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10 Common Theory Questions in SQL Tests

This document contains 10 SQL theory questions and answers about relational databases, the relational database management system (RDBMS), different types of joins, the WHERE and HAVING clauses, UNION and UNION ALL, RANK and DENSE RANK, aggregation functions, window functions, FULL OUTER JOIN vs CROSS JOIN, and the order of execution in SQL statements.

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240 views

10 Common Theory Questions in SQL Tests

This document contains 10 SQL theory questions and answers about relational databases, the relational database management system (RDBMS), different types of joins, the WHERE and HAVING clauses, UNION and UNION ALL, RANK and DENSE RANK, aggregation functions, window functions, FULL OUTER JOIN vs CROSS JOIN, and the order of execution in SQL statements.

Uploaded by

MAK TV
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SQL TESTS

COMMON THEORY QUESTIONS

+ ANSWERS
QUESTION 01

Q) WHAT IS A RELATIONAL
DATABASE?

A relational database is a collection


of tabular datasets (columns &
rows) that relate to each other
through shared columns
QUESTION 02

RELATIONAL
Q) EXPLAIN WHAT A

DATABASE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM (RDBMS) IS

A Relational Database Management


System (RDBMS) is software that
allows you to create and access a
relational database, and execute
commands & queries on the data within
it
QUESTION 03

Q) EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN AN INNER JOIN & A LEFT


JOIN

An inner join returns rows where


there is a match (on the join
condition) in BOTH tables

A left join returns all rows from


the left table, even if there are no
matches in the right table. Where
no match is found, we are returned
null values
QUESTION 04

Q) EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN THE WHERE CLAUSE AND


THE HAVING CLAUSE

The WHERE clause is used to apply


conditions/filters BEFORE any
aggregation takes place (or where no
aggregation takes place)

The HAVING clause is used to apply


conditions/filters AFTER aggregation
takes place
QUESTION 05

Q) EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN UNION & UNION ALL

Both are used to stack multiple


datasets together (provided the
datasets have matching columns)

UNION removes duplicate records


from the resulting dataset...UNION ALL
does not

>> UNION is often slower than UNION


ALL due to the extra resource
required to remove duplicates
QUESTION 06

Q) EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN RANK & DENSE RANK


RANK will give tied values the same
ranking. Following the tie it will assign
the next ranking based on the number
of rows (essentially skipping rankings)

DENSE RANK also gives tied values the


same ranking but following the tie will
go to the next number sequentially

>> Example
For the values [ 10, 10, 10, 11, 12 ]

RANK gives [ 1, 1, 1, 4, 5 ]
DENSE RANK gives [ 1, 1, 1, 2, 3 ]
QUESTION 07

Q) EXPLAIN WHAT AN AGGREGATION

FUNCTION DOES (AND LIST 3)

An Aggregation Function performs


calculations on set of values, and
returns a single value. (When
aggregating value by group(s), we also
use the GROUP BY statement)

Common ones are...

[ COUNT, SUM, AVG, MAX, MIN ]


QUESTION 08

Q) EXPLAIN WHAT A WINDOW

FUNCTION DOES (AND LIST 3)

Window functions look at values from


a set of rows (the window) and based
on this, return a value for each row

Any of...

[ RANK, DENSE RANK, ROW NUMBER, NTILE,

LAG, LEAD, FIRST VALUE, LAST VALUE ]


QUESTION 09

Q) EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN A FULL OUTER JOIN & A


CROSS JOIN
A CROSS JOIN returns all possible
combinations of rows in both tables
(also - there is no ON condition)

A FULL OUTER JOIN returns all


possible rows from each table. Where
a match is found (based on the join
condition) we are returned the values
from the other table, otherwise we
are returned null values.

>> A FULL OUTER JOIN is essentially


like executing both a left join and right
join at the same time
QUESTION 10

Q) WHAT IS MEANT BY THE "ORDER

OF EXECUTION" IN SQL

The "order of execution" is the order


in which clauses within a query are
evaluated by the system

The order is...


FROM
JOIN + ON
WHERE
GROUP BY
HAVING
SELECT (& Window Functions)
ORDER BY
LIMIT

Knowing this can be useful when


looking to optimise queries

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