| 70 ADVANCED SQL QUESTIONS Pe Mostly asked in interviews This document contains a curated list of 70 advanced SQL questions frequently encountered during technical interviews. It's designed to help candidates prepare for roles requiring in-depth SQL knowledge and problem-solving skills. Use this as a guide to solidify your understanding and showcase your expertise in SQL. Key Areas Covered Query Optimization Indexing Strategies Advanced Joins Window Functions Common Table Expressions (CTEs) Stored Procedures Triggers1, How to retrieve the second-highest salary of an employee? SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees WHERE salary < (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees); 2. How to get the nth highest salary in ? SELECT salary FROM (SELECT salary, DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rank FROM employees) AS ranked_salaries WHERE rank = N; 3. How do you fetch all employees whose salary is greater than the average salary? ‘SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary > (SELECT AVG(salary) FROM employees); 4. Write a query to display the current date and time in. SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP; 5. How to find duplicate records in a table?SELECT column_name, COUNT(*) FROM table_name GROUP BY column_name HAVING COUNT(*) > 1; 6. How can you delete duplicate rows in? WITH CTE AS ( SELECT column_name, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY column_name ORDER BY column_name) AS row_num FROM table_name ) DELETE FROM CTE WHERE row_num > 1; 7. How to get the common records from two tables? SELECT * FROM table1 INTERSECT SELECT * FROM table2; 8. How to retrieve the last 10 records from a table?‘SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY employee_id DESC LIMIT 10; 9. How do you fetch the top 5 employees with the highest salaries? SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY salary DESC LIMIT 5; 10. How to calculate the total salary of all employees? SELECT SUM(salary) FROM employees; 11. How to write a query to find all employees who joined in the year 2020? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE YEAR(join_date) = 2020; 12. Write a query to find employees whose name starts with ‘A’. SELECT *FROM employees WHERE name LIKE 'A%'; 13, How can you find the employees who do not have a manager? eat tae FROM employees WHERE manager_id IS NULL; 14, How to find the department with the highest number of employees? SELECT department_id, COUNT(*) FROM employees GROUP BY department_id ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC. UMIT 1; 15. How to get the count of employees in each department? SELECT department_id, COUNT(*) FROM employees GROUP BY department_id; 16. Write a query to fetch employees having the highest salary in each department. SELECT department_id, employee_id, salaryFROM employees AS & WHERE salary = (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees WHERE department_id = e.department_id); 17. How to write a query to update the salary of all employees by 10%? UPDATE employees SET salary = salary * 1.1; 18. How can you find employees whose salary is between 50,000 and 1,00,000? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary BETWEEN 50000 AND 100000; 19. How to find the youngest employee in the organization? ‘SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY birth_date DESC UMIT 1; 20. How to fetch the first and last record from a table? (SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY employee_id ASC LIMIT 1)UNION ALL (SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY employee_id DESC LIMIT 1); 21. Write a query to find all employees who report to a specific manager. eat tae FROM employees WHERE manager_id = ?; 22. How can you find the total number of departments in the company? SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT department_id) FROM employees; 23. How to find the department with the lowest average salary? SELECT department_id, AVG(salary) FROM employees GROUP BY department_id ORDER BY AVG(salary) ASC UMIT 4; 24. How to delete all employees from a department in one query? DELETE FROM employees WHERE department_id25. How to display all employees who have been in the company for more than 5 years? ‘SELECT * FROM employees WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), join_date) > 1825; 26. How to find the second-largest value from a table? SELECT MAX(column_name) FROM table_name WHERE column_name < (SELECT MAX(column_name) FROM table_name); 27. How to write a query to remove all records from a table but keep the table structure? TRUNCATE TABLE table_name; 28. Write a query to get all employee records in XML format. SELECT employee_id, name, department_id FROM employees FOR XML AUTO; 29. How to get the current month’s name from ?SELECT MONTHNAME(CURDATE()); 30. How to convert a string to lowercase in ? SELECT LOWER('STRING_VALUE'); 31. How to find all employees who do not have any subordinates? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE employee_id NOT IN (SELECT manager_id FROM employees WHERE manager_id IS NOT NULL); 32. Write a query to calculate the total sales per customer in a sales table. SELECT customer_id, SUM(sales_amount) FROM sales GROUP BY customer_id; 33, How to write a query to check if a table is empty? SELECT CASE WHEN EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM table_name) THEN 'Not Empty’ ELSE 'Empty' END; 34, How to find the second highest salary for each department?SELECT department_id, salary FROM (SELECT department_id, salary, DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY department_id ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rank FROM employees) AS ranked_salaries WHERE rank = 2; 35. Write a query to fetch employees whose salary is a multiple of 10,000. SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary % 10000 = 0; 36. How to fetch records where a column has null values? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE column_name IS NULL; 37. How to write a query to find the total number of employees in each job title? SELECT job_title, COUNT(*) FROM employees GROUP BY job_title;38. Write a query to fetch all employees whose names end with ‘n’. SELECT * FROM employees WHERE name LIKE '%n'; 39. How to find all employees who work in both departments 101 and 102? SELECT employee_id FROM employees WHERE department_id IN (101, 102) GROUP BY employee_id HAVING COUNT(DISTINCT department_id) = 2; 40. Write a query to fetch the details of employees with the same salary. SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary IN (SELECT salary FROM employees GROUP BY salary HAVING COUNT(*) > 1); 41. How to update salaries of employees based on their department?UPDATE employees SET salary = CASE WHEN department_id = 101 THEN salary * 1.10 WHEN department_id = 102 THEN salary * 1.05 ELSE salary END; 42. How to write a query to list all employees without a department? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE department_id IS NULL; 43. Write a query to find the maximum salary and minimum salary in each department. SELECT department_id, MAX(salary), MIN(salary) FROM employees GROUP BY department_id; 44. How to list all employees hired in the last 6 months? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE hire_date > ADDDATE(CURDATE(), INTERVAL -6 MONTH); 45. Write a query to display department-wise total and average salary.SELECT department_id, SUM(salary) AS total_salary, AVG(salary) AS avg_salary FROM employees GROUP BY department_id; 46. How to find employees who joined the company in the same month and year as their manager? SELECT e.employee_id, e.name FROM employees e JOIN employees m ON e.manager_id = m.employee_id WHERE MONTH(e.join_date) = MONTH(m,join_date) AND YEAR(e.join_date) = YEAR(m,join_date); 47. Write a query to count the number of employees whose names start and end with the same letter. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM employees WHERE LEFT(name, 1) = RIGHT(name, 1); 48. How to retrieve employee names and salaries in a single string? SELECT CONCAT(name, ' earns’, salary) AS employee_info FROM employees; 49. How to find employees whose salary is higher than their manager's salary?SELECT e.employee_id, e.name FROM employees e JOIN employees m ON e.manager_id = m.employee_id WHERE e.salary > m.salary; 50. Write a query to get employees who belong to departments with less than 3 employees. SELECT * FROM employees WHERE department_id IN (SELECT department_id FROM employees GROUP BY department_id HAVING COUNT(*) < 3); 51. How to write a query to find employees with the same first name? ‘SELECT * FROM employees WHERE first_name IN (SELECT first_name FROM employees GROUP BY first_name HAVING COUNT(*) > 1); 52. How to write a query to delete employees who have been in the company for more than 15 years?DELETE FROM employees WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), join_date) > 5475; 53, Write a query to list all employees working under the same manager. SELECT * FROM employees WHERE manager_id = ?; 54. How to find the top 3 highest-paid employees in each department? SELECT * FROM (SELECT *, DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY department_id ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rank FROM employees) AS ranked_employees WHERE rank <= 3; 55. Write a query to list all employees with more than 5 years of experience in each department. SELECT * FROM employees WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), join_date) > 1825;56. How to list all employees in departments that have not hired anyone in the past 2 years? ‘SELECT * FROM employees WHERE department_id IN (SELECT department_id FROM employees GROUP BY department_id HAVING MAX(hire_date) < ADDDATE(CURDATE(), INTERVAL -2 YEAR); 57. Write a query to find all employees who earn more than the average salary of their department. SELECT * FROM employees e WHERE salary > (SELECT AVG(salary) FROM employees WHERE department_i = e.department_id); 58. How to list all managers who have more than 5 subordinates? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE employee_id IN (SELECT manager_id FROM employeesGROUP BY manager_id HAVING COUNT(*) > 5); 59. Write a query to display employee names and hire dates in the format "Name - MM/DD/YYYY". SELECT CONCAT(name, ' -', DATE_FORMAT(hire_date, '%m/%d/%Y")) AS employee_info FROM employees; 60. How to find employees whose salary is in the top 10%? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE salary >= (SELECT PERCENTILE_CONT(0.9) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY salary ASC) FROM employees); 61. Write a query to display employees grouped by their age brackets (e.g., 20-30, 31-40, etc.). SELECT CASE WHEN age BETWEEN 20 AND 30 THEN '20-30' WHEN age BETWEEN 31 AND 40 THEN '31-40' ELSE ‘41+' END AS age_bracket, COUNT(*)FROM employees GROUP BY age_bracket; 62, How to find the average salary of the top 5 highest-paid employees in each department? SELECT department_id, AVG(salary) FROM (SELECT department_id, salary, DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY department_id ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rank FROM employees) AS ranked_employees WHERE rank <=5 GROUP BY department_id; 63. How to calculate the percentage of employees in each department? SELECT department_id, (COUNT(*) * 100.0 / (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM employees) AS percentage FROM employees GROUP BY department_id; 64, Write a query to find all employees whose email contains the domain ‘@example.com'. SELECT * FROM employees WHERE email LIKE '%@example.com';65. How to retrieve the year-to-date sales for each customer? SELECT customer_id, SUM(sales_amount) FROM sales WHERE sale_date BETWEEN '2024-01-01' AND CURDATE() GROUP BY customer_id; 66. Write a query to display the hire date and day of the week for each employee. SELECT name, hire_date, DAYNAME(hire_date) AS day_of_week FROM employees; 67. How to find all employees who are older than 30 years? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), birth_date) / 365 > 30; 68. Write a query to display employees grouped by their salary range (e.g., 0- 20K, 20K-5OK). SELECT CASE WHEN salary BETWEEN 0 AND 20000 THEN '0-20K' WHEN salary BETWEEN 20001 AND 50000 THEN ‘20K-5OK' ELSE 'SOK+'END AS salary_range, COUNT(*) FROM employees GROUP BY salary_range; 69. How to list all employees who do not have a bonus? SELECT * FROM employees WHERE bonus |S NULL; 70. Write a query to display the highest, lowest, and average salary for each job role. SELECT job_role, MAX(salary) AS highest_salary, MIN(salary) AS lowest_salary, AVG(salary) AS avg_salary FROM employees GROUP BY job_role;