18. Interview Questions Asked in MNC Interviews
18.11 Frequently Asked Across MNC Interviews
The questions below appeared in public interview-preparation posts that either did not name a single company, combined several companies without saying which question came from where, or were ambiguous. They are therefore not attributed to any company.
M75. What is the difference between COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK and COUNTIF?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
COUNT counts numbers, COUNTA counts non-empty cells, COUNTBLANK counts empty cells, COUNTIF counts cells meeting one condition (COUNTIFS – several). Example: =COUNTIF(tblOrders[Status],"Cancelled").
M76. How do you find the weekday of a date and use it in analysis?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
=WEEKDAY(B2,2) returns 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday); =TEXT(B2,"dddd") returns the name. Use it to compare weekend vs weekday orders with SUMIFS or a pivot.
M77. How do you highlight values above the average?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
Conditional Formatting › Top/Bottom Rules › Above Average, or a formula rule =$G2>AVERAGE($G$2:$G$500).
M78. What is a mixed reference? Give a practical example.
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
$A2 fixes the column, A$2 fixes the row. In a City × Month grid, =SUMIFS(Amount,City,$A2,Month,B$1) can be copied across and down in one go.
M79. How do you create a drop-down list, and a dependent drop-down?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
Data Validation › List with a Table column or named range. Dependent: name each area list after its city (Pune, Nagpur…) and use =INDIRECT(A2) as the source for the Area cell; in Microsoft 365 you can use a FILTER spill range instead, e.g. =F2#.
M80. What are named ranges and how do you manage them?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
Names for cells or ranges (GST_Rate, Cities), created in the Name Box or Formulas › Define Name and managed in the Name Manager. They make formulas readable and are handy for validation lists and charts.
M81. What are slicers and timelines, and where can they be used?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
Button-style filters for PivotTables, PivotCharts and Tables; timelines filter dates by day, month, quarter or year. Connect them to several pivots through Report Connections.
M82. What are sparklines?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
Tiny charts inside a cell (Insert › Sparklines › Line, Column or Win/Loss) that show a trend per row – e.g. 12-month sales per city next to the totals.
M83. How can you make a report refresh automatically?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
Use Tables and Power Query connections with Refresh data when opening the file or Refresh every n minutes (Query Properties), pivots set to refresh on open, and optionally a Workbook_Open macro that runs ThisWorkbook.RefreshAll. Files on OneDrive/SharePoint can also be refreshed by Power Automate or Office Scripts (depends on licence).
M84. Calculate hours worked and overtime from in and out times.
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
Hours: =MOD(Out-In,1)*24 (MOD handles night shifts). Overtime beyond 9 hours: =MAX(0,Hours-9). Format time cells as hh:mm and the hours as a number.
M85. Why is XLOOKUP preferred over VLOOKUP in newer Excel?
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
It looks in any direction, defaults to exact match, handles "not found" without IFERROR, supports search from the bottom, approximate/wildcard modes and returns whole rows or columns. It needs Microsoft 365 / Excel 2021+.
M86. Explain a macro you created and what it saved.
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
Describe it with STAR: e.g. "I wrote a macro that splits the daily orders into one sheet per city, formats them and saves a PDF for each manager. It loops through the unique cities, uses a dynamic last row and has error handling. It replaced a manual 30-minute task" – only claim time savings you actually measured.
M87. Given a product list on one sheet and a price list on another, bring the price into the first sheet.
Frequently asked across MNC interviews
=VLOOKUP(A2,Prices!$A$2:$B$200,2,FALSE) or =XLOOKUP(A2,tblProducts[Product],tblProducts[Unit Price],"Not found"); then check "Not found"/#N/A items for spelling or space issues.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
Many students look at the company-wise list and memorise only that company's questions. But if you look at the list above, you'll see the same core topics come up everywhere – lookups, pivots, duplicates, missing values, dashboards and a project story. Master the core topics; a company's name only gives your preparation a direction, not a guarantee.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – मराठी
बरेच students company-wise list बघून फक्त त्या company चे प्रश्न पाठ करतात. पण वरची यादी बघितली तर समजेल की सगळीकडे तेच core topics येतात – lookups, pivots, duplicates, missing values, dashboards आणि एक project story. Core topics पक्के करा; company चं नाव फक्त तयारीसाठी दिशा (direction) आहे, guarantee नाही.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – हिंदी
बहुत से students company-wise list देखकर सिर्फ़ उसी company के सवाल रटते हैं. लेकिन ऊपर की list देखोगे तो समझ आएगा कि हर जगह वही core topics आते हैं – lookups, pivots, duplicates, missing values, dashboards और एक project story. Core topics पक्के करो; company का नाम तैयारी के लिए सिर्फ़ दिशा (direction) है, guarantee नहीं.
Thodkyaat sangaycha tar (quick recap)
- Company nav fakt vachlelya source madhe report zala asel tarach; he candidate-reported prashna aahet, official nahit.
- Sarvat jasta vicharle jaanare: VLOOKUP vs INDEX-MATCH/XLOOKUP, PivotTables, duplicates, missing values, dashboards, slow files.
- Pratyek uttarat definition + Blinkit sarkha udaharan + "kadhi vaparnar".
- Project STAR madhe 60 second madhe sanga aani fakt khara kaam sanga.
Aata pudhe jaauya – shortcuts aani function cheat sheet.