🧪 Real-world SQL Scenarios & Challenges

Let’s dive into the types of real-world problems you’ll encounter as a data analyst, data scientist , data engineer, or developer.


1. Finding Duplicates

SELECT name, COUNT(*)
FROM employees
GROUP BY name
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;

Perfect for data cleaning and validation tasks.


2. Get the Second Highest Salary

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


3. Running Totals

SELECT name, salary,
SUM(salary) OVER (ORDER BY id) AS running_total
FROM employees;

Essential in dashboards and financial reports.


4. Customers with No Orders

SELECT c.customer_id, c.name
FROM customers c
LEFT JOIN orders o ON c.customer_id = o.customer_id
WHERE o.order_id IS NULL;

Very common in e-commerce or CRM platforms.


5. Monthly Aggregates

SELECT DATE_TRUNC('month', order_date) AS month,
COUNT(*) AS total_orders
FROM orders
GROUP BY month
ORDER BY month;

Great for trends and time-based reporting.


6. Pivot-like Output (Using CASE)

SELECT
department,
COUNT(CASE WHEN gender = 'Male' THEN 1 END) AS male_count,
COUNT(CASE WHEN gender = 'Female' THEN 1 END) AS female_count
FROM employees
GROUP BY department;

Super useful for dashboards and insights.


7. Recursive Queries (Org Hierarchy or Tree)

WITH RECURSIVE employee_tree AS (
SELECT id, name, manager_id
FROM employees
WHERE manager_id IS NULL

UNION ALL

SELECT e.id, e.name, e.manager_id
FROM employees e
INNER JOIN employee_tree et ON e.manager_id = et.id
)
SELECT * FROM employee_tree;

Used in advanced data modeling and tree structures.


You don’t just need to know how SQL works — you need to know when to use it smartly!

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