Excel BI - PowerQuery Challenge 310

excel-challenges
power-query
Name Gender Age Salary Atkins F
Published

March 24, 2026

Illustration for Excel BI - PowerQuery Challenge 310

Challenge Description

Name Gender Age Salary Atkins F

Solutions

library(tidyverse)
library(readxl)

path = "Power Query/300-399/310/PQ_Challenge_310.xlsx"
input = read_excel(path, range = "A1:D13")
test  = read_excel(path, range = "F1:I6")

result = input %>%
  fill(Name, .direction = "down") %>%
  group_by(Name) %>%
  fill(c(Gender, Age, Salary), .direction = "downup") %>%
  ungroup() %>%
  distinct()

all.equal(result, test)
#> [1] TRUE

  • Logic:

    • Reads the workbook range needed for the challenge

    • Aggregates or ranks values at the relevant grouping level

  • Strengths:

    • The R solution stays close to the workbook logic and keeps the transformation compact.

  • Areas for Improvement:

    • The code assumes the workbook layout and selected ranges remain stable.

  • Gem:

    • The best part of the solution is choosing the right intermediate shape before formatting the final output.
import pandas as pd

path = "300-399/310/PQ_Challenge_310.xlsx"
input = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="A:D", nrows=13)
test = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="F:I", nrows=5).rename(columns=lambda col: col.replace('.1', ''))

input['Name'] = input['Name'].ffill()
input[['Gender', 'Age', 'Salary']] = input.groupby('Name')[['Gender', 'Age', 'Salary']]\
    .bfill().ffill()
result = input.drop_duplicates().reset_index(drop=True)
result[['Age', 'Salary']] = result[['Age', 'Salary']].astype(int)

print(result.equals(test)) # True

  • Logic:

    • Reads the workbook range needed for the challenge

    • Aggregates or ranks values at the relevant grouping level

  • Strengths:

    • The Python version follows the same workbook rule in a direct pandas-oriented implementation.

  • Areas for Improvement:

    • As with the R version, any workbook layout change would require small adjustments.

  • Gem:

    • The implementation stays close to the source challenge instead of adding unnecessary abstraction.

Difficulty Level

This task is moderate:

  • It combines reshaping, grouping, or parsing steps that are common in Power Query style problems.

  • The main challenge is reproducing the workbook output structure exactly.