20 Most Common SQL Query Interview Questions & Answers [For Freshers & Experienced]

Summary:

In this Article, you will learn about 20 most common SQL query interview questions & answers for freshers & experienced.

1. Write a query to get the EmpFname from the EmployeeInfo table in the upper case using the alias name as EmpName?
2. Write a query to get the number of employees working in the department ‘HR’?
3. What query will you write to fetch the current date?……….

Read the full blog to know all the 20 Questions & Answers in detail.

People who are good at writing SQL queries are in high demand because SQL is crucial for managing and analyzing large amounts of data. It’s used in building and maintaining applications, integrating data from different sources, and optimizing the performance of database operations. 

Companies seek SQL experts to make informed decisions and maintain smooth data processes. When preparing for interviews in these roles, staying ahead by preparing SQL queries interview questions in advance showcases your proficiency in essential concepts and enhances your chances of impressing the interviewers. They will understand that you are well-versed with the key concepts needed for the job and give you a shot.

Attending an SQL query interview questions and wondering what are all the questions and discussions you will go through? Before attending an SQL interview, it’s better to have an idea about the types of SQL interview questions will be asked so that you can mentally prepare answers for them.

To help you out, I have created the top SQL interview question and answers guide to understand the depth and real-intend of SQL interview questions. Let’s get started.

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a popular and extensively used programming language for managing, manipulating, and querying data in relational databases. While SQL is not exactly the fastest language for communicating with relational databases, it is undoubtedly the most efficient means of handling structured data. 

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Compared to traditional read-write APIs like ISAM or VSAM, SQL extends two core benefits: 

• It allows you to access multiple records using a single command. Here is the SQL query examples with answers.
• It eliminates the need to specify how to access a record (whether or not to use an index) from a database.

An SQL query is a question or request for accessing data stored in a database. A database stores information in a tabular format. Thus, it contains rows and columns. While the database fields form the columns that direct the database regarding what information it can store, the rows contain the data. Here’s a sample dataset called “tblAlbum” to put things into perspective:

Source

Let’s create an SQL query using this sample data. We’ll focus on choosing only those albums with a 9 or above rating. So, we’re essentially asking the query to produce a list of album titles from the database having a rating equal to or greater than 9. You will use relevant keywords to get the desired answer.

The keywords in this scenario are – SELECT (dictating to fetch information from the database), FROM (the specific table containing the said data), and WHERE (dictating the criteria for accessing the information). When you use these keywords, your SQL query will look like this:

SELECT albumTitle FROM tblAlbums
WHERE rating >= 9;

Thus, you are choosing (SELECT) the data from (FROM) the table “tblAlbums” where (WHERE) the album rating is 9 or above. The WHERE statement can either be very simple or overly complex if there’s a substantial amount of nested logic involved. On running the query, you’ll get the following result:

albumTitle

Symphony in D Minor

Poet’s Heart

Now that you have a basic understanding of what SQL queries are and how they function let’s check out twenty SQL query interview questions!

Before we get started with the SQL query interview questions, check out these reference tables – our queries will be based on these tables.

EmployeeInfo table:

EmpID	EmpFname	EmpLname	Department	Project	Address	DOB	Gender
1	Rohit	Gupta	Admin	P1	Delhi	02/12/1979	Male
2	Rahul	Mahajan	Admin	P2	Mumbai	10/10/1986	Male
3	Sonia	Banerjee	HR	P3	Pune	05/06/1983	Female
4	Ankita	Kapoor	HR	P4	Chennai	28/11/1983	Female
5	Swati	Garg	HR	P5	Delhi	06/04/1991	Female

EmployeePosition table:

EmpID	EmpPosition	DateOfJoining	Salary
1	Executive	01/04/2020	75000
2	Manager	03/04/2020	500000
3	Manager	02/04/2020	150000
2	Officer	02/04/2020	90000
1	Manager	03/04/2020	300000

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SQL Query Interview Questions and Answers

Preparing SQL query interview questions and answers for freshers and experienced professionals is essential to demonstrate your proficiency and readiness for the role. The list below includes a range of tricky SQL queries for interview that assess your understanding of SQL concepts and your ability to solve problems related to data management.

1. Write a query to get the EmpFname from the EmployeeInfo table in the upper case using the alias name as EmpName.

Among some of the most asked SQL queries in interview rounds, this is commonly asked. You will be provided with a reference table beforehand (Refer to the one provided in this article above). The interviewer may ask you to write a SQL query to retrieve a piece of specific information (the first names under EmpFname in this table) from the table but in uppercase. 

The query for this condition is:

SELECT UPPER(EmpFname) AS EmpName FROM EmployeeInfo;

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2. Write a query to get the number of employees working in the department ‘HR’.

This is also one of the top SQL queries asked in interview based on the table you have been provided. 

Here’s the query for this demand:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM EmployeeInfo WHERE Department = 'HR';

3. What query will you write to fetch the current date?

In reference to the table you may be provided at the very start of the interview, this is one of the most basic and common SQL query interview questions for freshers that you might have to answer. Ensure that you get enough practice in writing SQL queries like this beforehand. 

To fetch the current date, you can write this query in the SQL server:

SELECT GETDATE();

To fetch the current date, you can write this query in MySQL:

SELECT SYSTDATE();

4. Write a query to fetch only the place name(string before brackets) from the Address column of the EmployeeInfo table.

If you are asked this by your interviewer, it can be one of the best opportunities to demonstrate your skills in SQL queries for interview . To make things simpler, you will be asked to retrieve and display only the part of the address that comes before any brackets in the specified column.

Make sure you are well-versed with this query. As for this question pertaining to the Employee Info table above, you can answer the following.

You can use the MID function in MySQL to create the following query:

SELECT MID(Address, 0, LOCATE('(',Address)) FROM EmployeeInfo;

You can use SUBSTRING to create the following query:

SELECT SUBSTRING(Address, 1, CHARINDEX('(',Address)) FROM EmployeeInfo;

Read More: SQL for Data Science: Why SQL

5. Write a query to create a new table whose data and structure are copied from another table.

In SQL queries interview questions like these, you will be tasked with writing a query to create a new table that mirrors both the structure and data of the existing table. 

This is regarded as one of the top 20 SQL query interview questions because it tests your ability to create a new table by copying both the structure and data from an existing table. It assesses your fundamental understanding of SQL, database management, and the CREATE TABLE statement, which are essential skills in data manipulation.

You can use the SELECT INTO command to create the following query:

SELECT * INTO NewTable FROM EmployeeInfo WHERE 1 = 0;

You can use the CREATE command in MySQL to create the following query:

CREATE TABLE NewTable AS SELECT * FROM EmployeeInfo;

6. Write a query to display the names of employees that begin with ‘S’.

This question is one of the most asked SQL queries in interview. Interviewers evaluate your understanding of the SELECT statement, WHERE clause, and string comparison in SQL. It is a good chance to show your capability to filter and present relevant information from a database, a fundamental skill in querying databases and extracting meaningful results.

This is the query you need to write to get the names of the employees whose names start with’S’:

SELECT * FROM EmployeeInfo WHERE EmpFname LIKE 'S%';

7. Write a query to retrieve the top N records.

Preparing for this SQL query interview question matters because it checks if you can pull out a specific number of top records from a database. Interviewers tend to ask these SQL query interview questions to evaluate your grasp of the SELECT statement and how to limit results using clauses like LIMIT or TOP, depending on the database system. 

Being able to fetch a set number of records is a practical skill for handling data effectively, making it a key concept for the interview.

You can write a query using the TOP command in SQL Server:

SELECT TOP N * FROM EmployeePosition ORDER BY Salary DESC;

You can also create a query using the LIMIT command in MySQL:

SELECT * FROM EmpPosition ORDER BY Salary DESC LIMIT N;

8. Write a query to obtain relevant records from the EmployeeInfo table ordered by Department in ascending order and EmpLname in descending order.

This is one of the top SQL queries asked in interview. It evaluates your ability to sort data based on multiple columns and in different orders. This is crucial for presenting information in a structured manner, which is often required in real-world scenarios, making it an important skill for database professionals. 

You need to use the ORDER BY statement in SQL for this purpose;

SELECT * FROM EmployeeInfo ORDER BY Department asc, EmpFname desc;

9. Write a query to get the details of employees whose EmpFname ends with ‘A’.

As one of the common SQL queries interview questions asked, you can demonstrate your ability to filter records based on specific criteria by answering it. This will showcase your skills in extracting relevant information from a database. This is a common requirement in many business scenarios, highlighting the practical importance of this skill.

You can use the LIKE operator in SQL to create a query for this issue:

SELECT * FROM EmployeeInfo WHERE EmpFname LIKE '____a';

10. Create a query to fetch details of employees having “DELHI” as their address.

This is one of those SQL queries for interview that involves fetching details of employees. This one in particular asks you to find the details of those who have “DELHI” as their address (refer to the table above). It tests your ability to filter records based on a specific condition in a text field and also your understanding of the WHERE clause and how to extract information based on location or other textual patterns.

This is crucial for handling practical situations where organizations need to retrieve data related to a particular location or address.

SELECT * FROM EmployeeInfo WHERE Address LIKE 'DELHI%';

Read: Top 9 Data Science Tools in 2020

11. Write a query to fetch all employees who also hold the managerial position.

Any SQL Interview Question and Answers guide won’t complete without this question.

Here’s the query to get the employees who hold the managerial position:

SELECT E.EmpFname, E.EmpLname, P.EmpPosition
FROM EmployeeInfo E INNER JOIN EmployeePosition P ON
E.EmpID = P.EmpID AND P.EmpPosition IN ('Manager');

12. Create a query to generate the first and last records from the EmployeeInfo table.

By executing this query, you can showcase your ability to perform complex queries involving data from multiple tables. Interviewers will ask you this to test your knowledge of SQL JOIN operations and understanding of how to filter records based on specific conditions. Being able to work with multiple tables is a common requirement in database management, making this skill important for various roles.

One of the most common SQL interview question.

Here’s the query to fetch the first record from the EmployeeInfo table:

SELECT * FROM EmployeeInfo WHERE EmpID = (SELECT MIN(EmpID) FROM EmployeeInfo);

Here’s the query to fetch the last record from the EmployeeInfo table:

SELECT * FROM EmployeeInfo WHERE EmpID = (SELECT MAX(EmpID) FROM EmployeeInfo);

13. Create a query to check if the passed value to the query follows the EmployeeInfo and EmployeePosition tables’ date format.

This query is aimed at generating the first and last records from the EmployeeInfo table (refer to the table above), assesses your understanding of result set control. It tests your knowledge of SQL functions like LIMIT or TOP, depending on the database system, to extract specific records.

This is important for identifying the earliest and latest entries in a dataset, showcasing your ability to retrieve relevant information efficiently.

You can use the IsDate() function in SQL to check whether the passed value follows the specified format or not. It returns 1(true) or 0(false) accordingly. Here’s how the query will look:

SELECT ISDATE('01/04/2020') AS "MM/DD/YY";

Running this query will return 0 since the passed value does not match the specified format.

14. Create a query to obtain display employees having salaries equal to or greater than 150000.

This query involves checking if the passed value follows the date format of the EmployeeInfo and EmployeePosition tables. You can show your knowledge of data integrity and consistency, which are essential for maintaining accurate and reliable databases.

This query tests your ability to ensure that the input adheres to the specified format, preventing potential errors in the database.

The query for this request will be:

SELECT EmpName FROM Employees WHERE Salary>=150000;

15. Write a query to fetch the year using a date.

Interviewers will most likely ask you this question to evaluate your understanding of date functions in SQL. You can show your ability to extract specific components, such as the year, from a date field.

This is a common requirement in data analysis and reporting, showcasing your capability to manipulate and derive meaningful insights from temporal data, a crucial skill for roles involving time-based analytics.

You can get the year from a date in an SQL server by running the following query:

SELECT YEAR(GETDATE()) as "Year";

16. Create an SQL query to fetch EmpPostion and the total salary paid for each employee position.

With this query you can show your skills in fetching EmpPosition and the total salary paid for each employee position, tests your knowledge of aggregation in SQL. It evaluates your ability to use functions like SUM to calculate totals and GROUP BY to organize data based on specific criteria.

This skill is vital for scenarios where you need to analyze and present summarized information, demonstrating your capability to derive valuable insights from large datasets.

The query for this request is:

SELECT EmpPosition, SUM(Salary) from EmployeePosition GROUP BY EmpPosition;

17. Write a query to find duplicate records from a table.

This query aims to find duplicate records from a table. With this, interviewers will assess your proficiency in data quality and integrity and your awareness of SQL techniques for identifying and handling duplicate entries. You can use this to showcase your commitment to maintaining clean and accurate databases.

This skill is important in scenarios where data consistency is paramount, demonstrating your ability to ensure the reliability of information stored in a database.

One of the most common question in any SQL query interview questions for experienced professionals guide with SQL query examples with answers.

SELECT EmpID, EmpFname, Department COUNT(*) 
FROM EmployeeInfo GROUP BY EmpID, EmpFname, Department 
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;

18. Create a query to fetch the third-highest salary from the EmpPosition table.

With this query, interviewers can test your understanding of the ORDER BY and LIMIT (or equivalent) clauses in SQL to identify and retrieve specific records based on numerical criteria. This skill is important for analyzing salary structures and identify outliers, demonstrating your proficiency in advanced data retrieval.

SELECT TOP 1 salary
FROM(
SELECT TOP 3 salary
FROM employee_table
ORDER BY salary DESC) AS emp
ORDER BY salary ASC;

19. Write an SQL query to find even and odd records in the EmployeeInfo table.

This query aims to find even and odd records in the EmployeeInfo table, and evaluates your understanding of conditional statements and filtering based on mathematical criteria. It tests your knowledge of the modulus operator or other techniques to categorize records as even or odd.

This is relevant for scenarios where data classification is needed, showcasing your ability to extract information based on specific numerical characteristics.

You must use the MOD() function to fetch the even and odd records from a table. For even records, the query will be:

SELECT EmpID FROM (SELECT rowno, EmpID from EmployeeInfo) WHERE MOD(rowno,2)=0;

For odd records, the query will be:

SELECT EmpID FROM (SELECT rowno, EmpID from EmployeeInfo) WHERE MOD(rowno,2)=1;

20. Create a query to fetch the list of employees of the same department.

With this query, you will be tasked with fetching the list of employees of the same department. This assesses your capability to filter and organize data based on categorical criteria.

It tests your understanding of the WHERE clause and your ability to identify and retrieve records belonging to a particular category. This skill is fundamental in departmental analysis or where team-based reporting is required. It demonstrating your proficiency in extracting relevant information from a database.

Here’s the query for this request:

Select DISTINCT E.EmpID, E.EmpFname, E.DepartmentFROM EmployeeInfo E, Employee E1 
WHERE E.Department = E1.Department AND E.EmpID != E1.EmpID;

What is a Database?

This question can be most probably asked among various other SQL interview questions. A database refers to a structured collection of data that can be stored, maintained, and accessed digitally from a local or remote computer network. A fixed design and modeling technique is used to build databases, which can be large and complex. Large databases are housed on multiple computers or cloud services, whereas smaller databases can be stored on a file system.

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 What are RDBMS and DBMS? Describe the variations between them.

System software that really can create, retrieve, update, and administer a database is known as a database management system or DBMS. DBMA serves the role of an interface between the database and its users or application software, it maintains data consistency, ensures it is structured, and assures that it is easily available. DBMSs can be divided into four categories:

• Hierarchical database: Data is kept in a hierarchical style in a database with a tree-like structure. A parent in a database can have several children, but a child can only have one parent.
• Network databases: These databases are displayed as graphs with many-to-many relationships, enabling parents to have more than one kid.
• Relational database: The most popular and user-friendly database is the relational one. Stored values in the columns and rows are arranged in a table and are connected by relationships.
• Object-oriented database: In this sort of database, the data values and operations are kept as objects, and these objects have many relationships among them.

What is SQL?

SQL is known as Structured Query Language. It is the preferred language for RDBMS and can be used to manage structured data with variables or entities with relationships. For interacting with databases, SQL is employed.

As stated by ANSI, SQL is used to manage RDBMS and to carry out various data manipulation operations on various sorts of data. In essence, it is a database language that is used to create and delete databases. It can also be used, along with a few other things, to retrieve and change the rows of the table. This is amid one of the majorly asked SQL interview questions or even SQL query interview questions and answers.

What are Joins in SQL?

Among the many SQL query interview questions and answers, this is a definite one.

The join function in SQL merges rows from two or more tables based on a shared column. Depending on how the tables are related to one another, different forms of joins can be utilized to get data.

Four different forms of joins exist:

• Inner join
• Left join
• Right join
• Full join

What are the applications of SQL?

The major applications of SQL are:

• writing scripts for data integration
• Configuring and executing analytical queries
• retrieving specific data from a database to be used in transaction processing and analytics
• adding, changing, and removing rows and columns of data in a database

What are the usages of SQL?

This is one of the top SQL coding interview questions asked by the interviewer. Here are a few operations performed by SQL:-

• Creating new databases
• Inserting new data
• Deleting existing data
• Updating records
• Retrieving the data
• Creating and dropping tables
• Creating functions and views
• Converting data types

What is an index?

Indexing enables a faster database search. The SQL server tends to scan the entire database and verify each row to retrieve matches if a column of the WHERE clause contains no index. This could slow down operations in huge data sets.

Indexes locate all rows matching a specific set of columns, which enables users to easily go through only those parts of the data for matches.

What are the Constraints in SQL?

Constraints in SQL are rules or conditions that you can apply to the columns of a table to add data integrity and support the accuracy and consistency of the data stored in the database. Moreover, it help ensure that the data meets certain criteria and prevent incorrect or inconsistent data from being inserted, updated, or deleted.

Here are some common types of constraints in SQL:

• Primary Key Constraint

It ensures that a column uniquely identifies every row in a table. It enforces the uniqueness and not-null property of the specified column(s), making them suitable for identifying records. A table can have only one primary key.

• Unique Constraint

It enforces the uniqueness of values in a column or a set of columns. Unlike a primary key, a unique constraint allows null values, but only one row can have a null value in the constrained column(s).

• Foreign Key Constraint

It create a relationship by joining two tables by ensuring that values in one table’s column (the foreign key) match the values in another table’s primary key column (the referenced key). This helps maintain data integrity and enforce referential integrity.

• Check Constraint

A check constraint allows you to define a condition that must be true for the data in a column. It restricts the values inserted or updated in the column based on the specified condition.

• Not Null Constraint

It ensures that each column cannot have null values. It enforces that a value must be provided for the column when inserting a new row.

What are the differences between OLTP and OLAP?

OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) and OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) are distinct database architectures with different purposes. OLTP focuses on managing day-to-day operational data and handling transactional workloads in real time. It involves frequent small updates, insertions, and deletions. On the other hand, OLAP is designed for complex analytical queries involving large volumes of historical data. It supports decision-making processes by enabling users to perform advanced data analysis, aggregation, and reporting.

OLTP databases are optimized for high-speed data manipulation, ensuring data integrity and enforcing constraints, such as primary and foreign keys. OLAP databases are optimized for read-heavy tasks and use techniques like data cubes and indexing to retrieve and analyze data efficiently.

In summary, OLTP is tailored for operational efficiency and real-time transactional processing, while OLAP caters to analytical tasks, enabling users to gain insights from historical data. The differences lie in usage, data volumes, query complexity, and optimization strategies.

What is Collation? What are the different types of Collation Sensitivity?

Collation in a database context refers to the rules governing how string comparison and sorting operations are performed on character data. It determines how characters are compared, whether they are treated as case-sensitive or case-insensitive, and how accented or special characters are treated.

Collation sensitivity refers to how a collation treats different aspects of character comparison:

• Case Sensitivity

In case-sensitive collations, uppercase and lowercase letters are considered distinct. For example, in a case-sensitive collation, ‘A’ and ‘a’ are treated as different characters. In case-insensitive collations, the distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters is ignored in comparisons.

• Accent Sensitivity

Accent-sensitive collations consider accented characters as distinct from their non-accented counterparts. For instance, ‘é’ and ‘e’ would be treated as different characters in an accent-sensitive collation. In accent-insensitive collations, accents are ignored during comparison.

• Kana Sensitivity (for Japanese)

This is relevant for Japanese collations. Kana-sensitive collations treat different Japanese kana characters as distinct, while kana-insensitive collations consider them equivalent.

• Width Sensitivity

This aspect applies to the width of characters, particularly relevant in East Asian languages where characters can have full-width and half-width forms. Width-sensitive collations differentiate between full-width and half-width characters, while width-insensitive collations do not.

How to explain SQL query in an interview?

When explaining an SQL query in an interview, follow these steps to make your explanation clear and structured:

• Introduce the Context:
  • Briefly describe the business problem or scenario that the query is addressing.
  • Mention the database or tables involved.
• State the Objective:
  • Clearly state what the query is designed to accomplish, such as retrieving specific data, updating records, or aggregating information.
• Break Down the Query Structure:
  • SELECT Clause:
    • Explain the columns or data being retrieved and why they are relevant.
  • FROM Clause:
    • Identify the tables involved and describe their role in the query.
  • JOINs (if applicable):
    • Discuss any joins between tables, specifying the type of join (INNER, LEFT, etc.) and why it is used.
  • WHERE Clause:
    • Detail the filtering criteria used to narrow down the data set and the rationale behind these conditions.
  • GROUP BY Clause (if applicable):
    • Explain how and why the data is grouped, and what aggregate functions (SUM, COUNT, etc.) are applied.
  • ORDER BY Clause (if applicable):
    • Describe how the results are sorted and the importance of the sorting order.
• Highlight Key Functions and Expressions:
  • Point out any specific SQL functions or expressions used, like CASE, IF, or date functions, and explain their purpose in the query.
• Discuss Performance Considerations:
  • Mention any optimizations or indexing strategies used to improve query performance.
• Summarize the Output:
  • Conclude by summarizing what the query’s output will be and how it addresses the initial business problem or requirement.
• Be Prepared for Follow-up Questions:
  • Anticipate possible questions about alternative approaches, scalability, or the impact of the query on the database system.

This structured approach will help you convey your understanding of the SQL query comprehensively and logically.

Conclusion

With that, we come to the end of our SQL query interview questions for experienced professionals list. We hope that these queries give you a fair idea of the standard SQL query pattern and how to create SQL queries. The more you practice, the better you will get at writing SQL queries to access and manipulate data in a data table.

If you are curious to improve your SQL knowledge, and more about full stack development, check out IIIT-B & upGrad’s PG Diploma in Full Stack Software Development which is created for working professionals and offers 10+ case studies & projects, practical hands-on workshops, mentorship with industry experts, 1-on-1 with industry mentors, 400+ hours of learning and job assistance with top firms. It also includes various SQL coding interview questions that will help you practice for the interview.