10 Excel lessons every finance professional can learn from the World Champions
Key takeaways
Strong Excel skills come from using the platform as a problem-solving tool, applying a core set of functions effectively, and knowing how to judge whether an answer makes sense, according to 2025 Excel World Champions Diarmuid Early and Pieter Pienaar.
- Break each problem into smaller steps before deciding which Excel functions or combinations to use.
- AI can suggest formulas and troubleshoot models, but human judgment is still needed to define the question and validate the result.
- Reviewing how other people solve the same task can reveal useful shortcuts, techniques, and modeling approaches.
Excel remains a key technical skill in finance, even as AI changes how we use it. So, what can you learn from the people who’ve taken their Excel skills to the highest level? Diarmuid (Dim) Early and Pieter Pienaar, 2025 World Excel Champions, spoke to CFA Institute’s Rob Langrick about problem-solving, AI, modern Excel, and the habits that set expert users apart. Here are their 10 biggest lessons.
Each year, spectators fill an arena while thousands more tune in online for a sporting event. There's dramatic music, flashing lights, and sponsored jerseys, but not a ball or racket in sight. Instead, the crowd cheers on competitors as they race to solve complex spreadsheet challenges.
Welcome to the Microsoft Excel World Championship finals, where the world's best Excel users compete to be crowned World Champion.
Excel may seem like an unlikely spectator sport, but the championship has turned spreadsheet problem-solving into a high-stakes competition, complete with commentary, a live ESPN stream, and a USD 60,000 prize pot.
For anyone developing their Excel skills for finance, the competition is worth paying attention to. Yes, it tests the technical Excel knowledge used every day in finance. But it also shows how the best Excel users think through problems, try different approaches, and work towards a solution, giving finance professionals plenty to learn from.
That matters even more as AI changes how we use Excel. Despite huge advances in automation, Excel remains an in-demand skill. AI can take care of some of the technical work, but it can’t do everything for you. You still need to know what problem you’re trying to solve, what you’re asking Excel to do, and whether the answer makes sense.
So, what can someone starting out or building a career in finance learn from the world's best Excel users? Here are 10 lessons from 2025 World Champions Dim Early and Pieter Pienaar.
Lesson 1: Think of Excel as a problem-solving tool, not just a spreadsheet app
Excel is far more than just a place to record data or crunch numbers; it’s a tool for thinking through problems. When Excel champion Pienaar has a problem to work through, his instinct is to open a spreadsheet rather than reach for a pen and paper.
Finance professionals could benefit from having a similar mindset. Say, for example, you’re screening an investment universe to find stocks with certain characteristics. You could use Excel as the canvas to do this screen, plugging in market data using an API.
It’s one thing knowing how to build a spreadsheet, but the real skill is knowing how to use it to work towards an answer.
Lesson 2: Don’t memorize formulas, learn how to solve problems
The thought of having to remember hundreds of formulas can feel overwhelming, but both Pienaar and fellow champion Early agree that expanding your Excel skills isn’t about quantity.
“It's not about the wealth of formulas you know, it's about how well you use them,” says Pienaar.
In practice, that means getting comfortable with a core set of functions, such as SUMIF for adding values that meet certain criteria, XLOOKUP for finding information in a table, and IF for returning different results based on whether a condition is met. Free resources such as Excel Dictionary and Miss Excel can help you build that knowledge as you go.
The real skill, though, is knowing how to apply those functions. Start by understanding the problem and breaking it down, then work out how Excel can help you solve it. Which functions do you need? How can you combine them to get to the answer? In finance, that could mean working out how to compare different investment scenarios or pull the right information from a large dataset.
AI can help you find or write a formula, but you still need to know what problem you're trying to solve in the first place. In other words, you need to know what you’re asking Excel to do.
Lesson 3: Learn from the people around you
One of Pienaar’s biggest pieces of advice is to solve a problem first, then study how other people approached the same challenge.
Elite Excel competitors routinely do this to see if they can improve their approach, and finance professionals can do the same. Seeing another solution to the same problem can show you a shortcut or function that you haven’t considered.
Whatever stage of your career you’re at, reviewing the work of colleagues is one of the fastest ways to improve your own thinking and modeling techniques. Don't just copy their approach though. Work out why they made those choices and what you can take into your next project.
Lesson 4: AI can suggest a formula, but you’re the problem solver
AI in Excel can suggest formulas and explain how they work. But as Pienaar puts it, “you are the problem solver.” For finance professionals, that means still being able to define the question, challenge assumptions, and interpret what the results mean.
Having a strong grasp of Excel helps you judge whether what AI suggests makes sense and spot when something doesn't look right. It can help troubleshoot errors in financial models, for example. You could ask why your balance sheet doesn’t balance and ask AI to suggest possible causes and a potential fix, saving hours of manual checking. But you’d still need enough understanding of the model and AI to know if that fix makes sense.
The better you understand Excel, the better placed you are to question what AI gives you rather than simply accept it.
Lesson 5: Stay curious and keep experimenting
Experimentation is key to developing better Excel skills. It’s not about limiting yourself to what you've been taught but rather experimenting with different approaches. This is how Early sees it.
Instead of asking whether something’s possible, he experiments until he finds a way to do it.
AI can be a useful thought partner in this process. If you know what you want to achieve but aren’t sure how to get there, you can ask AI to suggest possible formulas or combinations of functions to try.
For finance professionals, that could be finding a quicker way to analyze a dataset or finding a better way to approach a problem. For someone early on in their career, it could be as simple as asking why a model has been built in a certain way and whether there might be a different way of doing it.
Lesson 6: Spot patterns, then reuse them
Excel champions don’t necessarily know the answer to every problem they encounter. Instead, they build a mental toolbox of approaches they can draw from when they come across a similar problem. Pienaar describes picking up tricks and techniques from other competitors and adding them to his own toolbox.
Finance professionals can do the same. The numbers may change, but you’ll often come across familiar types of problems, whether that’s comparing forecasts or testing different assumptions.
Take “spreading the comps”, for example, which means creating a table of comparable valuation statistics, a task that typically falls to junior team members. Once you understand the process, AI can help speed it up by identifying peers and pulling in the relevant data for that industry.
Over time, you start to recognize patterns. The goal isn’t to memorize every solution; it’s to understand how you previously approached a similar problem so you can draw on that experience next time.
Lesson 7: Make learning your competitive advantage
Pienaar approaches competitions as opportunities to learn rather than simply win. He went from placing 12th to becoming World Champion in four years, and credits much of his success to treating competitions as chances to learn.
The habit of getting better applies to anyone looking to improve their Excel skills. You won’t be expected to know everything Excel can do in your first finance role, for example. What matters is being willing to learn from each problem you solve and each person you work with. And that doesn't stop as your career progresses. There's always another technique or approach to pick up.
Lesson 8: Pay attention to new Excel tools that can help you work smarter
Excel is always evolving, and new features can make it easier to solve problems and build more advanced Excel skills. You don’t need to master every new feature as soon as it appears, but knowing what’s available can help you spot simpler ways to work.
According to Early, features such as LET, LAMBDA, and dynamic arrays are particularly powerful additions. But the bigger lesson is keeping an eye on how tools are changing so that you can spot anything new that may help make your way of working better.
One of the best ways to stay up to date on new Excel features is to keep tabs on the monthly Microsoft blog and follow the YouTube Excel training community.
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Lesson 9: Build Excel skills by practicing under pressure
Pienaar prepares for competitions by practicing in noisy places such as coffee shops. He already has technical knowledge, but he wants to make sure he can apply it when conditions are less than ideal.
As a finance professional, you may not have hundreds of people watching your every move, but you’ll face other pressures such as a tight deadline or a last-minute client request. Practicing your Excel skills until they become familiar can help you work accurately even when the pressure is on.
Lesson 10: Excel remains an essential skill for finance professionals
Excel may have been around for decades, but it’s still a crucial skill for finance professionals. It’s used for everything from valuations and forecasting to scenario testing and consolidating data.
And even though AI can automate some Excel tasks, that doesn't remove the need to understand the tool you're working with. Finance professionals still need to define the problem, know what they're asking Excel to do, and judge whether the answer makes sense.
As both champions point out, Excel continues to evolve, bringing with it new features and ways to solve problems. Keeping your skills up to date can help you work more effectively and keep developing in your role.
Whether you're starting out in finance or looking to take the next step, strong Excel skills can help you stand out, stay relevant, and add value. You don’t need to become an Excel World Champion. The important part is building confidence by practicing, learning from other people, and adding new techniques to your toolbox.
CFA Institute is a proud sponsor of the Microsoft Excel World Championship (MWEC) and the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge (MECC) 2026. For more practical advice on developing your skills, explore our Excel Skills for Finance professionals' hub, which includes articles, learning videos, tips and insights from the world champions.
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