In this guide: what it is · exam facts · how it works · skills measured · study plan · practice exam · are you ready?
What the MO-210 certification is
MO-210 is the exam for the Microsoft Office Specialist: Excel Associate certification for Excel in Microsoft 365. It shows you can work with Excel in an office: organize workbooks and worksheets, format data, use tables, write formulas and functions, and build charts. It is useful for administrative, finance, sales and support roles, and as proof on your résumé that your Excel skills are real.
MO-210 exam facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam code | MO-210 |
| Certification | Microsoft Office Specialist: Excel Associate (Microsoft 365) |
| Format | Hands-on tasks inside Excel, grouped into projects; no multiple-choice questions |
| Number of tasks | Not published by Microsoft |
| Duration | 50 minutes |
| Passing score | 700 on a scale of 1 to 1000 |
| Where | At an authorized Certiport test center, or online where available |
| Price | Check with Certiport or your test center |
How the exam works
You do not pick answers on MO-210: you work inside Excel. The exam has several projects, each with a workbook and a list of tasks such as "apply a table style", "calculate the total with a function" or "change the chart type". The system checks the resulting workbook.
- One clock for the whole exam. Fifty minutes for several projects: do not get stuck on one task; flag it and come back.
- Read every task in full. Many ask for a specific detail: an exact cell, a sheet name, a particular style. "Something close" does not count.
MO-210 skills measured: five areas
Microsoft publishes the weight of each area as a range:
| Area | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Manage worksheets and workbooks | 25–30% | Importing data, navigating workbooks, formatting worksheets and workbooks, view and print options, and preparing workbooks to share. |
| Manage data cells and ranges | 25–30% | Filling and pasting data, cell formatting, named ranges, and summarizing data visually with conditional formatting and sparklines. |
| Manage tables and table data | 10–15% | Creating tables, applying styles, adding a total row, sorting and filtering. |
| Perform operations by using formulas and functions | 15–20% | Relative and absolute references, sum, average, count, max and min, decisions with IF and text functions. |
| Manage charts | 15–20% | Creating and modifying charts, changing type, data and elements, and formatting them. |
The first two areas are more than half the exam and are everyday tasks. Check Microsoft's skills outline for the full detail of each area.
MO-210 study plan
Microsoft recommends about 150 hours of hands-on practice with Excel before the exam. The HacksinCodigos course covers the skills in 15 days of about two hours; if you are starting from zero, take one day every two or three days over 4 to 6 weeks, and keep practicing in Excel afterwards.
| Block | Topics | How to practice |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–4 | Workbooks, sheets and cells, fill, copy and paste, cell formatting, organizing and freezing panes | Build a list from scratch and make it print-ready |
| Days 5–9 | Sum, average and count, references, IF, conditions, text and dates | Calculate commissions and totals that copy down without errors |
| Days 10–13 | Lookups, tables, sorting and filtering, conditional formatting and data validation | Turn hundreds of rows into a table with totals and color alerts |
| Days 14–15 | Charts, preparing the workbook and exam strategy | Full timed practice exams |
MO-210 practice exam
The course includes two practice exams made of task-based projects in a browser spreadsheet, like MO-210, with a timer and an explanation for each task. They are in Spanish, with the Spanish Excel function names, because the course is taught in Spanish. See five sample tasks in English on the MO-210 practice exam page.
All tasks are original, written from the skills Microsoft publishes. Be wary of anyone selling "the exam" as a PDF: Microsoft's rules prohibit leaked exam content and candidates who use it risk losing their certification. On a hands-on exam, what counts is being able to do the task.
How to know you are ready
- You finish full practice exams on time, without hints.
- You know more than one way to do each task: from the ribbon, the right-click menu and keyboard shortcuts.
- You read a task and know where the option is without hunting through the ribbon.
The HacksinCodigos Excel course starts from zero and is taught in Spanish, online, from any country.