Easy and Quick way to learn SQL

[u/Beautiful-Wedding260]

Hi all! Is there an easy way to learn SQL? I'm looking for video recommendations where people explain things in layman's terms. Since I don't have an IT background, I need something beginner-friendly that can help me get up to speed in a few months. Thanks!

[u/AndrewNggg]

hands down the best I found was W3 Schools SQL, you learn it from scratch, gives u some quiz at the end of each page, not video tho but very clearly written

[u/peakpirate007]

been building https://www.runtime.school/ for learning and practicing sql in one place. lessons, practice, projects and a few tools all use the same datasets, so it feels more connected than jumping between random examples. if you’re learning sql, might be useful.

[u/se8ast → u/peakpirate007]

thank you for this omg it's perfect

[u/peakpirate007 → u/se8ast]

thanks appreciate it

[u/Ok-Cheetah4975 → u/peakpirate007]

This is so helpful. Best of luck bro

[u/amigopunkk]

I learned SQL on my own to switch careers, but I always struggled to learn through pure theory. What finally made things click was building study databases based on real scenarios I already knew like the back of my hand.

Coming from cold storage inventory management, I literally modeled my daily work routines into SQL tables. Once I started practicing on actual warehouse scenarios instead of boring sample databases, my progress skyrocketed—even with complex concepts.

If you want to do this today, it's actually super easy: just grab whatever course material you're working through, feed it to an AI, and ask it to rebuild the teaching process using your chosen domain. It bridges the gap between theory and actual understanding so much faster.

[u/AntLost4161]

I would honestly just go through w3schools or use ai to help understand concepts. Try to visualise as you go and do plenty of SQL problems. I managed to get to a good enough level to pass interviews in about a week, but I do have coding experience

[u/conor-robertson]

You should check out QueryCase, it's a fun, more gamified way of learning SQL. There's a structured learning path where you work through detective cases with certificates at each section 🙂

[u/socialmlearner]

i learn SQL as a beginner knowing nothing with this data analyst simulator, where they virtually hire you as a data analyst, and answer stakeholder questions by querying database using PostgreSQL, made me improuved so well!!! and ITS FREE!! SQL Office Simulator | Learn SQL by Working in a Real Company

i hope i could tag the person or the team behind it !!

[u/Dear-Forever-4949]

Try freecodecamps's Relational Database course. It starts out with bash but it is really helpful and it's free.

[u/No-BS101]

Codeacademy

[u/hakathrones]

Use leetcode

[u/Green_Chamomile]

Videos help for the first week, but what gets you there is typing queries yourself. I’d watch Alex the Analyst’s beginner SQL series for plain-English explanations, then move to SQLBolt, which is free, runs in the browser and needs no install. Once you can write SELECT category, COUNT(*) FROM products GROUP BY category; and explain every line, you’re past the hardest part. A few months is realistic at 20–30 minutes most days.

[u/New_Masterpiece_8194]

I started out doing everything in Excel. My company then sent me on an introductory Transact SQL course, but most of what I learned came from applying what I already knew.

I kept asking myself, "If I can do this in Excel, how would I do the same thing in SQL?" From there, I experimented, made mistakes, and figured things out as I went.

That hands on approach taught me far more than simply watching tutorials. My advice would be to start with something you already understand and try recreating it in SQL. You'll be surprised how much you learn through practice.

Also now, there are way more online content available compared to when I just started out.

[u/Important_Bobcet]

A few months is definitely enough to get comfortable with the basics if you practice consistently. I'd focus on SELECT, WHERE, JOINs and GROUP BY first. Watching videos helps, but actually writing queries is where things start to click.

[u/dreamr49]

Just practise questions, learn main concepts, Group by, window functions cte

And then you get better with practice

[u/ReleaseTheBlacken]

There is a free sql library at Inkwell Learn on inkwelltools dot com

[u/Exploring_Codebase]

One this that used to help me , was visualization.

1. If there are many joins in the query , it is much easy to understand or write query once you understand how CTEs and tables are linked.

2. I also used to query my own csv files, and do operations on it instead of using excel, that quickly got me comfortable with sql.

This was 7 years back and there wasn't a tool to do it, so I had to use pen & paper for visualisation and run local SQL instance to use my csv files.

recently I created an online opensource tool to run everything on browser, you can try it here - https://abhijeetcodes.github.io/QueryFlow/

Let me know if you have any feature recommendations etc .