File sharing and permissions in Google Sheets - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🎯 Scenario

intermediate

Sharing a Google Sheet with view-only access

You want to share a Google Sheet with a colleague so they can only view the data but not edit it. Which sharing setting should you choose?

A Give them 'Viewer' access

B Give them 'Editor' access

C Give them 'Commenter' access

D Make the file public on the web

💡 Hint

Think about the permission that allows seeing but not changing.

Giving 'Viewer' access lets someone see the file but not make any changes.

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Understanding permission levels in Google Sheets

Which permission level allows a user to add comments but not edit the content of a Google Sheet?

A Viewer

B Editor

C Owner

D Commenter

💡 Hint

This permission is between viewing and editing.

'Commenter' permission lets users add comments but not change the sheet data.

📊 Formula Result

advanced

Formula to check if a user has edit access

You have a list of email addresses in column A and their access levels in column B (values: 'Viewer', 'Commenter', 'Editor'). Which formula in cell C2 correctly returns TRUE if the user in A2 has 'Editor' access, and FALSE otherwise?

Google Sheets

=B2="Editor"

A =B2=Editor

B =B2="Editor"

C =IF(B2=Editor, TRUE, FALSE)

D =IF(B2="Editor", TRUE, FALSE)

💡 Hint

Check how text strings are compared in formulas.

Option B correctly compares the text in B2 to the string "Editor" and returns TRUE or FALSE.

❓ data_analysis

advanced

Counting users with edit access

Given a list of users' access levels in column B (cells B2:B20), which formula correctly counts how many users have 'Editor' access?

A =COUNTIF(B2:B20, "Editor")

B =COUNT(B2:B20, "Editor")

C =SUMIF(B2:B20, "Editor")

D =COUNTIFS(B2:B20, Editor)

💡 Hint

Look for the function that counts cells matching a condition.

COUNTIF(range, criteria) counts how many cells match the criteria. Option A is correct.

❓ Function Choice

expert

Automatically notify editors when a sheet is shared

You want to create a formula or function in Google Sheets that automatically lists email addresses of users with 'Editor' access from a table with emails in column A and access levels in column B. Which function is best to extract only the emails of editors?

A =ARRAYFORMULA(IF(B2:B20="Editor", A2:A20, ""))

B =VLOOKUP("Editor", B2:B20, 1, FALSE)

C =FILTER(A2:A20, B2:B20="Editor")

D =QUERY(A2:B20, "SELECT A WHERE B='Editor'")

💡 Hint

Think about a function that filters rows based on a condition.

FILTER returns only the emails where the access level is 'Editor'. QUERY also works but requires more syntax; FILTER is simpler and direct.