SQL Interview Questions for Freshers
Basic SQL Questions
Q: What is SQL?
A: Structured Query Language used to interact with databases.
Q: Difference between SQL and MySQL?
A: SQL = language, MySQL = RDBMS.
Q: What are DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL commands?
A: DDL → CREATE, ALTER, DROP DML → SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE DCL →
GRANT, REVOKE TCL → COMMIT, ROLLBACK, SAVEPOINT
Q: Difference between DELETE, TRUNCATE, and DROP.
A: DELETE → removes rows (WHERE allowed, rollback possible) TRUNCATE → removes all rows
(faster, no WHERE) DROP → removes the entire table schema
Q: Difference between CHAR and VARCHAR?
A: CHAR → fixed length, VARCHAR → variable length
Query Writing Questions
Q: Fetch employees with salary > 50,000
A: SELECT * FROM Employees WHERE Salary > 50000;
Q: Find 2nd highest salary
A: SELECT MAX(Salary) FROM Employees WHERE Salary < (SELECT MAX(Salary) FROM
Employees);
Q: Count employees in each department
A: SELECT DeptID, COUNT(*) FROM Employees GROUP BY DeptID;
Q: Fetch duplicate records
A: SELECT Name, COUNT(*) FROM Employees GROUP BY Name HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;
Q: Employees without manager
A: SELECT * FROM Employees WHERE ManagerID IS NULL;
Joins & Relationships
Q: Types of Joins
A: INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, FULL OUTER JOIN, CROSS JOIN
Q: Employee names with department names
A: SELECT E.Name, D.DeptName FROM Employees E INNER JOIN Departments D ON E.DeptID
= D.DeptID;
Q: Difference between WHERE and HAVING
A: WHERE → filters rows before grouping, HAVING → filters groups after GROUP BY
Q: What is a Self Join?
A: Joining a table with itself (like finding manager-employee relations).
Indexes & Keys
Q: Primary Key, Foreign Key, Unique Key
A: Primary Key → unique row, no NULL Foreign Key → links two tables Unique Key → ensures
unique values, allows NULL
Q: What is an Index?
A: Improves query performance by reducing search time.
Q: Clustered vs Non-Clustered Index
A: Clustered → sorts & stores rows (1 per table) Non-clustered → separate structure (many
allowed)
Advanced Concepts
Q: What is Normalization?
A: Organizing data to reduce redundancy (1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF).
Q: What is Denormalization?
A: Opposite of normalization, improves query performance by adding redundancy.
Q: What is a View?
A: Virtual table created using a query.
Q: UNION vs UNION ALL
A: UNION → removes duplicates, UNION ALL → keeps duplicates
Q: Stored Procedure vs Function
A: Procedure → can return multiple values, supports DML Function → returns single value, used in
SELECT
Q: ACID Properties
A: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability
Q: What are Transactions?
A: A unit of work that can be committed or rolled back.
Scenario-Based
Q: Nth Highest Salary
A: SELECT Salary FROM Employees E1 WHERE (N-1) = (SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT Salary)
FROM Employees E2 WHERE E2.Salary > E1.Salary);
Q: Employees joined in last 30 days
A: SELECT * FROM Employees WHERE JoinDate >= DATEADD(DAY, -30, GETDATE());
Q: Correlated vs Normal Subquery
A: Normal → independent query inside another query Correlated → inner query depends on outer
query
SQL Interview Questions for Freshers (40
Questions)
Q: What is Database?
A: A structured collection of data stored and managed electronically.
Q: What is DBMS?
A: Database Management System – software used to create and manage databases.
Q: What is RDBMS? How is it different from DBMS?
A: Relational DBMS stores data in tables with relationships. DBMS may or may not use tables.
Q: What is SQL?
A: Structured Query Language used for managing and querying databases.
Q: What is the difference between SQL and MySQL?
A: SQL is a query language. MySQL is a relational database system.
Q: What are Tables and Fields?
A: Table = collection of rows & columns. Field = column in a table.
Q: What are Constraints in SQL?
A: Rules applied to table columns (e.g., NOT NULL, UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY).
Q: What is a Primary Key?
A: A unique identifier for each row in a table.
Q: What is a UNIQUE constraint?
A: Ensures all values in a column are unique.
Q: What is a Foreign Key?
A: A column that refers to the primary key of another table.
Q: What is a Join? List its different types.
A: Joins combine rows from multiple tables. Types: INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL, CROSS.
Q: What is a Self-Join?
A: Joining a table with itself to compare rows within the same table.
Q: What is a Cross-Join?
A: Returns the Cartesian product of two tables.
Q: What is an Index? Explain its different types.
A: Index speeds up searches. Types: Clustered and Non-clustered.
Q: What is the difference between Clustered and Non-clustered index?
A: Clustered → sorts & stores data rows; only one allowed. Non-clustered → separate index
structure; many allowed.
Q: What is Data Integrity?
A: Ensuring accuracy and consistency of data in a database.
Q: What is a Query?
A: A request to retrieve or manipulate data in a database.
Q: What is a Subquery? What are its types?
A: A query inside another query. Types: Correlated and Non-correlated.
Q: What is the SELECT statement?
A: Used to fetch data from one or more tables.
Q: What are some common clauses used with SELECT query in SQL?
A: WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, ORDER BY, LIMIT.
Q: What are UNION, MINUS and INTERSECT commands?
A: UNION → combine results, removes duplicates. MINUS → difference. INTERSECT → common
rows.
Q: What is Cursor? How to use a Cursor?
A: Cursor is a pointer to fetch row-by-row results. Used in stored procedures.
Q: What are Entities and Relationships?
A: Entity = object (table). Relationship = association between entities.
Q: List the different types of relationships in SQL.
A: One-to-One, One-to-Many, Many-to-Many.
Q: What is an Alias in SQL?
A: Temporary name given to a table or column using AS.
Q: What is a View?
A: A virtual table based on the result of a query.
Q: What is Normalization?
A: Organizing data to reduce redundancy.
Q: What is Denormalization?
A: Adding redundancy to improve performance.
Q: What are the various forms of Normalization?
A: 1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF, 4NF, 5NF.
Q: What are the TRUNCATE, DELETE and DROP statements?
A: DELETE → remove rows, TRUNCATE → remove all rows, DROP → remove table.
Q: What is the difference between DROP and TRUNCATE statements?
A: DROP deletes schema and data, TRUNCATE only deletes rows.
Q: What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE statements?
A: DELETE → slower, supports WHERE & rollback. TRUNCATE → faster, no WHERE, minimal
logging.
Q: What are Aggregate and Scalar functions?
A: Aggregate → operate on set (SUM, AVG). Scalar → operate on single value (LEN, UPPER).
Q: What is User-defined function? What are its various types?
A: Custom function created by user. Types: Scalar, Inline, Multi-statement.
Q: What is OLTP?
A: Online Transaction Processing → handles day-to-day transactions.
Q: What are the differences between OLTP and OLAP?
A: OLTP = transactional, OLAP = analytical.
Q: What is Collation? What are the different types of Collation Sensitivity?
A: Collation defines how data is sorted/compared. Sensitivities: Case, Accent, Kana, Width.
Q: What is a Stored Procedure?
A: A precompiled set of SQL statements stored in the database.
Q: What is a Recursive Stored Procedure?
A: Procedure that calls itself until a condition is met.
Q: How to create empty tables with the same structure as another table?
A: CREATE TABLE new_table AS SELECT * FROM old_table WHERE 1=0;
