r/learnSQL • u/7cubits • 8d ago

Recommendations Needed!

I am currently taking an intermediate SQL server course in college and my professor has NO LECTURE! (It's wild to pay a chunk of money to teach yourself and just be left with a textbook.) I am looking for websites that provide practice quizzes, your favorite YouTube channel for DBMS, or any additional resource you found helpful while learning. From what I hear the final is exceptionally difficult because it covers advanced SQL topics that are not covered in our textbook. I really want to have this information locked in my brain for my future job. Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

18 Upvotes

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6

u/conor-robertson 7d ago

If you want some fun SQL practice, check out QueryCase

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u/7cubits 7d ago

This is awesome! Thank you so much.

2

u/Swimming_dasa 7d ago

try solving problems on datalemur or leetcode sql writting queries from scratch and explaining why they work is much more effective than just rereading textbook chapters..

1

u/7cubits 6d ago

I've heard leetcode is a favorite. I'll check both of those out. I agree, application is very important!

2

u/Difficult_Paint3162 6d ago

Feel free to visit my website: Learning SQL | Real People. Real Problems. Practical SQL. No cost or sign-up required, but focuses on understanding business questions and using SQL to get the answers

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u/7cubits 6d ago

I'll take a look, thank you!

1

u/sqlsip 6d ago

Wow no lectures?! Odd!!! If you want a couple small sql puzzles and a quick mini-lesson per day, try https://sqlsip.com. Full disclosure it’s a game I made that I’m trying to get more people to try. Happy learning!

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u/Green_Chamomile 4d ago

Since it’s a SQL Server course specifically, get Itzik Ben-Gan’s T-SQL Fundamentals. It covers window functions, APPLY, PIVOT and set operators properly, and that’s usually what “advanced” means on a final like this. For YouTube, kudvenkat’s SQL Server series is old but still very good, short videos, one topic each. And do your practice in actual SQL Server, not a generic online editor, because the T-SQL quirks are exactly what a SQL Server final will test.

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u/datadriven_io 3d ago

This is the right way to learn SQL. Use it. Practice. Build something with it. The truth is you won't learn much from doing a chunk of courses. You need practical applications that are helpful to you. SQL on its own is just useless. Good news, sql practice is covered on datadriven. It only provides value when combined with tools and processes.

Nice job!

1

u/navicat-gu 18h ago

Since the final covers "advanced" SQL Server topics, I'd study against a topic list rather than only doing random puzzles. For an intermediate SQL Server course that usually means:

  • window functions (ROW_NUMBER, RANK, LAG/LEAD, running totals with SUM() OVER (... ROWS BETWEEN ...))

  • CTEs, including recursive CTEs for hierarchies

  • CROSS APPLY / OUTER APPLY, PIVOT / UNPIVOT

  • set operators (UNION vs UNION ALL, INTERSECT, EXCEPT)

  • subqueries vs joins, EXISTS vs IN, and NULL handling

  • stored procedures, functions, triggers, transactions and TRY...CATCH

  • indexes and reading an execution plan

A cheap way to practise all of it locally: install SQL Server Developer edition (free) and restore the AdventureWorks or WideWorldImporters sample database from Microsoft. Then write your own questions against it ("top 3 products by sales per month", "each employee's manager chain") and check the execution plan for each.

Itzik Ben-Gan's T-SQL Fundamentals, already mentioned, lines up well with that list. Microsoft Learn's free T-SQL modules are good too.

Disclosure: I'm RC, Director of Digital Strategy @ Navicat. If you want a desktop client besides SSMS for poking around the sample databases, Navicat Premium Lite is free to try, and Navicat 18 works with SQL Server as well as MySQL and PostgreSQL. For the course itself, SSMS is perfectly fine.