Statistical FunctionsBeginner

MAX Function (Statistical)

The worst case, which is usually what the complaint is about.

Task:

Your service level agreement is written around the longest anyone waits, not the average. Put the longest of these five call waits in B7.

Interactive Spreadsheet

Read about MIN, MAX

Hints

+5 XPno-hints bonus

Solve it on your own to keep the bonus. Each hint gets one step closer to the formula.

Variations of MIN, MAX

0/3

The same formula in the other shapes it takes at work.

  1. MAX Function (Statistical)

    The worst case, which is usually what the complaint is about.

    CoreBeginner
  2. A running maximum: the record so far

    An expanding range turns MAX into "best to date".

    Intermediate
  3. MAXIFS: the longest wait in each queue

    The worst case for each group rather than overall.

    Intermediate

The data in this exercise

This is the grid you start with. Cell references in the task — B6, C2 — point at the row numbers and column letters below.

7 rows × 2 columns1 cell you fill in
AB
1CallWait (seconds)
2C-10142
3C-102187
4C-10365
5C-104310
6C-10598
7Longest wait
What this exercise teachesMay contain the answer

Three of these five callers were answered inside two minutes and one waited more than five. The average is a shade over 140 seconds, which describes nobody's experience especially well and certainly not the experience of whoever complained. MIN and MAX together are the cheapest honesty check there is: they tell you how wide the range you are summarising really is.