SQL Interview Questions for Freshers (Beginner Guide)

What entry-level interviews ask

Fresher SQL rounds focus on fundamentals: writing correct SELECT queries, filtering with WHERE, understanding NULL, grouping with GROUP BY and HAVING, and the difference between INNER and LEFT JOIN.

Questions are short and the data is small — the filter is correctness and clean thinking, not performance tricks.

The 15-minute refresher

Be ready to write these from memory: SELECT with WHERE and ORDER BY; COUNT with and without DISTINCT; GROUP BY with HAVING; INNER vs LEFT JOIN; COALESCE and IS NULL; a simple subquery.

Practice until each takes under two minutes. The easy questions on SQLBuddy are exactly this set.

Practice questions

• easyActive Users Per Day
• easyArticle Views I
• easyAverage Process Time Per Machine
• easyBig Countries
• easyClasses With At Least 5 Students
• easyCustomers Without Orders
• easyDuplicate Emails
• easyEmployee Bonus
• easyEmployees Earning More Than Their Manager
• easyFind Customer Referee
• easyInvalid Tweets
• easyRecyclable and Low Fat Products
• easySecond Highest Salary
• easySubjects Taught By Each Teacher
• easyVisits Without Transactions
• mediumCustomers Who Bought All Products
• mediumDepartments by Average Salary
• mediumMonthly Sales Ranking
• mediumNth Highest Salary
• mediumOrders Gap Analysis
• mediumPivot Quarterly Sales
• mediumUsers With the Most Friends
• hardTop Three Per Category

Topics

• SELECT and WHERE
• GROUP BY
• SQL JOINs
• NULL Handling

Guides

• SQL JOINs Explained: Inner, Left, Self, and Anti-Joins

  Understand INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, self joins and anti-joins through SQL interview questions, with the double-counting and NULL pitfalls that trip up candidates.