SQL Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is DBMS?
A Database Management System (DBMS) is a program that controls creation,
maintenance and use of a database. DBMS can be termed as File Manager that
manages data in a database rather than saving it in file systems.

2. What is RDBMS?
RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System. RDBMS store the data
into the collection of tables, which is related by common fields between the columns
of the table. It also provides relational operators to manipulate the data stored into
the tables.

Example: SQL Server.

3. What is SQL?
SQL stands for Structured Query Language , and it is used to communicate with the
Database. This is a standard language used to perform tasks such as retrieval,
updation, insertion and deletion of data from a database.
Standard SQL Commands are Select.

4. What is a Database?
Database is nothing but an organized form of data for easy access, storing, retrieval
and managing of data. This is also known as structured form of data which can be
accessed in many ways.

Example: School Management Database, Bank Management Database.

5. What are tables and Fields?

A table is a set of data that are organized in a model with Columns and Rows. Columns
can be categorized as vertical, and Rows are horizontal. A table has specified number
of column called fields but can have any number of rows which is called record.

Example:.
Table: Employee.

Field: Emp ID, Emp Name, Date of Birth.

Data: 201456, David, 11/15/1960.

6. What is a primary key?

A primary key is a combination of fields which uniquely specify a row. This is a special
kind of unique key, and it has implicit NOT NULL constraint. It means, Primary key
values cannot be NULL.

7. What is a unique key?

A Unique key constraint uniquely identified each record in the database. This provides
uniqueness for the column or set of columns.

A Primary key constraint has automatic unique constraint defined on it. But not, in the
case of Unique Key.

There can be many unique constraint defined per table, but only one Primary key
constraint defined per table.

8. What is a foreign key?

A foreign key is one table which can be related to the primary key of another table.
Relationship needs to be created between two tables by referencing foreign key with
the primary key of another table.

9. What is a join?
This is a keyword used to query data from more tables based on the relationship
between the fields of the tables. Keys play a major role when JOINs are used.

10. What are the types of join and explain each?

There are various types of join which can be used to retrieve data and it depends on
the relationship between tables.

 Inner Join.

Inner join return rows when there is at least one match of rows between the tables.

 Right Join.

Right join return rows which are common between the tables and all rows of Right
hand side table. Simply, it returns all the rows from the right hand side table even
though there are no matches in the left hand side table.

 Left Join.

Left join return rows which are common between the tables and all rows of Left hand
side table. Simply, it returns all the rows from Left hand side table even though there
are no matches in the Right hand side table.

 Full Join.

Full join return rows when there are matching rows in any one of the tables. This
means, it returns all the rows from the left hand side table and all the rows from the
right hand side table.

SQL Interview Questions for 3 Years Experience

11. What is normalization?
Normalization is the process of minimizing redundancy and dependency by organizing
fields and table of a database. The main aim of Normalization is to add, delete or
modify field that can be made in a single table.

12. What is Denormalization?

DeNormalization is a technique used to access the data from higher to lower normal
forms of database. It is also process of introducing redundancy into a table by
incorporating data from the related tables.

13. What are all the different normalizations?

Database Normalization can be easily understood with the help of a case study. The
normal forms can be divided into 6 forms, and they are explained below -.

Database Normal
Forms

 First Normal Form (1NF):.

This should remove all the duplicate columns from the table. Creation of tables for the
related data and identification of unique columns.

 Second Normal Form (2NF):.

Meeting all requirements of the first normal form. Placing the subsets of data in
separate tables and Creation of relationships between the tables using primary keys.

 Third Normal Form (3NF):.

This should meet all requirements of 2NF. Removing the columns which are not
dependent on primary key constraints.

 Fourth Normal Form (4NF):.

If no database table instance contains two or more, independent and multivalued

data describing the relevant entity, then it is in 4th Normal Form.

 Fifth Normal Form (5NF):.

A table is in 5th Normal Form only if it is in 4NF and it cannot be decomposed into any
number of smaller tables without loss of data.

 Sixth Normal Form (6NF):.

6th Normal Form is not standardized, yet however, it is being discussed by database
experts for some time. Hopefully, we would have a clear & standardized definition for
6th Normal Form in the near future…

14. What is a View?

A view is a virtual table which consists of a subset of data contained in a table. Views
are not virtually present, and it takes less space to store. View can have data of one or
more tables combined, and it is depending on the relationship.

15. What is an Index?

An index is performance tuning method of allowing faster retrieval of records from the
table. An index creates an entry for each value and it will be faster to retrieve data.

16. What are all the different types of indexes?

There are three types of indexes -.

 Unique Index.
This indexing does not allow the field to have duplicate values if the column is unique
indexed. Unique index can be applied automatically when primary key is defined.

 Clustered Index.

This type of index reorders the physical order of the table and search based on the key
values. Each table can have only one clustered index.

 NonClustered Index.

NonClustered Index does not alter the physical order of the table and maintains
logical order of data. Each table can have 999 nonclustered indexes.

17. What is a Cursor?

A database Cursor is a control which enables traversal over the rows or records in the
table. This can be viewed as a pointer to one row in a set of rows. Cursor is very much
useful for traversing such as retrieval, addition and removal of database records.

18. What is a relationship and what are they?

Database Relationship is defined as the connection between the tables in a database.
There are various data basing relationships, and they are as follows:.

 One to One Relationship.

 One to Many Relationship.

 Many to One Relationship.

 Self-Referencing Relationship.

19. What is a query?

A DB query is a code written in order to get the information back from the database.
Query can be designed in such a way that it matched with our expectation of the result
set. Simply, a question to the Database.

20. What is subquery?

A subquery is a query within another query. The outer query is called as main query,
and inner query is called subquery. SubQuery is always executed first, and the result of
subquery is passed on to the main query.

Let’s look into the sub query syntax –

A common customer complaint at the MyFlix Video Library is the low number of movie
titles. The management wants to buy movies for a category which has least number of
titles.

You can use a query like

SELECT category_name FROM categories WHERE category_id =( SELECT MIN(category_id) from
movies);

SQL Interview Questions for 5 Years Experience

21. What are the types of subquery?
There are two types of subquery – Correlated and Non-Correlated.

A correlated subquery cannot be considered as independent query, but it can refer the
column in a table listed in the FROM the list of the main query.

A Non-Correlated sub query can be considered as independent query and the output
of subquery are substituted in the main query.

22. What is a stored procedure?

Stored Procedure is a function consists of many SQL statement to access the database
system. Several SQL statements are consolidated into a stored procedure and execute
them whenever and wherever required.
23. What is a trigger?
A DB trigger is a code or programs that automatically execute with response to some
event on a table or view in a database. Mainly, trigger helps to maintain the integrity of
the database.

Example: When a new student is added to the student database, new records should
be created in the related tables like Exam, Score and Attendance tables.

24. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE

commands?
DELETE command is used to remove rows from the table, and WHERE clause can be
used for conditional set of parameters. Commit and Rollback can be performed after
delete statement.

TRUNCATE removes all rows from the table. Truncate operation cannot be rolled back.

25. What are local and global variables and their differences?
Local variables are the variables which can be used or exist inside the function. They
are not known to the other functions and those variables cannot be referred or used.
Variables can be created whenever that function is called.

Global variables are the variables which can be used or exist throughout the program.
Same variable declared in global cannot be used in functions. Global variables cannot
be created whenever that function is called.

26. What is a constraint?

Constraint can be used to specify the limit on the data type of table. Constraint can be
specified while creating or altering the table statement. Sample of constraint are.

 NOT NULL.

 CHECK.

 DEFAULT.

 UNIQUE.
  PRIMARY KEY.

 FOREIGN KEY.

27. What is data Integrity?

Data Integrity defines the accuracy and consistency of data stored in a database. It can
also define integrity constraints to enforce business rules on the data when it is
entered into the application or database.

28. What is Auto Increment?

Auto increment keyword allows the user to create a unique number to be generated
when a new record is inserted into the table. AUTO INCREMENT keyword can be used
in Oracle and IDENTITY keyword can be used in SQL SERVER.

Mostly this keyword can be used whenever PRIMARY KEY is used.

29. What is the difference between Cluster and Non-Cluster Index?

Clustered index is used for easy retrieval of data from the database by altering the way
that the records are stored. Database sorts out rows by the column which is set to be
clustered index.

A nonclustered index does not alter the way it was stored but creates a complete
separate object within the table. It point back to the original table rows after
searching.

30. What is Datawarehouse?

Datawarehouse is a central repository of data from multiple sources of information.
Those data are consolidated, transformed and made available for the mining and
online processing. Warehouse data have a subset of data called Data Marts.

31. What is Self-Join?

Self-join is set to be query used to compare to itself. This is used to compare values in
a column with other values in the same column in the same table. ALIAS ES can be
used for the same table comparison.
32. What is Cross-Join?
Cross join defines as Cartesian product where number of rows in the first table
multiplied by number of rows in the second table. If suppose, WHERE clause is used in
cross join then the query will work like an INNER JOIN.

33. What is user defined functions?

User defined functions are the functions written to use that logic whenever required. It
is not necessary to write the same logic several times. Instead, function can be called
or executed whenever needed.

34. What are all types of user defined functions?

Three types of user defined functions are.

 Scalar Functions.

 Inline Table valued functions.

 Multi statement valued functions.

Scalar returns unit, variant defined the return clause. Other two types return table as a
return.

35. What is collation?

Collation is defined as set of rules that determine how character data can be sorted
and compared. This can be used to compare A and, other language characters and
also depends on the width of the characters.

ASCII value can be used to compare these character data.

36. What are all different types of collation sensitivity?

Following are different types of collation sensitivity -.

 Case Sensitivity – A and a and B and b.

 Accent Sensitivity.
  Kana Sensitivity – Japanese Kana characters.

 Width Sensitivity – Single byte character and double byte character.

37. Advantages and Disadvantages of Stored Procedure?

Stored procedure can be used as a modular programming – means create once, store
and call for several times whenever required. This supports faster execution instead of
executing multiple queries. This reduces network traffic and provides better security
to the data.

Disadvantage is that it can be executed only in the Database and utilizes more
memory in the database server.

38. What is Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)?

Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) manages transaction based applications which
can be used for data entry, data retrieval and data processing. OLTP makes data
management simple and efficient. Unlike OLAP systems goal of OLTP systems is
serving real-time transactions.

Example – Bank Transactions on a daily basis.

39. What is CLAUSE?

SQL clause is defined to limit the result set by providing condition to the query. This
usually filters some rows from the whole set of records.

Example – Query that has WHERE condition

Query that has HAVING condition.

40. What is recursive stored procedure?

A stored procedure which calls by itself until it reaches some boundary condition. This
recursive function or procedure helps programmers to use the same set of code any
number of times.

SQL Interview Questions for 10+ Years Experience

41. What is Union, minus and Interact commands?
UNION operator is used to combine the results of two tables, and it eliminates
duplicate rows from the tables.

MINUS operator is used to return rows from the first query but not from the second
query. Matching records of first and second query and other rows from the first query
will be displayed as a result set.

INTERSECT operator is used to return rows returned by both the queries.

42. What is an ALIAS command?

ALIAS name can be given to a table or column. This alias name can be referred
in WHERE clause to identify the table or column.

Example-.
Select st.StudentID, Ex.Result from student st, Exam as Ex where st.studentID = Ex.
StudentID
Here, st refers to alias name for student table and Ex refers to alias name for exam
table.

43. What is the difference between TRUNCATE and DROP

statements?
TRUNCATE removes all the rows from the table, and it cannot be rolled back. DROP
command removes a table from the database and operation cannot be rolled back.

44. What are aggregate and scalar functions?

Aggregate functions are used to evaluate mathematical calculation and return single
values. This can be calculated from the columns in a table. Scalar functions return a
single value based on the input value.

Example -.

Aggregate – max(), count – Calculated with respect to numeric.

Scalar – UCASE(), NOW() – Calculated with respect to strings.

45. How can you create an empty table from an existing table?
Example will be -.
Select * into studentcopy from student where 1=2
Here, we are copying student table to another table with the same structure with no
rows copied.

46. How to fetch common records from two tables?

Common records result set can be achieved by -.
Select studentID from student INTERSECT Select StudentID from Exam

47. How to fetch alternate records from a table?

Records can be fetched for both Odd and Even row numbers -.

To display even numbers-.

Select studentId from (Select rowno, studentId from student) where mod(rowno,2)=0
To display odd numbers-.
Select studentId from (Select rowno, studentId from student) where mod(rowno,2)=1
from (Select rowno, studentId from student) where mod(rowno,2)=1.[/sql]

48. How to select unique records from a table?

Select unique records from a table by using DISTINCT keyword.
Select DISTINCT StudentID, StudentName from Student.

49. What is the command used to fetch first 5 characters of the

string?
There are many ways to fetch first 5 characters of the string -.
Select SUBSTRING(StudentName,1,5) as studentname from student
Select LEFT(Studentname,5) as studentname from student

50. Which operator is used in query for pattern matching?

LIKE operator is used for pattern matching, and it can be used as -.

1. % – Matches zero or more characters.

 2. _(Underscore) – Matching exactly one character.

Example -.
Select * from Student where studentname like 'a%'
Select * from Student where studentname like 'ami_'

5) What are the subsets of SQL?

The following are the four significant subsets of the SQL:

o Data definition language (DDL): It defines the data structure that consists of
commands like CREATE, ALTER, DROP, etc.

o Data manipulation language (DML): It is used to manipulate existing data in

the database. The commands in this category are SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, etc.

o Data control language (DCL): It controls access to the data stored in the
database. The commands in this category include GRANT and REVOKE.

o Transaction Control Language (TCL): It is used to deal with the transaction

operations in the database. The commands in this category are COMMIT,
ROLLBACK, SET TRANSACTION, SAVEPOINT, etc.

23) What are the different types of SQL operators?

Operators are the special keywords or special characters reserved for performing
particular operations. They are also used in SQL queries. We can primarily use these
operators within the WHERE clause of SQL commands. It's a part of the command to
filters data based on the specified condition. The SQL operators can be categorized into
the following types:

o Arithmetic operators: These operators are used to perform mathematical

operations on numerical data. The categories of this operators are addition (+),
subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/), remainder/modulus (%), etc.

o Logical operators: These operators evaluate the expressions and return their
results in True or False. This operator includes ALL, AND, ANY, ISNULL, EXISTS,
BETWEEN, IN, LIKE, NOT, OR, UNIQUE.

o Comparison operators: These operators are used to perform comparisons of two

values and check whether they are the same or not. It includes equal to (=), not
 equal to (!= or <>), less than (<), greater than (>), less than or equal to (<=),
greater than or equal to (>=), not less than (!<), not greater than (!>), etc.

o Bitwise operators: It is used to do bit manipulations between two expressions of

integer type. It first performs conversion of integers into binary bits and then
applied operators such as AND (& symbol), OR (|, ^), NOT (~), etc.

o Compound operators: These operators perform operations on a variable before

setting the variable's result to the operation's result. It includes Add equals (+=),
subtract equals (-=), multiply equals (*=), divide equals (/=), modulo equals (%=),
etc.

o String operators: These operators are primarily used to perform concatenation

and pattern matching of strings. It includes + (String concatenation), += (String
concatenation assignment), % (Wildcard), [] (Character(s) matches), [^]
(Character(s) not to match), _ (Wildcard match one character), etc.

30) What are the differences between SQL, MySQL, and SQL Server?
The following comparison chart explains their main differences:

SQL MySQL SQL Server

SQL or Structured Query MySQL is the popular SQL Server is an RDBMS

Language is useful for database management database system mainly
managing our relational system used for managing developed for the
databases. It is used to the relational database. It Windows system to store,
query and operate the is a fast, scalable, and retrieve, and access data
database. easy-to-use database. requested by the
developer.

SQL first appeared in MySQL first appeared on SQL Server first appeared
1974. May 23, 1995. on April 24, 1989.

SQL was developed by MySQL was developed by SQL Server was

IBM Corporation. Oracle Corporation. developed by Microsoft
Company.

SQL is a query language MySQL is database SQL Server is also a

for managing databases. software that uses SQL software that uses SQL
language to conduct with language to conduct with
the database. the database.

SQL has no variables. MySQL can use variables SQL Server can use
 constraints and data types. variables constraints and
data types.

SQL is a programming MySQL is software, so it SQL Server is also

language, so that it does gets frequent updation. software, so it gets
not get any updates. Its frequent updation.
commands are always
fixed and remain the
same.

60) What is the difference between the WHERE and HAVING clauses?
The main difference is that the WHERE clause is used to filter records before any
groupings are established, whereas the HAVING clause is used to filter values from a
group. The below comparison chart explains the most common differences:

WHERE HAVING

This clause is implemented in row operations. This clause is implemented in

column operations.

It does not allow to work with aggregate It can work with aggregate
functions. functions.

This clause can be used with the SELECT, This clause can only be used with
UPDATE, and DELETE statements. the SELECT statement.

To know more differences, click here.

61) How many Aggregate functions are available in SQL?

The aggregate function is used to determine and calculate several values in a table and
return the result as a single number. For example, the average of all values, the sum of
all values, and the maximum and minimum value among particular groupings of values.

The following syntax illustrates how to use aggregate functions:

1. function_name (DISTINCT | ALL expression)

SQL provides seven (7) aggregate functions, which are given below:

o AVG(): This function is used to returns the average value from specified columns.

o COUNT(): This function is used to returns the number of table rows, including rows
with null values.
 o MAX(): This function is used to returns the largest value among the group.

o MIN(): This function is used to returns the smallest value among the group.

o SUM(): This function is used to returns the total summed values(non-null) of the
specified column.

o FIRST(): This function is used to returns the first value of an expression.

o LAST(): This function is used to returns the last value of an expression.

62) What is SQL Injection?

SQL injection is a type of vulnerability in website and web app code that allows attackers
to control back-end operations and access, retrieve, and destroy sensitive data from
databases. In this technique, malicious SQL statements are inserted into a database
entry field, and once they are performed, the database becomes vulnerable to an
attacker. This technique is commonly used to access sensitive data and perform
administrative activities on databases by exploiting data-driven applications. It is also
known as SQLi attack.

Some common examples of SQL injection are:

o Accessing confidential data to modify an SQL query to get desired results.

o UNION attacks to steal data from different database tables.

o Examine the database to extract information regarding the version and structure
of the database.

65) What are SQL comments?

Comments are explanations or annotations in SQL queries that are readable by
programmers. It's used to make SQL statements easier to understand for humans.
During the parsing of SQL code, it will be ignored. Comments can be written on a single
line or across several lines.

o Single Line Comments: It starts with two consecutive hyphens (--).

o Multi-line Comments: It starts with /* and ends with */.