Edit history and version control in Google Sheets - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Understanding Edit History in Google Sheets

What does the 'Version history' feature in Google Sheets allow you to do?

A See all changes made to the sheet, who made them, and restore previous versions

B Automatically save a backup copy of the sheet to your computer

C Track changes only made by you and ignore others' edits

D Prevent others from editing the sheet after you open it

💡 Hint

Think about how you can recover an earlier version if a mistake was made.

Version history shows all edits, who made them, and lets you restore older versions if needed.

🎯 Scenario

intermediate

Restoring a Previous Version

You accidentally deleted important data in your Google Sheet. Which steps correctly restore the sheet to an earlier version?

A Go to File > Version history > See version history, select the desired version, and click Restore this version

B Use Undo button repeatedly until the data reappears

C Download the sheet and open it in Excel to recover data

D Delete the sheet and create a new one from scratch

💡 Hint

Think about the built-in feature that saves versions automatically.

The correct way is to use Version history to restore the sheet to a previous saved state.

📊 Formula Result

advanced

Tracking Last Edit Time with a Formula

Which formula correctly shows the last time a cell in column A was edited, assuming you have a script that updates a timestamp in column B?

A =COUNT(A:A)

B =NOW()

C =TODAY()

D =MAX(B:B)

💡 Hint

You want the latest timestamp from column B.

MAX(B:B) returns the latest (maximum) timestamp from column B, showing the last edit time.

❓ data_analysis

advanced

Analyzing Edit History Data

You exported the edit history data showing editor names and timestamps. Which formula counts how many edits were made by 'Alice'?

A =COUNT(Alice)

B =COUNTIF(A:A, "Alice")

C =SUMIF(B:B, "Alice")

D =FILTER(A:A, B:B="Alice")

💡 Hint

You want to count cells matching a name in a column.

COUNTIF counts how many cells in a range match a given text, here 'Alice'.

❓ Function Choice

expert

Choosing the Best Function for Version Control Notes

You want to add notes to each version in Google Sheets' version history to describe changes. Which method is best to do this?

A Add a new sheet with notes about changes manually

B Insert comments in cells to describe changes

C Use the 'Name current version' feature in Version history to add descriptive names

D Use conditional formatting to highlight changes

💡 Hint

Think about the feature designed specifically for version descriptions.

Google Sheets lets you name versions in Version history to add notes about changes.