Ladies and gentlemen, time to start your spreadsheets, fine-tune those formulas 3 Crazy Excel Formulas That Do Amazing Things 3 Crazy Excel Formulas That Do Amazing Things Conditional formatting formulas in Microsoft Excel can do amazing things. Here are some Excel formula productivity hacks. Read More That's right:the world's favorite spreadsheet software now has a competition sponsored by Microsoft, complete with a grand prize for the overall winner.
Participants in the Excel World Championship will be tested in several key areas of Excel. They will be vying for “a trip to Seattle, USA and a meeting with Excel Product Leads to provide feedback on the following features added to Excel.” And of course, the title of “Excel World Champion” will be awarded to the final winner. Add that to your letterhead!
Courageous competitors must display exceptional skills in the following areas:
As expected with a competition, it won't be easy. Competitors will be notified when a test spreadsheet is activated. Those who compete must download the test, complete it, and return it to the email address provided at the time (“Details on where to send your workbook will be provided with the test.”).
Competitors will be graded based on their performance in the aforementioned areas. The weighting for those areas is as follows:Data Relays (35%), Chart Gymnastics (30%, Community Driven), Formula Wrestling (35%).
“Community-driven” refers to the Excel technology community. Competitors will upload their gymnastics gyms to a public area and receive votes. This seems like an interesting idea for a competition. Since this will be a public vote, I'm sure it will be susceptible to the same “hive mind” social influence bias How Upvote Systems Have Damaged Online Communities How Upvote Systems Have Damaged Online Communities Read more than we see in other open voting systems.
If your interest has been motivated enough, make a note of the start and end dates of the competition.
The first two rounds are open to everyone. After the second round, all entries will be judged based on the criteria detailed in the next section.
All entries will be reviewed at the end of each round. The following criteria will be used to select the winners:
After the second round, the Top 20 highest scoring entries will progress After the third round, the Top 3 highest scoring entries will progress The fourth round will see the highest scoring entry declared excel world champion.
The competition will be held under the banner of the Excel World Championship, but there are entry restrictions for several countries:
Residents of those countries can find information on how to enter by following this link.
Otherwise, you will be proving your worth in the international group. Whether or not this increases competition remains to be seen. I imagine the bar will be quite high!
The first trial book can be downloaded via this link.
Here are my immediate impressions:Power Query and Power Pivot will definitely be your friends on the first task. However, some users have reported difficulties using those tools within the protected workbook. This means that in order to complete the test, you will have to come up with a solution.
The second task tests your graphic skills. The data provided should give you ample opportunity to show off your prowess. That said, if you're stuck on an aesthetic, why not look at the existing submissions (scroll down to comments) for inspiration?
Warning - Increase the ones you find interesting and display the data accurately. This section considers the opinion of the community as well..
The final section requires you to answer a series of questions using formulas. The questions should be relatively easy, especially for those using the built-in features offered in Excel 2016. Remember, judges want the right answer, but they also want a nice, efficient formula. You will lose points if your formula is complicated or too complicated. Keep it simple!
Do you have what it takes to become the first Excel World Champion? Microsoft proporciona regularmente patrocinio para otras competiciones. Proporcionan un escenario saludable para el desarrollo tecnológico y permiten a Microsoft la primera mirada a algo innovador. Lo más importante es que les dan a los competidores la oportunidad de ilustrar su experiencia en cualquier área, con la posibilidad de ganar premios emocionantes..
Y seamos sinceros, a todos les encanta un premio emocionante..
¿Crees que tienes lo que se necesita? ¿Crees que el nivel de experiencia será demasiado alto? ¿Qué competiciones patrocinadas por Microsoft le gustaría ver a continuación? Let us know your thoughts below!
