 80 percent of complaints. Both are available under Insert > Statistic Charts.
Recorded macros use lines like Range("A1").Select followed by Selection.Copy, which are slow, flicker the screen and break if the user clicks another sheet while the macro runs. Refer to objects directly instead: Worksheets("Data").Range("A1:D100").Copy Worksheets("Report").Range("A1"). Fully qualifying the workbook and worksheet, often with a With block, makes the code faster and predictable.
03
What is the difference between Flash Fill and Text to Columns?
Text to Columns splits a column by a fixed delimiter or fixed width in one go, which suits clean data like comma-separated codes. Flash Fill (Ctrl+E) learns a pattern from one or two examples you type, such as extracting first names or formatting phone numbers. Both produce static values, so if the source changes you must redo them, unlike formulas or Power Query steps.
04
Tell me about a time your automation failed after you handed it over. What did you do?
Situation: a report macro I wrote stopped working for the accounts team. Task: fix it quickly and stop it happening again. Action: I found that a sheet had been renamed and the macro used a fixed sheet name and file path. I fixed it with ThisWorkbook.Path and code names, added an error handler with a clear message, and wrote a short usage note. Result: it ran reliably for the rest of the year and I now test macros on another user's machine before handover.
05
What is the difference between Summarize Values By and Show Values As?
Summarize Values By chooses the calculation, such as Sum, Count, Average, Max or Min. Show Values As changes how that result is presented, for example % of Grand Total, % of Column Total, % of Parent Row Total, Running Total In, Difference From or Rank Largest to Smallest. Adding the same field twice, once as Sum and once as % of Grand Total, shows the amount and the share side by side.
06
An IF formula says 100 is not equal to 100. Why might that happen?
Usually one value is text and the other is a number, so =A2=B2 returns FALSE even though both show 100. Other causes are hidden spaces, or floating-point results like 99.9999999 that display as 100 because of formatting. Check with ISTEXT, LEN and by widening decimals. Fix with VALUE or TRIM on the text side, or compare with ROUND(A2,2)=ROUND(B2,2) for calculated numbers.
07
You need to find and remove duplicate customer records but keep the original data safe. How do you do it?
First highlight duplicates with Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values to review them. Then work on a copy of the sheet and use Data > Remove Duplicates, selecting the key columns such as Mobile and Email. In Microsoft 365 a non-destructive option is =UNIQUE(A2:C500) on a new sheet. Always record how many rows were removed so the change can be explained later.
08
How do you highlight an entire row when the Status column says Overdue?
Select the full data range, for example A2:H500, then Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule > Use a formula. Enter:
=$F2="Overdue"
Choose a fill colour and click OK. The dollar before F locks the column, while the relative row 2 lets the rule move down row by row, so every column in that row gets coloured when column F matches.
09
Extract the first and last name from a full name like Rahul Kumar Sharma.
Classic formulas:
First: =LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1)
Last: =TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",REPT(" ",100)),100))
In Microsoft 365 it is simpler:
First: =TEXTBEFORE(A2," ")
Last: =TEXTAFTER(A2," ",-1)
The -1 tells TEXTAFTER to use the last space, which handles middle names. Run TRIM on the source first to remove double spaces.
10
What is the difference between nested IF and IFS? Show an example.
Nested IF places one IF inside another, which becomes hard to read after three levels. IFS (Excel 2019 and later) tests conditions in order and returns the value for the first true one:
=IFS(B2>=90,"A",B2>=75,"B",B2>=60,"C",TRUE,"Fail")
The final TRUE acts as the else part. For many bands, a lookup table with XLOOKUP approximate match is easier to maintain than either.
11
How do you create a chart that automatically shows the last 12 months as new data is added?
Create named ranges with INDEX so they move with the data, assuming dates in column A from row 2:
LastRow: =COUNTA(Data!$A:$A)
ChartDates: =INDEX(Data!$A:$A,LastRow-11):INDEX(Data!$A:$A,LastRow)
ChartSales: =INDEX(Data!$B:$B,LastRow-11):INDEX(Data!$B:$B,LastRow)
Then edit the chart series to =Book1.xlsx!ChartSales and the axis to ChartDates. A Table-based chart grows automatically but shows all months, not a rolling window.
12
What are Applied Steps and the M language in Power Query?
Each transformation you click, like removing columns or changing types, is saved as a step in the Applied Steps pane, and the steps run in order on every refresh. Behind them is M, a functional formula language visible in the Advanced Editor. You can rename steps, delete or reorder them, and edit M directly for logic the interface does not provide, such as custom functions or dynamic column lists.
13
What is a macro and what file format is needed to save it?
A macro is a recorded or written set of instructions in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) that automates repeated tasks, such as formatting a report or exporting PDFs. Normal .xlsx files cannot store macros, so the workbook must be saved as .xlsm (macro-enabled) or .xlsb. Macros can be run from the Developer tab, a button, a keyboard shortcut or automatically through events.
14
How do you look up a value using multiple criteria, such as Employee ID and Month?
In Microsoft 365, multiply logical tests so only the row matching all conditions becomes 1:
=XLOOKUP(1,(Pay[EmpID]=A2)*(Pay[Month]=B2),Pay[Salary],"Not found")
In older Excel use INDEX/MATCH entered as an array formula (Ctrl+Shift+Enter):
=INDEX(Pay[Salary],MATCH(1,(Pay[EmpID]=A2)*(Pay[Month]=B2),0))
For very large data a helper column joining ID and Month is faster.
15
How do you use approximate match to apply discount or tax slabs?
Create a slab table with the lower limit of each band in ascending order and the rate next to it. Approximate match returns the row for the largest limit not greater than the value:
=VLOOKUP(B2,Slabs!$A$2:$B$6,2,TRUE)
=XLOOKUP(B2,Slabs[From],Slabs[Rate],,-1)
If B2 is 7.5 lakh and the bands start at 0, 3, 7 and 10 lakh, the 7 lakh row is returned. Unsorted data gives wrong results silently.
The Data Model is an in-memory database inside the workbook, powered by the VertiPaq engine, which compresses data by column and can handle millions of rows, far beyond the sheet limit. Power Pivot is the window used to manage it: import tables, create relationships, and write DAX measures and calculated columns. Pivot tables built on the Data Model can combine several related tables without VLOOKUP.
17
List the steps to build a sales and margin percentage combo chart.
Select the Month, Sales and Margin % columns and go to Insert > Recommended Charts > All Charts > Combo. Set Sales to Clustered Column and Margin % to Line with Markers, ticking Secondary Axis for Margin %. Add axis titles, format the secondary axis as 0%, add data labels only to the line if needed, and remove gridline clutter. Give it a title that states the insight, such as Margin fell while sales grew.
A named range gives a meaningful name, such as GST_Rate or Target_FY26, to a cell, range or constant. Formulas like =Amount*GST_Rate are easier to read and audit than =B2*$Z$1. Names are managed in Formulas > Name Manager and can be scoped to the workbook or a single sheet. They also work as navigation targets in the Name Box and as Data Validation sources.
19
What is the difference between relative, absolute and mixed cell references?
A relative reference like A1 shifts when a formula is copied, an absolute reference like $A$1 never shifts, and a mixed reference like $A1 or A$1 locks only the column or only the row. In a multiplication grid, =$A2*B$1 copied across and down keeps the header column and header row fixed. Press F4 while editing a reference to cycle through the four forms.
In Microsoft 365:
=COUNTA(UNIQUE(A2:A500))
=ROWS(UNIQUE(FILTER(A2:A500,A2:A500<>""))) ignores blanks
In older versions:
=SUMPRODUCT((A2:A500<>"")/COUNTIF(A2:A500,A2:A500&""))
The older formula slows down on large ranges, so for big data use a pivot table with Distinct Count via the Data Model.
Double-click any value cell and Excel creates a new sheet listing every source row that makes up that number. This drill-down is very useful for checking totals or answering a manager's why question. If the file is shared and you do not want people extracting raw data, untick Enable show details in PivotTable Options > Data, though this is not a strong security control.
22
How do you group dates and numbers in a pivot, and why does grouping sometimes fail?
Right-click a date in Rows and choose Group to group by days, months, quarters or years; for numbers, group by a range such as 0 to 100000 in steps of 10000 to create sales bands. Grouping fails with the message Cannot group that selection when the column contains blanks, text values or dates stored as text. Clean the source column, refresh, and grouping works.
23
What is the difference between Reference and Duplicate in Power Query?
Duplicate copies all steps of a query into an independent new query, so changes to the original do not affect it. Reference creates a new query whose source is the output of the original, so it inherits any future changes. Use Reference to build several outputs from one cleaned staging query, such as a monthly summary and a customer list, so the cleaning logic lives in one place.
24
How do form controls like dropdowns, check boxes and scroll bars make a dashboard interactive?
Form controls are added from the Developer tab > Insert. Each control writes a value into a linked cell: a combo box writes the position of the selected item, a check box writes TRUE or FALSE, and a scroll bar writes a number within a set range. Formulas such as INDEX, CHOOSE or FILTER read that cell to change the chart data, so the dashboard reacts without any macros.
25
What are VBA events? Give an example of Worksheet_Change.
Events run code automatically when something happens, such as opening a workbook (Workbook_Open) or editing a cell (Worksheet_Change). In the sheet module:
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
If Not Intersect(Target, Me.Range("F:F")) Is Nothing Then
Application.EnableEvents = False
Target.Offset(0, 1).Value = Now
Application.EnableEvents = True
End If
End Sub
This timestamps column G when status in F changes.
26
A report exported from PDF repeats the header row on every page and has page-footer lines. How do you clean it?
Use Get Data > From PDF or import the converted file, then promote the first row to headers. Filter out rows where the first column equals the header text, such as Name, and rows containing footer text like Page or Printed on, using Text Filters > Does Not Contain. Remove blank rows, Fill Down any group labels, and set types. The steps then run automatically on next month's PDF.
27
Your team wants lookups to show Not Found instead of #N/A for missing codes, without hiding genuine formula errors. How do you do it?
Use a function that only handles missing values, not every error:
=XLOOKUP(A2, Codes[Code], Codes[Price], "Not Found")
or =IFNA(VLOOKUP(A2, Codes, 2, FALSE), "Not Found").
Avoid IFERROR here, because it also hides #REF! or #VALUE! caused by broken ranges. Add =COUNTIF(D:D, "Not Found") at the top so missing codes are counted and followed up.
28
Describe a time you taught colleagues to use pivot tables.
Situation: three teammates built monthly summaries by filtering and copying data by hand. Task: my lead asked me to help them speed up. Action: I ran two short sessions using our own sales data, showing how to create a pivot, group dates, add slicers and refresh after new rows, and shared a one-page guide. Result: within a month each of them produced their summary in minutes, and fewer copy-paste errors reached the manager.
29
Tell me about a time data from two teams did not match. How did you resolve it?
Situation: finance and sales reported different revenue for the same quarter. Task: find the gap before the review meeting. Action: I pulled both datasets, built a key on invoice number, and used lookups to list invoices present in only one file. Most of the gap came from credit notes that sales did not deduct and invoices booked on the last day. Result: both teams agreed a single definition and I added a reconciliation tab to the monthly pack.
DIVIDE handles division by zero safely and returns blank, or a value you choose, instead of an error:
Margin % := DIVIDE([Total Profit],[Total Sales])
Margin % := DIVIDE([Total Profit],[Total Sales],0)
Blank results are hidden in pivots, which keeps reports clean when a product has no sales in a month. Use the / operator only when the denominator can never be zero, because it is slightly faster.
Tips to crack the Infosys Advanced Excel interview
Practise pseudocode output questions and puzzle-style reasoning, which commonly appear in Infosys online tests and HackWithInfy style contests.
Revise SQL joins, normalisation and one programming language well enough to write and explain simple programs on paper.
Mention willingness to learn new technologies and relocate, since Infosys emphasises its training programme and flexible project allocation.
Keep a one-minute story ready for every project on your CV: problem, your part, tools, result.
Practise the hard questions on this page aloud; Infosys interviewers usually ask follow-ups on your first answer.
Frequently asked questions
How many rounds are there in the Infosys Advanced Excel interview?
Candidates usually go through 4 stages: Online assessment (aptitude, reasoning + pseudocode); Coding test; Technical interview; HR round. The exact rounds change with the role, team, location and your experience, so confirm the process with the recruiter.
Which topics should I prepare for the Infosys Advanced Excel interview?
This practice set leans on Excel Fundamentals and Formatting (5), Charts and Dashboards (4), Macros and VBA Automation (4), Pivot Tables and Data Summaries (4). Revise those first, then practise explaining one or two of your own projects end to end, because most Infosys interviewers ask you to walk through real work.
Are these the exact questions asked at Infosys?
No. These are curated practice questions that match the skills and difficulty usually tested in it services interviews like Infosys's. They are not a leaked or verified list of past questions.
Where does Infosys hire Advanced Excel professionals in India?
Infosys has large teams in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai. Openings and locations change often, so check the Infosys careers page and filter by city and experience.