Excel BI - Excel Challenge 784

excel-challenges

excel-formulas

🔰 Find the sum of all rows + sum of all columns + sum of both diagonals.

Published

March 24, 2026

Illustration for Excel BI - Excel Challenge 784

Challenge Description

🔰 Find the sum of all rows + sum of all columns + sum of both diagonals.

Solutions

library(tidyverse)
library(readxl)
library(matricks)

path = "Excel/700-799/784/784 Sum of Square.xlsx"
input = read_excel(path, range = "B2:K11", col_names = FALSE) %>% as.matrix()
test  = read_excel(path, range = "M1:M2") %>% pull()

result = sum(rowSums(input)) + sum(colSums(input)) + sum(diag(input)) + sum(antidiag(input))

result == test 
# > [1] TRUE

Logic: Read the workbook ranges needed for the challenge.
Strengths: The solution stays close to the text pattern itself, which makes the extraction logic easy to audit.
Areas for Improvement: The solution assumes the workbook layout and selected ranges remain stable, so any structural change in the sheet would require small adjustments.
Gem: A small number of well-targeted text patterns does most of the heavy lifting.

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

path = "700-799/784/784 Sum of Square.xlsx"
input_matrix = pd.read_excel(path, header=None, usecols="B:K", skiprows=1, nrows=10).values
test = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="M", nrows=1).values.flatten()

result = input_matrix.sum(axis=1).sum() \
    + input_matrix.sum(axis=0).sum() \
    + np.trace(input_matrix) \
    + np.trace(np.fliplr(input_matrix)) 

print(result == test) # True

The Python version expresses the core extraction rule directly and keeps the pattern matching easy to review.

Difficulty Level

Easy / Medium

The business rule is clear, though the workbook still needs a few transformation steps to reach the expected output.