r/learnSQL

I have completed my graduation and have been practicing SQL from a while including stored procedures , triggers.

I want to know what are some certifications that i have to do it or any good platforms to practice/solve and get certifications

or should I do some projects (pls tell me if u know what type of projects )

Thank you

Hi,

I'm a sql dev with dba ambitions. I work daily with SQL, and fiddle a lot with SSMS. Trying to figure out query store, query plans, indexes and the whole shabang. Meaning, I watch a lot of youtube like Brent and Baraa, follow some Udemy-courses and even pick up a book every now and then.

But, I find it hard to keep track. Just followed some tutorials on Query tuning. And looking at it, it kinda makes sense. But how to remember it all?

I'm thinking of getting an old school note pad, and write along with the lot. But then again.. there is SOO much to keep track of.
Will I be able to find the things i've written down when I need it? Surely, it will help getting things crammed in my brain, but perhaps other ways?

I've also thought of a .MD file, so it's searchable, links and things. Might be an option as well.

Just curious how you guys keep track of the things you learn.

I’m currently learning SQL and recently wrote a simple beginner-friendly article about SQL transformations.

When working with data, transformations become really important because you often need to:

• change data formats
• calculate values
• clean data
• combine text
• or prepare data for analysis

Sometimes a number is stored as text and needs to be converted.
Sometimes data contains unwanted values or formatting that needs to be cleaned up.

So I wrote an article explaining:

• how SQL transformations work
• simple practical examples
• and common beginner use cases

I also added a small SQL Formula Sheet at the end 😊

As someone still learning SQL myself, I tried to explain things in a very simple and practical way instead of making it overly technical.

https://medium.com/@meryem_cebeci/learning-sql-step-by-step-transformations-explained-b2b37a0f9fbb

Say I have a table with users:

USERS

-----

ID

EMAIL

PASSWORD

CREATED_AT

UPDATED_AT

then I also create a table to track changes:

USERS_LOGS

----------

USER_ID

TIMESTAMP

ID

EMAIL

PASSWORD

CREATED_AT

UPDATED_AT

Does it make sense to have CreatedAt and UpdatedAt on the USERS entity if there is already a "TIMESTAMP" field in USERS_LOGS?

I use beekeeper studio but I was thinking if there is any database client with AI enabled within. Which rectifies my queries if there is some minor error

Please share if you know of any such client paid or free.

As of now I just copy it and share it in chatgpt or ask claude code to generate it while performing a task

I need help in merging documents in power bi can someone help me?

Hi guys,

I want to learn basic SQL for PM role. i searched but it got me confused. could you advice me how can i learn SQL that will be useful for PM roles, or is there any certification that is useful. I also dont want to take cert and forget SQL in 2-3 months.

How can I optimize my use of Claude for developing SQL queries in Oracle? I have been considering exploring Code or Cowork to build something that could improve my workflow, but I am not sure what would be the most useful to create.

I've been using dbt and bigquery for a while and discovered how much the duo is just wow .
Curious to know your using dbt with what ?

I'm a bit peeved as I did a SQL test with an interviewer the other day, and the interviewer deliberately steered me away from the correct answer. It had to do with averages of salary for each manager, but 1 of the managers had no employees. You do a simple average on it, but it doesn't return an average for the manager with no employees.

I started to re-write the query to use COALESCE, which is correct, but the interviewer said that query is not returning nulls, so why would COALESCE help here.

I should have trusted myself and finished it that way, but deleted that new part and tried some other ways.

Lesson, trust your instincts, and COALESCE will let you return 0 if a category has no entries.

It claims to cover enough SQL to cover all the basics, as well as some other advanced stuff. It says it should take the average learner 119 hours to complete the entire thing. I was mainly looking for a course that provides rigorous practise because I dont learn from just watching and not coding, and this one seems like it has hundreds of practise problems which is the true metric for the value of a course for me personally.

Has anyone actually done this course yet? If so, id love to know if it was worth it. I am a complete beginner in SQL, I've only ever done Python and C++.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I’ve been building a free SQL practice site focused on window functions, and one thing I kept wanting to build was a simple beginner-friendly cheat sheet so users could scroll through quickly while practicing.

So I made one.

It covers:

• PARTITION BY and ORDER BY
• ROW_NUMBER, RANK, DENSE_RANK
• LAG / LEAD
• Running totals
• Rolling averages
• Frame clauses
• Common window function patterns

I also added practice problems/examples throughout instead of making it just syntax definitions.

Free, no signup required:

PracticeWindowFunctions Cheat Sheet

Would love feedback from people learning or teaching SQL.

Does anyone have resources for advanced databases? I took a course in university but it was subpar or the teaching style didn't match my learning style. Basically, we were given SQL problems but never given the answers or any feedback to the homework so it was hard to figure out what I did wrong specifically.

When I took the prereq. course, the way the professor set up the assignments was to give us the problems sets along with the query output. It didn't always mean that we had the correct SQL query, even if the output was identical, but learning that way really helped me think critically and correct my mistake because I could compare my output and adjust my query accordingly.

If anyone has any resources (websites, courses, books) I'd appreciate it, thanks!

I am a conplete non tech guy, an accountant.

I want to learn python, sql and other leading data analysis.

I am currently learning sql via the sql for the beginner playlist of kvenkat from youtube. Should i make a notebook and take down the concepts to revise it for later?

I'm currently looking to overhaul how I teach database basics (highschool level) and I'm getting tired of the regular approach from textbooks, learning tools, etc. Everything feels too curated, too academic and overly focused on rote memorisation of concepts and defintions.

I want a more "hands on" approach that leaves the students with a firm grasp of the basics, but in a way that would enable them to actually apply that knowledge to small, useful solutions on their own if they wanted to. That's how I teach coding basics and it is quite successful.

But for that I need new classroom tools and it came down to these two for me. Both have their own merits and advantages, and I don't want to use dedicated learning platforms because I want something that at least approximates real workflow, but I'd like some more input:

What would you use for that and why? What have you used and how did it turn out?

Thank you.

I’m one of the founders of a new AI database tool called InQery.

One thing we added early was pre-connected demo databases so people can start learning/exploring without setting up Postgres, SQL Server, sample data, credentials, etc.

The workflow is: ask a question, inspect the schema context, generate SQL, run it, and then review/edit the query with the agent.

We also built in query explanations — when SQL is generated the agent breaks down why certain tables were chosen, how joins work, what the filters are doing — which we originally built for onboarding into unfamiliar codebases but seems like it could be useful for learners too.

I’m curious whether this would actually be useful for people learning SQL, or whether it risks becoming a crutch. I’m happy to share access if allowed, but mostly looking for honest feedback on the learning workflow. I want to know where AI genuinely improves learning versus where traditional methods are still superior.

I’ve been wanting to learn SQL for a while because it seems useful for so many jobs and side projects, but I honestly don’t know where to start. Most tutorials I find either move way too fast or make it feel super dry.

Does anyone have recommendations for beginner-friendly courses, YouTube channels, websites, or practice projects that actually helped you learn SQL without getting overwhelmed?