Data Analysis Essentials Using Excel (Udemy.com)
Learn to apply the important concepts and techniques of data analysis using Excel.
Created by: Symon He
Last updated July 2023
Our take
Based on the ratings of 15,982 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in July 2023. No course pays to be reviewed.
This is a 12-hour, 130-lecture Excel course for beginners who want to use the program for analysis. It opens with a jumpstart and a tour of Excel, then covers basic formulas, text and date formats, and a short statistics section. Data handling, pivot tables and charts follow. Four case-study sections come next: cryptocurrency, survey data, the startup market, and a data prep section for the startup data. More than 80,000 students have enrolled. The description says the course is as much about Excel, if not more, than about analysis concepts, and that is a fair summary.
Reviewers mostly praise the teaching. They describe Symon He and Travis Chow as clear and easy to follow, and several like the practice files with model answers and the case studies. One says pivot tables and charts, which they always struggled with, are now something they use at work. The complaints are mild. Two three-star reviewers call it a basic course and wish for more advanced exercises. Another asks for more quizzes, and the syllabus shows only two. One learner in Germany found that date examples such as 23 January, 2026 came in as text in their Excel.
About 55 percent of nearly 16,000 ratings are five stars, and roughly 1 percent are one or two stars. The course was last updated in July 2023, so check that the Excel features you care about are covered. For someone starting from scratch who wants a practical route into analyst-style Excel work, it looks like a solid, low-risk choice. Anyone past the basics may want harder practice than it offers.
Pros
- Reviewers call the explanations clear and easy to follow for beginners
- Practice files and model answers let learners check their own work after each section
- Three case studies (crypto, survey, startup market) apply the skills to realistic data
- Pivot tables and charts get their own sections; one reviewer now uses them daily at work
Cons
- Last updated July 2023, so newer Excel features may be missing
- Only two quizzes, and reviewers ask for more recap questions and harder exercises
- Date examples use a text-style format that some non-US Excel setups read as text
Useful with examples and exercises to try and the model answer.
Beginner level fits: it asks only basic PC or Mac skills and Excel 2013 or newer, and opens with a short jumpstart section.
What you will learn
- Confidently use the most crucial Excel functions and techniques for analysis
- Correctly use the appropriate charts in Excel
- Apply analysis techniques to datasets in Excel
- Manipulate and prep datasets in Excel
- Build presentation ready dashboards in Excel
- Create your own formulas in Excel
- Turn real world data into business insights in Excel
Course content
15 sections · 130 lectures · 12 hours of video 2 quizzes, 8 articles
- 1Watch This First 1 free preview3 lectures · 3 min
- 2Jumpstart 2 free previews7 lectures · 31 min
- 3Getting Acclimated with EXCEL - Foundations 1 free preview14 lectures · 1 quiz · 40 min
- 4Basic EXCEL Formulas & Functions - Foundations 2 free previews16 lectures · 1 quiz · 1.5 hours
- 5Text, Times, and Dates Data Formats - Foundations16 lectures · 1 hour
- 6Introduction to Statistics in EXCEL - Foundations8 lectures · 45 min
- 7Handling Data in EXCEL12 lectures · 1.1 hours
- 8Pivot Tables9 lectures · 1.2 hours
- 9Introduction to Charts in Excel 1 free preview15 lectures · 1.5 hours
- 10Case Study: Crytocurrency Data 1 free preview6 lectures · 50 min
- 11Case Study: Survey Data 1 free preview5 lectures · 36 min
- 12Case Study: The Startup Market8 lectures · 40 min
- 13Case Study: Data Preparation (for Startup Market Data)6 lectures · 1.1 hours
- 14Appendix: Bonus Topics3 lectures · 15 min
- 15New to Udemy? 2 free previews2 lectures · 21 min
Who it is for
The instructor says it suits
- Anyone who wants to learn the core concepts of data analysis in the Excel environment
- Anyone who wants to learn to apply data analysis techniques using Excel
- Anyone who wants to become proficient at using Excel for data/business analysis
- Anyone who wants to be able to turn data into business insights in Excel
- Anyone who wants to be able to run simple to sophisticated analysis on data using Excel
- Anyone who wants to learn the most frequently used Excel functions and techniques used by analysts
What you need before you start
- You should be able to use a PC or Mac at the beginner level
- Microsoft Excel 2013+
How it compares
Against the other 355 rated Udemy courses in Excel on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.6 out of 5higher than 63% of them
- Reviews15,982#27 of 356 by number of reviews
- Length12 hourslonger than 77% of them
- Last updatedJuly 2023earlier than 52% of them
Quality Score
Overall Score : 92 / 100
Course Description
Instructor Symon He hosts near daily LIVE office hours on TikTok 10:30PM PDT. Find him @SymonHe.
Ibadullah Khalil - 5 Stars
“A great instructor and guide for the course. All topics were well driven and to the point with no gibberish language used to make it difficult for the learners just like other instructors. A highly recommended course for every beginner who aims to become a data analyst”
Jianyong Chen - 5 Stars
“This is one of the best course I took on Udemy so far. The instructors explained everything in detail and there are practices after each section. Make sure you download all the files, practice on your own, and you will learn a lot. Highly recommend!”
Every business generates data. But whether you're able to turn that into useful insights depends on your ability to process, manipulate, and ultimately translate that data.
Whether you're working for a company or running your own, being able to make better decisions requires you to be able to analyze and interpret data.
What data do you need? How do you prep that data? How do you analyze it to answer specific questions?
In this course, we're going to show you step-by-step, exactly how to do that, by starting with the very basics.
Why Microsoft Excel?
This course is as much about Excel, if not more, than data analysis concepts and techniques. Why?
Excel is still the most popular tool used by analysts in all industries, across all roles. It's used by financial analysts, marketing analysts, sales analysts, and of course, data analysts.
Yes, there are many tools out there but if you learn and master the core concepts and techniques of data analysis in Excel, you'll be able to apply your knowledge to a broad range of applications.
Don’t underestimate Excel--a single worksheet can technically hold more than 17 BILLION data points (granted, it will make your computer REALLY slow). Fortunately, most of us running analysis will need to process far fewer data points than that. Still, it speaks to the power of the program.
Maurizio Zippo - 5 Stars
“This is one of the best course I have ever taken and thoroughly enjoyed. Highly recommended if you want to brush up your existing Excel Skills and to learn how to build some complicated formulae. The Pivot Table and Charts were something I always struggled with but thanks to Symon and Travis' explanations they are now so easy to use every day at work, saving me tonnes of time! Many Thanks Symon and Travis for putting together this great course you are my Excel heroes! The case studies on Cryptocurrency and The Start Up Market are absolute gems! I can't wait to get started with your next course.”
Why learn from us?
By signing up with us, you will be learning from two instructors with a combined 35 years of relevant experience across a wide range of analyst roles.
Travis has been a digital marketer, investor, and entrepreneur for 20 years. He’s led growth in Asia for Groupon and even helped build Excel when he was as an engineer at Microsoft. He is a data analysis and data visualization expert who pulls from his industry experience to teach some of the advanced data analysis topics you’ll find in this course.
Symon has been interpreting and analyzing data for 15 years. He has served as a financial analyst, marketing analyst, and even head of marketing analytics across half a dozen industries. If you look at his other courses on Udemy, you'll see that he is an Excel and analysis ninja, having taught nearly 180,000 students with over 18,000 reviews.
Together, we’ve pulled directly from our personal experience and put everything we could into this course. In fact, all of the case studies you’ll find inside are inspired by real-world projects we’ve worked on.
What if I don't have any data analysis or Excel background?
No worries! This is why we start with the very basics in our foundational sections, which is designed to get you familiar with Excel before we move on to more advanced topics. You can be a complete beginner and take this course. It might sometimes feel like you're drinking out of a fire hose, but if you put in the time and effort we promise you’ll see results by following our course and doing the exercises.
We then progressively increase the difficulty as you move along in the course, culminating in advanced techniques taught through our case studies.
If you do have an Excel background, you can skip or skim through the foundational sections and move directly into the more advanced topics.
Stephen Dias - 5 Stars
“If you're trying to learn the foundations of excel this course is all you need.”
Brandon Parker - 5 Stars
“I have a lot of experience building excel models and purchased the course for the case studies. I didn't expect to learn much from the introductory parts but was surprised to find additional keyboard shortcuts I had never learned as well as powerful new functions that will make my life a lot easier. This course helped me brush up on functionality that I often neglected while using excel and was super comprehensive. I look forward to continuing using this course as additional case studies are added and highly recommend it for even excel experts.”
Learn through practice.
Like most things in life, becoming proficient at data analysis in Excel takes practice. A lot of practice.
Sure, you'll pick up plenty just from watching, but you'll be doing yourself a disservice if you don't download our more than 100 custom-built Excel practice files specifically designed to help you master the program.
We're not done adding all our content yet, either. This class was initially created an "intro" course, but it will soon become a complete coverage of all things data analysis in Excel.
In conclusion, does any of the following apply to you?
1. Do you want to really know your way around Excel?
2. You have data for your work or business but you're not sure what to make of it?
3. You might know your way around Excel but you're not confident about turning data into business insights
4. You frequently receive Excel spreadsheets from others but want to better understand how they arrived at their conclusions?
5. You want to learn the best practices when it comes to using Excel for data analysis.
6. You are intimidated by spreadsheets and terms like Pivot Tables and VLookups
Instructor Details
- 4.6 Rating
15,982 Reviews
Symon He
Symon He is the author of the Rental Property Investing QuickStart Guide, Amazon best-seller Real Estate Investing QuickStart Guide, and the co-author of Airbnb for Dummies, all available now on Amazon and in bookstores throughout North America.
He is also co-founder of LearnBNB, a leading online educational destination for all things Airbnb hosting and short-term rentals. His works have been cited or featured on the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes, CNBC, Entrepreneur, and SKIFT. Through his training and coaching programs, he has worked directly with thousands of aspiring Airbnb hosts to jumpstart their short term rental journeys. His training programs have been featured by prominent third-party partners, including a joint venture with RichDad.
As a licensed broker, Symon previously helped private real estate investors with their acquisitions and deal structuring. As an angel investor, he also advises and invests in early stage startups.
Previously, Symon worked in several corporate real estate and finance roles at large private and Fortune 80 companies, including at a private equity investment firm covering a wide range of commercial real estate acquisitions in the western USA.
Symon received dual degrees in Computer Engineering and Economics with Honors from UC Irvine and an MBA from Stanford University.
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Reviews
By Xiaowen Liang on 1/23/2026
The content has been wonderful so far, and I truly appreciate the effort that went into creating it. I’d like to share a few thoughts for Symon and Travis—hopefully these comments can be helpful. I’m taking the course from Germany, and I’ve run into some challenges with the date formats in the exercises. My Excel doesn’t recognize formats like “23 January, 2026” as dates, so they show up as text instead. If possible, it would really help learners in other regions if the dates could be provided in a more universal numeric format (for example 23.01.2026 or 23/01/2026). This small adjustment would make the practice materials even more accessible. I also wanted to share a tip for fellow users of Excel 365: since ribbon layouts and button positions have changed over the years, it makes a big difference to practice each step yourself after every short lesson. The downloadable exercises in each session have been extremely helpful for this, and I’m grateful they’re included. Thank you again for the great course—I’m learning a lot, and I really appreciate the work behind it.
By Amit Gupta on 12/25/2025
This course taught me a lot about Excel functionalities while doing analysis and its importance which nowadays diminished by lots of analysts. It's a great tool to start your analysis journey. Moreover, the projects integrated in this course are way more interesting than my expectations. I'm so grateful that I joined and completed this course. Furthermore, teaching pedagogy of the instructor is FABULOUS!! :) :) :)
By Ivy Manyasi on 10/16/2025
This course was very practical for my everyday work. Highly recommended, especially for those sitting the practical CPA Business and Data Analytics at the advanced level in Kenya.
By Greg Davis on 10/5/2025
Yes this course is great for beginners or intermediates. I love how you can practice alongside the lesson. I believe that this course can really help with getting prepared for an entry level data job for sure. I will be going over some of the exercises 2-3 times just to make sure I master it.
By Deepa P on 12/27/2020
very useful and informative
By Olarewaju A Sidiq on 12/20/2020
it has been insightful
By Raghu Acharya on 12/20/2020
Good learning experience
By Andrew Black on 12/20/2020
After completing the course, I'm giving it the top rating.
This course takes a practice-based approach that I thought was missing from my SQL books. By practice-based, I mean even more practice than the "hand-ons" approaches used by most SQL books. Most SQL books just don't give the reader enough practice with joining, aggregate functions, and grouping; they move on too quickly to advanced topics like subqueries and window functions. To my knowledge, the only SQL books that use the practice-based approach are written for T-SQL and not for MySQL (for example, "SQL Practice Problems" by Vasilik).
By John Adair on 12/20/2020
Symon and Travis teach in a clear, logical fashion. They make complex ideas simple & easy to understand. Glad I took this course.
By Jencey K K on 11/16/2020
Yes, with calculations its was new with median and average
By Linh Diep on 11/11/2020
Neat and chronologically sensible
By Janna Compau on 11/7/2020
I had some knowledge of Excel, but wanted a more in-depth understanding to help me in my new job. I am learning a lot of things that I didn't know before that are really helping me perform my new job functions.









