IMPORTFEED for RSS in Google Sheets - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

📊 Formula Result

intermediate

What does this IMPORTFEED formula return?

Given the formula =IMPORTFEED("https://news.google.com/news/rss") in a Google Sheets cell, what is the expected output?

Google Sheets

=IMPORTFEED("https://news.google.com/news/rss")

A A blank cell with no data

B A table with columns like Title, URL, Date, and Content from the RSS feed

C Only the raw XML code of the RSS feed as plain text in one cell

D An error saying 'Function not found' because IMPORTFEED is not valid

💡 Hint

IMPORTFEED fetches and parses RSS or Atom feeds into a table format.

IMPORTFEED downloads the RSS feed and extracts structured data like titles, links, and dates into separate columns.

❓ Function Choice

intermediate

Which IMPORTFEED parameter limits the number of items fetched?

You want to fetch only the latest 5 items from an RSS feed using IMPORTFEED. Which parameter should you use?

A The fourth parameter, <code>headers</code>, set to 5

B The second parameter, <code>query</code>, set to 5

C The third parameter, <code>num_items</code>, set to 5

D IMPORTFEED does not support limiting items

💡 Hint

Check the IMPORTFEED syntax: IMPORTFEED(url, query, num_items, headers)

The third parameter num_items controls how many feed items to return.

📊 Formula Result

advanced

What error occurs with a wrong URL in IMPORTFEED?

What happens if you use =IMPORTFEED("https://invalid-url.com/feed") in Google Sheets?

Google Sheets

=IMPORTFEED("https://invalid-url.com/feed")

A No error, but returns old cached data

B Returns an empty table with no rows

C Displays the raw HTML of the invalid page

D #N/A error with message 'Could not fetch URL'

💡 Hint

IMPORTFEED needs a valid URL to fetch data.

If the URL is invalid or unreachable, IMPORTFEED returns a #N/A error with a fetch message.

🎯 Scenario

advanced

How to extract only titles from an RSS feed using IMPORTFEED?

You want to list only the titles of items from an RSS feed in a single column. Which formula achieves this?

A =INDEX(IMPORTFEED("https://news.google.com/news/rss"), 0, 1)

B =IMPORTFEED("https://news.google.com/news/rss", "items title")

C =FILTER(IMPORTFEED("https://news.google.com/news/rss"), COLUMN()=1)

D =IMPORTFEED("https://news.google.com/news/rss", "title")

💡 Hint

IMPORTFEED returns a table; use INDEX to select the first column (titles).

IMPORTFEED returns multiple columns; INDEX with 0 for rows and 1 for column extracts the title column.

❓ data_analysis

expert

How many items are returned by this IMPORTFEED formula?

Given the formula =IMPORTFEED("https://news.google.com/news/rss", "", 3, TRUE), how many rows of feed items will appear (excluding headers)?

Google Sheets

=IMPORTFEED("https://news.google.com/news/rss", "", 3, TRUE)

A 3 rows of feed items plus 1 header row

B 3 rows total including header

C 4 rows of feed items plus 1 header row

D Only 1 row with all 3 items concatenated

💡 Hint

The fourth parameter TRUE includes headers as the first row.

With headers TRUE, the sheet shows 1 header row plus the number of items requested (3).