Gamification 3: Challenges

This is the third post in the Gamification + Excel Training series, and in this post we talk about challenges. One component of our gamification strategy is to encourage competition by hosting challenges. In general, competition is motivating and can help people push themselves to accomplish more. So, it is an element used in our Campus Pass, where our goal is to provide a fun and motivating place to learn Excel.

As you can image, there is almost no limit to the types of Excel competitions we can design. But, in this post, we’ll provide an example of a formula challenge.

The idea is straightforward. You have to write a formula that provides the correct result. Given the vast number of functions available in Excel, there are many ways to write a formula that will provide the correct result. The beauty of formula challenges is that students can see other approaches to the same problem that they may not have considered. The student can then make a mental note of it in case they encounter a real-life workbook where it would be helpful.

For example, let’s say you are preparing an invoice in Excel, which looks a bit like this:

The Prices come from a pricing matrix that looks like this:

Challenge: Write a formula that retrieves the correct Price for each invoice line from the price matrix. You must be able to fill the formula down and it should work for all invoice rows.

If you’d like to give it a try, download the file below:

• Challenge.xlsx

If you’d like to see one possible solution formula, check out the video below:

If you decide to participate, please feel free to copy your formula and paste it as a comment below…thanks!