SQL Guide for Software QA’s

By-
REEHAN NIZAMI SHAZADA

Introduction
This document provides detailed explanations and SQL queries for commonly asked questions in QA
interviews. These queries help in data validation, database testing, and automation scripts for
QA professionals.

1. Find Employees Whose Salary Exceeds the Company's

Average Salary
Query:

SELECT name, salary

FROM employees

WHERE salary > (SELECT AVG(salary) FROM employees);

Explanation:

AVG(salary) calculates the average salary.

The subquery retrieves the average salary.
The WHERE salary > condition filters employees earning above average.

2. Retrieve Employees Who Work in the Same Department as

'John Doe'
Query:

SELECT name

FROM employees

WHERE department_id = (

SELECT department_id FROM employees WHERE name = 'John Doe'

 );

Explanation:

The subquery gets 'John Doe''s department_id.

The main query finds all employees in that department.

3. Find the Second Highest Salary Without Using MAX() Twice

Query:

SELECT MAX(salary) AS second_highest_salary

FROM employees

WHERE salary < (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees);

Explanation:

The first MAX(salary) gets the highest salary.

The WHERE salary < condition filters out the highest salary, leaving the second highest.

4. Find Customers Who Placed More Than 5 Orders

Query:

SELECT customer_id, COUNT(*) AS total_orders

FROM orders

GROUP BY customer_id

HAVING COUNT(*) > 5;

Explanation:

COUNT(*) counts the total orders for each customer.

HAVING COUNT(*) > 5 filters customers who ordered more than 5 times.

5. Count the Total Number of Orders for Each Customer

Query:

SELECT customer_id, COUNT(*) AS total_orders

FROM orders

GROUP BY customer_id;
Explanation:

Groups by customer_id and counts total orders per customer.

6. Find Employees Who Joined in the Last 6 Months

Query:

SELECT * FROM employees

WHERE joining_date >= DATEADD(MONTH, -6, GETDATE());

Explanation:

DATEADD(MONTH, -6, GETDATE()) calculates 6 months ago.

The query filters employees who joined after that date.

7. Calculate the Total Sales Amount for Each Product

Query:

SELECT product_id, SUM(price * quantity) AS total_sales

FROM orders

GROUP BY product_id;

Explanation:

SUM(price * quantity) calculates total sales per product.

GROUP BY product_id groups the data by product.

8. List Products That Have Never Been Sold

Query:

SELECT p.product_id, p.product_name

FROM products p

LEFT JOIN orders o ON p.product_id = o.product_id

WHERE o.product_id IS NULL;

Explanation:

LEFT JOIN ensures all products are included.

WHERE o.product_id IS NULL filters products without orders.
9. Remove Duplicate Rows from a Table
Query:

DELETE FROM employees

WHERE id NOT IN (

SELECT MIN(id) FROM employees GROUP BY name, department, salary

);

Explanation:

Finds the earliest entry for each name, department, salary.

Deletes all other duplicates.

10. Find the Top 10 Customers Who Haven't Ordered in the

Past Year
Query:

SELECT c.customer_id, c.name

FROM customers c

LEFT JOIN orders o ON c.customer_id = o.customer_id

WHERE o.order_date IS NULL OR o.order_date < DATEADD(YEAR, -1, GETDATE())

LIMIT 10;

Explanation:

LEFT JOIN finds all customers, even those without orders.

o.order_date < DATEADD(YEAR, -1, GETDATE()) filters orders older than a year.
LIMIT 10 selects the top 10 customers.

11. Find Employees with the Highest Salary in Each

Department
Query:

SELECT department, name, salary

FROM employees e1
 WHERE salary = (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees e2 WHERE e1.department =
e2.department);

Explanation:

Subquery finds the highest salary per department.

The main query selects the employee matching that salary.

12. Find Employees Who Have the Same Salary

Query:

SELECT e1.name, e1.salary

FROM employees e1

JOIN employees e2 ON e1.salary = e2.salary AND e1.id != e2.id;

Explanation:

JOIN pairs employees with the same salary.

e1.id != e2.id ensures they are different people.

13. Find Customers Who Ordered a Specific Product

Query:

SELECT DISTINCT c.name

FROM customers c

JOIN orders o ON c.customer_id = o.customer_id

WHERE o.product_id = 101;

Explanation:

JOIN links customers with orders.

WHERE o.product_id = 101 filters for a specific product.

14. Find Orders Placed on Weekends

Query:

SELECT * FROM orders

WHERE DATEPART(WEEKDAY, order_date) IN (1, 7);

Explanation:

DATEPART(WEEKDAY, order_date) extracts day of the week.

1 (Sunday) and 7 (Saturday) filter weekend orders.

Here's a super detailed guide explaining each SQL query step by step, as if we're explaining to
someone completely new to SQL. 🎯
📌 1. Find Employees with Salaries Higher than
the Company’s Average
📝 Question:
Write a query to find all employees whose salaries exceed the company's average salary.

🧠 Explanation:
Imagine a classroom where we calculate the average score of all students. Now, we want to list all
students whose scores are above the class average.

In a company, salaries work the same way! We need:

1. Find the average salary of all employees.

2. Get all employees whose salary is greater than this average.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT *

FROM employees

WHERE salary > (SELECT AVG(salary) FROM employees);

🔍 Breakdown:
AVG(salary) → Finds the average salary of all employees.
SELECT * FROM employees → Selects all employees.
WHERE salary > (SELECT AVG(salary) FROM employees) → Filters only those with higher than
average salaries.
📌 2. Find Employees in the Same Department
as ‘John Doe’
📝 Question:
Write a query to retrieve the names of employees who work in the same department as 'John Doe'.

🧠 Explanation:
Imagine a school where students belong to different classes. If we want to find who else is in the
same class as ‘John Doe’, we need:

1. Find which class John Doe is in.

2. List everyone else in that same class.

In a company, departments are like classes! 🎯

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT name

FROM employees

WHERE department_id = (SELECT department_id FROM employees WHERE name = 'John

Doe')

AND name <> 'John Doe';

🔍 Breakdown:
SELECT department_id FROM employees WHERE name = 'John Doe' → Finds John’s
department.
WHERE department_id = (...) → Finds everyone in that department.
AND name <> 'John Doe' → Excludes John Doe from the list.

📌 3. Find the Second Highest Salary (Without

Using MAX Twice)
📝 Question:
Write a query to display the second-highest salary from the Employee table without using MAX
twice.
🧠 Explanation:
If we have a list of salaries:
👉 5000, 7000, 10000, 12000, 7000

1. The highest salary is 12000.

2. The second highest is 10000.

To get this, we:

Sort salaries in descending order.

Skip the highest one and pick the next highest.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT MAX(salary)

FROM employees

WHERE salary < (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees);

🔍 Breakdown:
MAX(salary) FROM employees → Finds the highest salary.
WHERE salary < (...) → Picks the second-highest salary.

📌 4. Find Customers Who Placed More Than

Five Orders
📝 Question:
Write a query to find all customers who have placed more than five orders.

🧠 Explanation:
Think of a coffee shop loyalty card ☕. If a customer buys coffee more than 5 times, they get a free
one! We need:

1. Count the number of orders for each customer.

2. Filter customers where the count is greater than 5.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT customer_id
 FROM orders

GROUP BY customer_id

HAVING COUNT(order_id) > 5;

🔍 Breakdown:
GROUP BY customer_id → Groups orders by customer.
COUNT(order_id) → Counts how many orders each customer placed.
HAVING COUNT(order_id) > 5 → Selects only customers with more than 5 orders.

📌 5. Count Total Orders for Each Customer

📝 Question:
Write a query to count the total number of orders placed by each customer.

🧠 Explanation:
Imagine a bakery 🥖 where customers order multiple times. We need:
1. Count how many times each customer ordered.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT customer_id, COUNT(order_id) AS total_orders

FROM orders

GROUP BY customer_id;

🔍 Breakdown:
COUNT(order_id) → Counts the total orders per customer.
GROUP BY customer_id → Groups by customer.

📌 6. Find Employees Who Joined in the Last 6

Months
📝 Question:
Write a query to list employees who joined the company within the last 6 months.
👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT *

FROM employees

WHERE join_date >= DATE_SUB(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 6 MONTH);

🔍 Breakdown:
CURDATE() → Gets today’s date.
DATE_SUB(..., INTERVAL 6 MONTH) → Subtracts 6 months from today.
WHERE join_date >= ... → Picks employees who joined after that date.

📌 7. Calculate Total Sales per Product

📝 Question:
Write a query to calculate the total sales amount for each product.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT product_id, SUM(quantity * price) AS total_sales

FROM orders

GROUP BY product_id;

🔍 Breakdown:
SUM(quantity * price) → Adds up the total sales for each product.
GROUP BY product_id → Groups by product.

📌 8. List Products That Have Never Been Sold

📝 Question:
Write a query to list all products that have never been sold.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT *

FROM products
 WHERE product_id NOT IN (SELECT DISTINCT product_id FROM orders);

🔍 Breakdown:
SELECT DISTINCT product_id FROM orders → Gets a list of sold products.
NOT IN (...) → Selects products that are not in that list.

📌 9. Remove Duplicate Rows from a Table

📝 Question:
Write a query to remove duplicate rows from a table.

👨‍💻 Query:
DELETE FROM employees

WHERE id NOT IN (

SELECT MIN(id) FROM employees GROUP BY name, department, salary

);

🔍 Breakdown:
GROUP BY name, department, salary → Groups duplicates.
MIN(id) → Keeps only the first occurrence.
DELETE WHERE id NOT IN (...) → Removes duplicates.

📌 10. Find the Top 10 Customers Who Haven’t

Ordered in the Past Year
📝 Question:
Write a query to find the top 10 customers who have not placed any orders in the past year.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT customer_id

FROM customers

WHERE customer_id NOT IN (

 SELECT DISTINCT customer_id FROM orders WHERE order_date >=
DATE_SUB(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR)

LIMIT 10;

🔍 Breakdown:
DATE_SUB(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR) → One year ago.
WHERE order_date >= ... → Finds customers who ordered in the past year.
NOT IN (...) → Excludes those who ordered.
LIMIT 10 → Gets only the top 10 customers.

📌 11. Find the Third Highest Salary Without

Using LIMIT
📝 Question:
Write a query to find the third highest salary in the Employee table without using LIMIT.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT DISTINCT salary

FROM employees e1

WHERE 2 = (SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT salary) FROM employees e2 WHERE e2.salary >

e1.salary);

🔍 Breakdown:
The highest salary has 0 salaries greater than it.
The second highest has 1 salary greater than it.
The third highest has 2 salaries greater than it.
COUNT(DISTINCT salary) = 2 → Finds the third highest salary.

📌 12. Find Employees Who Earn More Than

Their Manager
📝 Question:
Write a query to find all employees who earn more than their managers.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT e.name AS employee, e.salary, m.name AS manager, m.salary AS manager_salary

FROM employees e

JOIN employees m ON e.manager_id = m.id

WHERE e.salary > m.salary;

🔍 Breakdown:
JOIN employees m ON e.manager_id = m.id → Joins employees with their managers.
WHERE e.salary > m.salary → Filters employees earning more than their manager.

📌 13. Find Employees Whose Names Start

with ‘A’
📝 Question:
Write a query to find employees whose names start with ‘A’.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE name LIKE 'A%';

🔍 Breakdown:
LIKE 'A%' → Finds names starting with ‘A’.

📌 14. Find Customers Who Have Placed

Orders but Never Bought ‘Product X’
📝 Question:
Write a query to find customers who have placed orders but never bought ‘Product X’.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT customer_id
 FROM orders

WHERE customer_id NOT IN (

SELECT DISTINCT customer_id FROM orders WHERE product_id = 'X'

);

🔍 Breakdown:
Finds all customers who ordered.
Excludes those who bought Product X.

📌 15. Find the Most Frequently Purchased

Product
📝 Question:
Write a query to find the most frequently purchased product.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT product_id, COUNT(*) AS total_purchases

FROM orders

GROUP BY product_id

ORDER BY total_purchases DESC

LIMIT 1;

🔍 Breakdown:
COUNT(*) → Counts how many times each product was purchased.
ORDER BY total_purchases DESC → Sorts by highest count.
LIMIT 1 → Picks the most popular product.

📌 16. Find Employees Who Have the Same

Salary as Someone Else
📝 Question:
Write a query to find employees who have the same salary as another employee.
👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT name, salary

FROM employees

WHERE salary IN (SELECT salary FROM employees GROUP BY salary HAVING COUNT(*) >
1);

🔍 Breakdown:
Groups salaries and finds duplicates (HAVING COUNT(*) > 1).
Filters employees with those duplicate salaries.

📌 17. Find Departments with More Than 10

Employees
📝 Question:
Write a query to list departments with more than 10 employees.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT department_id, COUNT(*) AS employee_count

FROM employees

GROUP BY department_id

HAVING COUNT(*) > 10;

🔍 Breakdown:
GROUP BY department_id → Groups employees by department.
HAVING COUNT(*) > 10 → Filters departments with more than 10 employees.

📌 18. Find Employees Who Work in Multiple

Departments
📝 Question:
Write a query to find employees who work in multiple departments.
👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT employee_id

FROM employee_department

GROUP BY employee_id

HAVING COUNT(department_id) > 1;

🔍 Breakdown:
Groups by employee.
Filters employees assigned to more than 1 department.

📌 19. Find Customers Who Have Never Placed

an Order
📝 Question:
Write a query to find customers who never placed an order.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT *

FROM customers

WHERE customer_id NOT IN (SELECT DISTINCT customer_id FROM orders);

🔍 Breakdown:
Gets a list of all customers.
Excludes those who placed an order.

📌 20. Find the Oldest Employee in Each

Department
📝 Question:
Write a query to find the oldest employee in each department.

👨‍💻 Query:
 SELECT department_id, name, age

FROM employees e1

WHERE age = (SELECT MAX(age) FROM employees e2 WHERE e1.department_id =

e2.department_id);

🔍 Breakdown:
Finds the max age for each department.
Matches it with employee records.

📌 21. Find Employees Who Have a Higher

Salary Than the Company’s Median Salary
📝 Question:
Write a query to find all employees who have a higher salary than the company’s median salary.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT *

FROM employees

WHERE salary > (SELECT salary FROM employees ORDER BY salary LIMIT 1 OFFSET
(SELECT COUNT(*)/2 FROM employees));

🔍 Breakdown:
ORDER BY salary LIMIT 1 OFFSET (COUNT(*)/2) → Finds the median salary.
Filters employees above the median salary.

🏆 Basic SQL Interview Questions with

Explanations
📌 1. Select All Data from a Table
📝 Question:
Write an SQL query to select all columns from the employees table.
👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT * FROM employees;

🔍 Breakdown:
The * means "select everything" from the table.
Simple! This is the most basic SQL query.

📌 2. Select Specific Columns

📝 Question:
Write an SQL query to select only name and salary columns from the employees table.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT name, salary FROM employees;

🔍 Breakdown:
Instead of *, we list specific column names.

📌 3. Filter Results Using WHERE

📝 Question:
Write an SQL query to find all employees with a salary greater than 50000.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary > 50000;

🔍 Breakdown:
WHERE filters results based on a condition.
salary > 50000 means only show employees earning more than 50,000.

📌 4. Use AND & OR in Conditions

📝 Question:
Find employees who work in "HR" department AND earn more than 40000.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE department = 'HR' AND salary > 40000;
🔍 Breakdown:
AND means both conditions must be true.
Use OR if either condition can be true.

📌 5. Sort Data Using ORDER BY

📝 Question:
Write a query to list all employees sorted by salary in descending order.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY salary DESC;

🔍 Breakdown:
ORDER BY salary → Sorts results by salary.
DESC → Highest salary first (Descending).
Use ASC for lowest salary first.

📌 6. Limit Results
📝 Question:
Write a query to find the top 5 highest-paid employees.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY salary DESC LIMIT 5;

🔍 Breakdown:
LIMIT 5 → Shows only the first 5 results.

📌 7. Count the Number of Employees

📝 Question:
Find the total number of employees.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM employees;

🔍 Breakdown:
 COUNT(*) counts all rows in the table.

📌 8. Find the Average Salary

📝 Question:
Find the average salary of all employees.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT AVG(salary) FROM employees;

🔍 Breakdown:
AVG(salary) → Calculates average salary.

📌 9. Find the Highest and Lowest Salary

📝 Question:
Find the highest and lowest salaries.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT MAX(salary) AS highest_salary, MIN(salary) AS lowest_salary FROM employees;

🔍 Breakdown:
MAX(salary) → Finds the highest salary.
MIN(salary) → Finds the lowest salary.

📌 10. Group Data Using GROUP BY

📝 Question:
Find the total number of employees in each department.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT department, COUNT(*) AS total_employees

FROM employees

GROUP BY department;

🔍 Breakdown:
GROUP BY department → Groups employees by department.
 COUNT(*) → Counts employees in each department.

📌 11. Filter Groups Using HAVING

📝 Question:
Find departments with more than 5 employees.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT department, COUNT(*) AS total_employees

FROM employees

GROUP BY department

HAVING COUNT(*) > 5;

🔍 Breakdown:
HAVING works like WHERE but is used with GROUP BY.
It filters groups based on a condition.

📌 12. Find Duplicates Using GROUP BY & HAVING

📝 Question:
Find employees who appear more than once.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT name, COUNT(*)

FROM employees

GROUP BY name

HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;

🔍 Breakdown:
Groups by name and counts occurrences.
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1 → Shows only duplicates.

📌 13. Delete Data from a Table

📝 Question:
Delete employees who earn less than 30000.

👨‍💻 Query:
DELETE FROM employees WHERE salary < 30000;

🔍 Breakdown:
DELETE removes rows that match the condition.

🚨 Be careful! This permanently deletes data.

📌 14. Update Data in a Table
📝 Question:
Increase salary by 10% for employees in the "IT" department.

👨‍💻 Query:
UPDATE employees

SET salary = salary * 1.10

WHERE department = 'IT';

🔍 Breakdown:
UPDATE modifies data.
SET changes the salary.
WHERE ensures only IT employees are updated.

📌 15. Find Employees Who Don’t Have a Manager

📝 Question:
Find employees without a manager.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE manager_id IS NULL;

🔍 Breakdown:
IS NULL finds missing values.

📌 16. Find Common Data Between Two Tables

📝 Question:
Find customers who have placed orders.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT DISTINCT customers.name

FROM customers

JOIN orders ON customers.customer_id = orders.customer_id;

🔍 Breakdown:
JOIN combines both tables.
DISTINCT removes duplicate names.

📌 17. Find Employees and Their Manager’s Name

📝 Question:
Get employees with their manager's name.

👨‍💻 Query:
SELECT e.name AS employee, m.name AS manager

FROM employees e

LEFT JOIN employees m ON e.manager_id = m.id;

🔍 Breakdown:
LEFT JOIN → Matches employees with their manager.
e.name AS employee, m.name AS manager → Renames columns.

Conclusion
These SQL queries are essential for Software QA roles to validate databases, test automation
results, and verify data consistency. Mastering these will help in database testing and automation
frameworks.

Let me know if you need more advanced queries! 🚀

 By-
REEHAN NIZAMI SHAZADA
TEST SPECIALIST | TEST ARCHITECT
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