Interview question about VLOOKUP

[hawknz8]

I am trying to develop a few interview questions to determine candidates Excel knowledge in particular with VLOOKUP. I have come up with the following question, if anyone has ideas on how to make it more succinct or if there are issues with the way I am asking it please chime in.

Question: Given two tables in Excel, one with pay bands and corresponding salaries, the other table has employees and their corresponding pay bands. If I want to add the salary for each employee based on their pay band to the second table what Excel function should I use and why?

 

[RonB1111]

Here's what's confusing to me: How would anybody know the exact salary of "John Doe" - ie: he may be in pay band "EF1" whose range is $50k-$60k per year, but I don't know how anybody would find his exact salary in the example you've given. Maybe if you showed the candidate the 2 tables it might be clear, but with the wording only it is confusing to me. Here's an alternative: Given two tables in Excel, one with Dept Number and Dept Name, the other table has employees and their corresponding Dept Number. If I want to add the Dept Name for each employee based on their Dept Number to the second table what Excel function should I use and why?