In Excel, which function would you use to count the number of cells in a range that meet a specific condition?

Correct — A. The stem asks for two things: count cells, and only those meeting a condition.

COUNTIF(range, criteria) does exactly that. Microsoft describes it as counting the number of cells that meet a criterion.

=COUNTIF(A1:A10, ">10") counts the cells in A1:A10 whose value is greater than 10 → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  =COUNTBLANK(A1:A10) — COUNTBLANK counts the empty cells in a range, including cells whose formula returns empty text. It takes no condition of your own, so it cannot count values above 10.
• (c)
  =COUNT(A1:A10) — COUNT counts cells that contain numbers, with no condition attached. Microsoft's own page sends you to COUNTIF or COUNTIFS when you want only the numbers that meet criteria.
• (d)
  =SUMIF(A1:A10, ">10") — SUMIF takes the same kind of condition but adds the matching values. =SUMIF(A1:A10, ">10") returns their total, not how many cells there are.

Excel's counting functions differ in what they count.

COUNT counts cells holding numbers.
COUNTBLANK counts empty cells.
COUNTIF counts cells that meet one criterion, and COUNTIFS takes several.

The criterion can be a number, an expression, a cell reference or a text string. In the options the comparison is written as text in double quotes, ">10", as in Microsoft's own examples.

SUMIF pairs a range with a criterion too, but returns a sum.

Key facts

• COUNTIF(range, criteria) counts the cells that meet one criterion.
• COUNT counts cells that contain numbers.
• COUNTBLANK counts empty cells, including formulas that return empty text.
• SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range]) adds the values that meet the criterion.

Common traps

• Picking SUMIF because it carries the same condition, when the stem asks for a count, not a total.
• Picking COUNT because its name matches, when it takes no condition at all.

No directly related past PYQ was found.