18. Interview Questions Asked in MNC Interviews
18.5 EY
M35. Which Excel functions do you use most often for data analysis?
Reported for: EY [S6] · also Mu Sigma [S7], Wipro [S14]
SUMIFS/COUNTIFS/AVERAGEIFS for conditional aggregation; XLOOKUP or INDEX-MATCH for lookups; IF/IFS with AND/OR for logic; TEXT, TRIM, LEFT/MID and TEXTBEFORE/TEXTAFTER for cleaning; DATE, EOMONTH and NETWORKDAYS for dates; UNIQUE/FILTER/SORT in Microsoft 365; IFERROR/IFNA; plus PivotTables. I would name the ones I actually used in my project and give one example.
M36. VLOOKUP vs INDEX-MATCH vs XLOOKUP – which is better and why?
Reported for: EY [S6] · also Amazon [S8]
XLOOKUP (Microsoft 365 / Excel 2021+) is the most flexible: separate lookup/return ranges, left lookups, exact match by default, built-in "not found" value, search from last, and multiple return columns. INDEX-MATCH has most of these advantages and works in every version. VLOOKUP is the simplest but most fragile. "Better" depends on who uses the file: XLOOKUP in Microsoft 365 teams, INDEX-MATCH when older versions must open the workbook.
M37. Show how you would analyse sales or profit trends with a PivotTable.
Reported for: EY [S6]
Order Date in Rows grouped by Months (and Years), Sales and Profit in Values, a second Sales field shown as % Difference From previous month, a City slicer, and a PivotChart line. For our data, grouping by day in October 2026 shows the Diwali week spike clearly.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
To the question "Which is better – VLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH or XLOOKUP?", many students just say "XLOOKUP" and stop. Always answer with context: XLOOKUP if the team is on Microsoft 365, INDEX-MATCH if there are older versions. Interviewers like exactly this kind of balanced answer.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – मराठी
"Which is better – VLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH or XLOOKUP?" या प्रश्नाला बरेच students फक्त "XLOOKUP" म्हणून थांबतात. उत्तर नेहमी context (संदर्भ) सोबत द्या: Microsoft 365 team असेल तर XLOOKUP, जुनी versions असतील तर INDEX-MATCH. हेच balanced उत्तर interviewer ला आवडतं.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – हिंदी
"Which is better – VLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH or XLOOKUP?" इस सवाल पर बहुत से students सिर्फ़ "XLOOKUP" कहकर रुक जाते हैं. जवाब हमेशा context (संदर्भ) के साथ दो: team Microsoft 365 पर हो तो XLOOKUP, पुराने versions हों तो INDEX-MATCH. यही balanced जवाब interviewer को पसंद आता है.