A 21-year-old CTU student became the world champion in Excel

The full name of the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) World Championship is a global competition organized by the American company Certiport that tests skills in Office applications.

Every year, up to a million students aged 13-21 from 60 countries try to make it through the national rounds to the world finals held in the USA. However, only the top 100 will make it to the finals. Ondřej is only the second Czech to win gold from the championship. In 2013, the winner was Jiří Houžvička.

Ondřej went to the world finals, which took place this year from 24 to 27 July in California in the city of Anaheim, at the same time he received it for the third time. In 2019, he took part in the finals in the Microsoft PowerPoint (Office 2016) category in New York, where he took silver, and two years later he became the world champion in the Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365 Apps and Office 2019) category. Back then, the final was held online.

“I really enjoyed this year’s face-to-face version of the competition, I even visited Los Angeles in my free time. The organizers of the competition also prepared an introductory evening, a trip to Disneyland and motivational lectures for us. It was inspiring to meet in person a lot of experts and especially students with similar interests from all over the world,” adds Ondřej.

How to become a world champion in Excel?

Students from around the world competed in three main categories, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, with two versions of each product – this year, Office 2016 and Microsoft 365 Apps and Office 2019.

In total, it was possible to compete in six different categories. Each student could choose a category, but you can only compete once in each product. Ondřej tried all three products in three years.

“I enjoy all Microsoft Office products, it’s really hard for me to pick a favorite. PowerPoint was my first choice at the time, but today I find the most powerful in Word.”

The competition itself then consisted of the development of two projects: the first, in which the student has to get as close as possible to the given assignment, and then a more creative project on a given topic, where the student has a freer hand and more time. The first project is evaluated by a computer, the second by an expert jury.

“I enjoyed the more creative part of the project a little more. I like that every student can show their skills, what they excel at, what they can do in the given program. This year’s theme was the skills gap. We were preparing this project for a real client, and therefore the given task did not seem artificial,” adds Ondřej, who excelled in both parts of the project.

Ondřej prepared honestly for the competition this year, despite the fact that he had already qualified as the defending champion. He read professional articles and created his own projects on fictitious topics in Microsoft Excel before the competition. Precisely because, according to him, the competition is really big and every detail plays a role in the competition. The structure of the competition also evolves from year to year, so he knew that defending the title would not be easy.

“From my experience, students from Asian countries are often ranked at the top. Vietnam confirmed this this year, as Vietnamese students placed on the podium in 4 out of 6 categories.”

As the winner, Ondřej took home a Surface laptop, headphones and a prize worth 7,000 US dollars (approx. 170,000 crowns). For now, he is thinking about how to deal with the winnings. However, studying abroad does not appeal to him at the moment, he enjoys the field of Security and Information Technology, which he is studying at CTU, very much. He also participates in competitions in this field, most recently this year he celebrated success at the finals of the cyber security competition in Pilsen.

Ondřej has been involved in IT and programming since he was 11 years old, when he started as a self-taught person. He already knew in elementary school that this was the path he wanted to take.

Success in various school competitions and interest in the field gradually led him to Office Arena, a Czech competition that tests students’ skills in working with Microsoft Office applications and functions as a national qualifying round before the MOS World Championship itself. Over 4,000 students participate in the Office Arena competition every year.

“Office Arena is a competition in which primary and secondary school students can apply and demonstrate their skills in working with modern information technologies. The goal of the competition is to motivate students and ensure a better position not only during their studies, but especially when entering the labor market,” adds Karel Klatovský, education manager from Microsoft.

Every year, the 15 best students from the Czech Republic reach the Prague finals through the school and regional rounds, and the best from the secondary school category then get, in addition to valuable prizes, the opportunity to go represent the USA. Along with Ondřej, even three other students from the Czech Republic made it through this year. Two students from the Smíchovské secondary technical school, Petr Novák and Vojtěch Werenyckyj, and this year’s winner of the Office Arena, Lucie Dorňáková. The condition for participation in the MOS World Championship is a certification exam that each of the representatives had to pass.

“In addition, Microsoft Office Specialist certifications are nothing new in the Czech environment, schools often use them throughout the year to verify knowledge of the material covered in Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The Smíchovská middle technical school and gymnasium use them the most in the Czech Republic, where several hundred students complete them every year,” comments Karel Klatovský.

World Champion… and what next?

Ondřej was able to participate in the competition for the last time this year, partly due to the age restriction of the competition and partly because he had already competed in all Microsoft Office products. However, he plans to continue to improve and pass on his skills. He likes to constantly try new features in updates of all Microsoft Office applications.

Currently, while studying, he is engaged in programming as a freelancer, especially website development. He would also like to establish cooperation with Office Arena, where in the future he could, for example, act as a judge or participate in the preparation of the Prague final.

“We definitely plan to stay in touch with Ondra and establish future cooperation. With his experience and results, he is the ideal candidate for the selection and possible mentoring of the future winner of Office Arena,” comments Karel Klatovský.

According to Ondro, competing in the Czech Office Arena and at the world championship was an unforgettable experience that moved him a lot, and he would like to inspire other students to not be afraid to try. Not only because of the opportunity to travel to the USA, but mainly for your personal development.