Top SQL Interview Questions for Data Analysts

Data analyst roles have become extremely popular in recent times. Companies are aggressively hiring top talent in this largely data-driven world to process and leverage data better and build high-performing processes and systems. If you’re a data analyst preparing for technical interviews, you should be great with SQL. That’s because SQL interview questions for data analysts often feature in technical interviews for data engineering, data science, and database management roles.

In this article, we’ll look at some common SQL interview questions for data analysts to help you prepare for your next interview.

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Let’s go ahead and look at some common SQL interview questions for data analysts. These questions will cover the basic SQL interview questions for data analysts, SQL interview questions for experienced data analysts, and some commonly asked questions.

To give you a better idea of what to expect, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Basic SQL Interview Questions for Data Analysts
• Advanced SQL Interview Questions for Experienced Data Analysts
• SQL Query Interview Questions for Data Analysts
• FAQs on SQL Interview Questions for Data Analysts

Basic SQL Interview Questions for Data Analysts

This section will look at some basic SQL interview questions for fresher data analysts.

1. Explain primary keys, unique keys, and foreign keys in SQL
2. What are the subsets of SQL?
3. What do you understand by DDL?
4. Explain the main features of a relational database
5. What are network databases?
6. What do you understand by normalization in a database?
7. What are consistent and inconsistent dependencies? Elaborate with an example.
8. What are some SQL operators and their functions?
9. What are views and indexes in SQL?
10. What do you understand about the unique index in SQL?

Once you practice these basic questions, take a look at some of the Complex SQL Interview Questions for your interview preparation.

Advanced SQL Interview Questions for Experienced Data Analysts

1. Explain the difference between clustered and non-clustered indexes in SQL.
2. Mention some commonly-used joins in SQL.
3. What do you understand about the Inner Join in SQL?
4. What do you understand by right join and left join in SQL?
5. What do you understand by set operators in SQL?
6. What is a constraint in SQL?
7. What is the difference between delete and truncate commands in SQL?
8. What is an ACID property in SQL?
9. Explain the different character manipulations in SQL.
10. What do you understand by aggregate functions in SQL?

Look at some more Advanced SQL Interview Questions to practice for your tech interview. 

SQL Query Interview Questions

SQL query interview questions are typically based on queries to retrieve information from tables. You could be given one or more tables containing multiple information records. SQL Query interview questions can be broadly classified under the following main categories:

• SQL Query Interview Questions on Joins
• SQL Query Interview Questions on Normalization and Commands
• Questions on functions, comparison operators, DDL, and more

Here’s what SQL Query Interview Questions for data analysts look like. 

Table 1:

‍Table 2:

Following are the SQL interview questions to expect at data analyst interviews based on queries: 

1. Write a query to fetch salary records from a table in descending order.
2. Write a query to fetch the record with the highest salary from the tables.
3. What query will you use to calculate odd and even records in a table?
4. What query would you use to identify which position draws the maximum salary from the tables?
5. Write a query to find which project associates with the position that pays the highest salary.
6. Write a query to determine which employee draws the highest salary from the table.
7. Write a query to identify whether male or female employees make more on average.

Take a look at some SQL Server Interview Questions here.

The above SQL interview questions for data analysts will give you an idea of the type of questions to expect at your interview. Practice these questions to get ahead in your interview preparation. 

FAQs on SQL Interview Questions for Data Analysts

Q1. Which other languages apart from SQL are used for data analysis?

Apart from SQL, some other languages used by data analysts include - Python, R, Java, and C++.

Q2. What is the average data analyst salary in the US?

The average data analyst salary in the US is $62,789.

Q3. What is the typical interview process for data analysts at top companies?

The typical interview process for data analysts at top companies includes 1-2 rounds in coding and a data-based systems design round. Depending on the position you’re applying to, there could be additional domain-specific rounds. 

Q4. Which are some important concepts and technologies for data analyst interviews?

Some important technologies and concepts to prepare for data analyst interviews include - big data technologies, open-source software environments, core data structures and algorithms concepts, databases, and servers, operating systems. 

Q5. In what type of interviews can you expect SQL interview questions?

SQL interview questions primarily feature in software developer interviews, data analyst interviews, data science, data engineering, full-stack, and backend engineering interviews. 

Get Ready for Your Next SQL Interview

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