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Top1oo Entry Level SQL Interview Question

The document contains 100 entry level SQL interview questions and answers. It covers basic SQL concepts like SELECT statements, WHERE clauses, JOINs, aggregation functions, and data definition commands.

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Top1oo Entry Level SQL Interview Question

Uploaded by

himanshu

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TOP 100 ENTRY LEVEL SQL

INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

employee

emp_id first_name emp_sal emp_dept

001 Michael $10,000 IS Ini Akpabio

002 Susan $12,000 HR
1. What does SQL stand for?
Answer: SQL stands for Structured Query Language.

2. What is a database?
Answer: A database is a structured collection of data.

3. What is a table in a database?

Answer: A table is a collection of related data entries organized in rows and columns.

Answer: A record is a complete set of fields representing a single entry in a

table.

5. What is a column in a database table?

Answer: A column is a set of data values of a particular type within a table.

6. Explain the basic syntax of the SELECT statement.

Answer: SELECT column1, column2 FROM table_name WHERE condition;

Answer: SELECT * FROM employees;

8. What is a WHERE clause used for in a SQL query?

Answer: The WHERE clause is used to ﬁlter records based on a speciﬁed condition.

9. How do you sort the result set of a query in ascending order by a column named "salary"?

Answer: SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY salary ASC;

Answer: The DISTINCT keyword is used to retrieve unique values in a column.

11. What does the LIMIT clause do in a SQL query?

Answer: The LIMIT clause is used to limit the number of rows returned in a result set.

12. What is the diﬀerence between CHAR and VARCHAR data types?

Answer: CHAR is a ﬁxedlength string, while VARCHAR is a variablelength string.

14. What is the purpose of the UPDATE statement?

Answer: The UPDATE statement is used to modify existing records in a table.

15. How do you delete all records from a table named "orders"?

Answer: DELETE FROM orders;

Answer: An aggregate function performs a calculation on a set of values and returns a

single value.

17. What is the result of the COUNT(*) function in SQL?

Answer: COUNT(*) returns the number of rows in a table.

18. Explain the concept of NULL in a database.

Answer: NULL represents the absence of a value in a database.

Answer: SELECT * FROM table1 INNER JOIN table2 ON table1.column =

table2.column;

21. What is the purpose of the BETWEEN operator in a SQL query?

Answer: The BETWEEN operator is used to ﬁlter the result set within a speciﬁc range.

Answer: SELECT DISTINCT category FROM products;

23. What is the purpose of the LIKE operator in a SQL query?

Answer: The LIKE operator is used to search for a speciﬁed pattern in a column.

24. What is the default sorting order in a SQL query?

Answer: The default sorting order is ascending (ASC).

Answer: SELECT AVG(price) FROM products;

27. What is the purpose of the ORDER BY clause in a SQL query?

Answer: ORDER BY is used to sort the result set based on one or more columns.

Answer: UPDATE inventory SET quantity = new_value WHERE product = 'Widget';

29. What is the purpose of the DISTINCT keyword in a SELECT statement?

Answer: DISTINCT is used to retrieve unique values in a column.

30. Explain the basic syntax of the INSERT INTO statement.

Answer: `INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, ...) VALUES (value1, value2,
...);

Answer: SELECT * FROM employees LIMIT n;

32. What is the purpose of the AVG() function in SQL?

Answer: AVG() calculates the average value of a numeric column.

33. How do you remove a table named "customers" from a database?

Answer: DROP TABLE customers;

Answer: DESC is used to sort the result set in descending order.

35. Explain the basic syntax of the DELETE statement.

Answer: DELETE FROM table_name WHERE condition;

36. How do you retrieve the total number of records in a table named "orders"?

Answer: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM orders;

Answer: SUM() calculates the sum of values in a numeric column.

38. How do you rename a column named "old_column" to "new_column" in a table named
"my_table"?

Answer: ALTER TABLE my_table RENAME COLUMN old_column TO new_column;

39. Explain the concept of a foreign key in a database.

Answer: A foreign key is a column or a set of columns that refers to the primary key of
another table.

Answer: SELECT * FROM transactions ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT n;

41. What is the purpose of the MIN() function in SQL?

Answer: MIN() returns the minimum value in a numeric column.

42. Explain the basic syntax of the UPDATE statement.

Answer: `UPDATE table_name SET column1 = value1, column2 = value2 WHERE

condition;

Answer: ALTER TABLE my_table ADD COLUMN new_column datatype;

44. What is the purpose of the COUNT() function in SQL?

Answer: COUNT() returns the number of rows in a result set.

45. Explain the concept of the NULLIF() function in SQL.

Answer: NULLIF() returns NULL if two expressions are equal; otherwise, it returns
the ﬁrst expression.

Answer: SELECT DISTINCT color FROM products;

47. What is the purpose of the TOP keyword in a SQL query?

Answer: TOP is used to limit the number of rows returned in a result set.

48. How do you retrieve the second highest value from a column named "score" in a table
named "students"?

Answer: SELECT MAX(score) FROM students WHERE score < (SELECT

MAX(score) FROM students);

Answer: CREATE TABLE table_name (column1 datatype, column2 datatype, …);

50. How do you retrieve the current date and time in a SQL query?

Answer: SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;

51. What is the purpose of the LIKE operator in a SQL query?

Answer: The LIKE operator is used for pattern matching within a speciﬁed column.

Answer: SELECT * FROM products ORDER BY sales DESC LIMIT n;

53. Explain the purpose of the TRUNCATE TABLE statement.

Answer: TRUNCATE TABLE is used to delete all rows from a table but retains the
structure for future use.

54. How do you add a constraint to a column named "age" to ensure it only contains positive
values?

Answer: ALTER TABLE table_name ADD CONSTRAINT check_age CHECK (age >
0);
TOP 100 ENTRY LEVEL SQL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Ini Akpabio
55. What is the purpose of the IN operator in a SQL query?

Answer: The IN operator is used to specify multiple values in a WHERE clause.

56. How do you retrieve the current user in a SQL query?

Answer: SELECT CURRENT_USER;

57. Explain the basic syntax of the CREATE DATABASE statement.

Answer: CREATE DATABASE database_name;

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE status IN ('Open', 'Pending');

59. What is the purpose of the UNION operator in a SQL query?

Answer: UNION is used to combine the results of two or more SELECT statements.

60. How do you retrieve records where a column named "name" starts with the letter 'A'?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE name LIKE 'A%';

Answer: SELECT AVG(salary) FROM employees;

63. Explain the concept of a composite key in a database.

Answer: A composite key consists of two or more columns that together uniquely
identify a record.

Answer: SELECT * FROM transactions ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 1;

65. What is the purpose of the RAND() function in a SQL query?

Answer: RAND() generates a random number between 0 and 1.

66. How do you retrieve records where a column named "date" falls within a speciﬁc range?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE date BETWEEN 'start_date' AND

'end_date';

Answer: SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT category) FROM products;

69. Explain the basic syntax of the CREATE INDEX statement.

Answer: CREATE INDEX index_name ON table_name (column1, column2, ...);

Answer: SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary = (SELECT MAX(salary)

FROM employees);

71. What is the purpose of the ANY operator in a SQL query?

Answer: ANY is used to compare a value to any value in another result set or a list.

72. How do you retrieve the current month from a date column named "order_date"?

Answer: SELECT MONTH(order_date) FROM table_name;

Answer: CASCADE automatically deletes or updates the corresponding records in the

child table when a record in the parent table is deleted or updated.

74. How do you retrieve the total number of records in a table named "customers" where the
city is 'New York'?

Answer: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM customers WHERE city = 'New York';

75. What is the purpose of the BETWEEN operator in a SQL query?

Answer: BETWEEN is used to ﬁlter the result set within a speciﬁc range.

Answer: SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary = (SELECT MIN(salary) FROM

employees);

77. Explain the basic syntax of the CREATE VIEW statement.

Answer: CREATE VIEW view_name AS SELECT column1, column2, ... FROM

table_name WHERE condition;

78. How do you retrieve the records where a column named "quantity" is not equal to 0?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE quantity <> 0;

Answer: SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary = (SELECT MIN(salary) FROM

employees);

77. Explain the basic syntax of the CREATE VIEW statement.

Answer: CREATE VIEW view_name AS SELECT column1, column2, ... FROM

table_name WHERE condition;

78. How do you retrieve the records where a column named "quantity" is not equal to 0?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE quantity <> 0;

Answer: COALESCE() returns the ﬁrst nonnull expression in a list.

80. How do you retrieve the total number of records in a table named "products" where the
price is greater than 50?

Answer: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM products WHERE price > 50;

81. Explain the purpose of the JOIN clause in a SQL query.

Answer: JOIN is used to combine rows from two or more tables based on a related
column.

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE name LIKE '%Tech%';

83. What is the purpose of the CASE statement in SQL?

Answer: CASE is used to perform conditional logic in a SQL query.

84. How do you retrieve records where a column named "date" is in the current year?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE YEAR(date) =

YEAR(CURRENT_DATE);

Answer: SELECT DISTINCT category, sub_category FROM products;

87. What is the purpose of the DISTINCT keyword in a SQL query?

Answer: DISTINCT is used to retrieve unique values in a column.

TOP 100 ENTRY LEVEL SQL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Ini Akpabio
88. How do you retrieve records where a column named "name" ends with the letter 's'?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE name LIKE '%s';

89. Explain the concept of the CHECK constraint in SQL.

Answer: CHECK is used to limit the range of values that can be placed in a column.

90. How do you retrieve records where a column named "price" is in the range of 20 to 50?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE price BETWEEN 20 AND 50;

Answer: AVG() calculates the average value of a numeric column.

92. How do you retrieve records where a column named "name" is not null?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE name IS NOT NULL;

93. Explain the purpose of the MAX() function in SQL.

Answer: MAX() returns the maximum value in a numeric column.

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE status IN ('Complete', 'Cancelled');

95. What is the purpose of the MIN() function in SQL?

Answer: MIN() returns the minimum value in a numeric column.

96. How do you retrieve records where a column named "date" is in the past month?

Answer: SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE date >= DATE_SUB(CURDATE(),

INTERVAL 1 MONTH);

Answer: UNIQUE ensures that all values in a column are unique.

98. How do you retrieve the records with the highest salary from a table named "employees"
excluding duplicates?