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Chapter - 8: Let's Make Coding Fun!

The document provides tips and preparation for SQL technical interviews. It includes 23 questions that cover topics like the differences between DELETE and TRUNCATE statements, SQL subsets like DDL, DML, and DCL, the definition and types of DBMS, tables and fields in SQL, joins, data types like CHAR and VARCHAR2, keys like primary keys, unique keys, and foreign keys, normalization, indexes, and the ACID properties of databases. Sample answers are provided for many of the questions.

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Anchugam Keerthi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
111 views

Chapter - 8: Let's Make Coding Fun!

The document provides tips and preparation for SQL technical interviews. It includes 23 questions that cover topics like the differences between DELETE and TRUNCATE statements, SQL subsets like DDL, DML, and DCL, the definition and types of DBMS, tables and fields in SQL, joins, data types like CHAR and VARCHAR2, keys like primary keys, unique keys, and foreign keys, normalization, indexes, and the ACID properties of databases. Sample answers are provided for many of the questions.

Uploaded by

Anchugam Keerthi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 14

CHAPTER -8

SQL TECHniCAL
inTERviEw TiPS
& PREPARATion
Let’s make coding fun!
What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE
statements?

DELETE vs TRUNCATE

DELETE TRUNCATE

Delete command is used to delete Truncate is used to delete all


a row in a table. the rows from a table.

You can rollback data after using


You cannot rollback data.
delete statement.

It is a DML command. It is a DDL command.

It is slower than truncate


It is faster.
statement.

Q2. What are the different subsets of SQL?

 DDL (Data Definition Language) – It allows you to perform


various operations on the database such as CREATE, ALTER
and DELETE objects.
 DML ( Data Manipulation Language) – It allows you to access
and manipulate data. It helps you to insert, update, delete and
retrieve data from the database.
 DCL ( Data Control Language) – It allows you to control access
to the database. Example – Grant, Revoke access permissions.

Q3. What do you mean by DBMS? What are its different types?

A database is a structured collection of data.

A Database Management System (DBMS) is a software application


that interacts with the user, applications and the database itself to
capture and analyze data.
A DBMS allows a user to interact with the database. The data stored
in the database can be modified, retrieved and deleted and can be of
any type like strings, numbers, images etc.

There are two types of DBMS:

 Relational Database Management System: The data is stored in


relations (tables). Example – MySQL.
 Non-Relational Database Management System: There is no
concept of relations, tuples and attributes. Example – Mongo

Q4. What do you mean by table and field in SQL?

A table refers to a collection of data in an organised manner in form


of rows and columns. A field refers to the number of columns in a
table. For example:

Table: StudentInformation
Field: Stu Id, Stu Name, Stu Marks

Q5. What are joins in SQL?

A JOIN clause is used to combine rows from two or more tables,


based on a related column between them. It is used to merge two
tables or retrieve data from there. There are 4 joins in SQL namely:

 Inner Join
 Right Join
 Left Join
 Full Join

Q6. What is the difference between CHAR and VARCHAR2


datatype in SQL?

Both Char and Varchar2 are used for characters datatype but
varchar2 is used for character strings of variable length whereas
Char is used for strings of fixed length. For example, char(10) can
only store 10 characters and will not be able to store a string of any
other length whereas varchar2(10) can store any length i.e 6,8,2 in
this variable.
Q7. What is a Primary key?

 A Primary key is a column (or collection of columns) or a set of


columns that uniquely identifies each row in the table.
 Uniquely identifies a single row in the table
 Null values not allowed

Example- In the Student table, Stu_ID is the primary key.

Q8. What are Constraints?

Constraints are used to specify the limit on the data type of the table.
It can be specified while creating or altering the table statement. The
sample of constraints are:

 NOT NULL
 CHECK
 DEFAULT
 UNIQUE
 PRIMARY KEY
 FOREIGN KEY

Q9. What is the difference between SQL and MySQL?

SQL is a standard language which stands for Structured Query


Language based on the English language whereas MySQL is a
database management system. SQL is the core of relational database
which is used for accessing and managing database, MySQL is an
RDMS (Relational Database Management System) such as SQL
Server, Informix etc

.
Q10. What is a Unique key?

 Uniquely identifies a single row in the table.


 Multiple values allowed per table.
 Null values allowed.

Apart from this SQL Interview Questions blog, if you want to get
trained from professionals on this technology, you can opt for a
structured training from edureka! Click below to know more.

Q11. What is a Foreign key?

 Foreign key maintains referential integrity by enforcing a link


between the data in two tables.
 The foreign key in the child table references the primary key in
the parent table.
 The foreign key constraint prevents actions that would destroy
links between the child and parent tables.

Q12. What do you mean by data integrity?

Data Integrity defines the accuracy as well as the consistency of the


data stored in a database. It also defines integrity constraints to
enforce business rules on the data when it is entered into an
application or a database.

Q13. What is the difference between clustered and non clustered


index in SQL?

The differences between the clustered and non clustered index in


SQL are :

1. Clustered index is used for easy retrieval of data from the


database and its faster whereas reading from non clustered
index is relatively slower.
2. Clustered index alters the way records are stored in a database
as it sorts out rows by the column which is set to be clustered
index whereas in a non clustered index, it does not alter the way
it was stored but it creates a separate object within a table
which points back to the original table rows after searching.
3. One table can only have one clustered index whereas it can have
many non clustered index.

Q14. Write a SQL query to display the current date?

In SQL, there is a built-in function called GetDate() which helps to


return the current timestamp/date.

Q15. List the different type of joins?

There are various types of joins which are used to retrieve data
between the tables. There are four types of joins, namely:

Inner join: Inner Join in MySQL is the most common type of join. It
is used to return all the rows from multiple tables where the join
condition is satisfied.

Left Join: Left Join in MySQL is used to return all the rows from the
left table but only the matching rows from the right table where the
join condition is fulfilled.
Right Join: Right Join in MySQL is used to return all the rows from
the right table but only the matching rows from the left table where
the join condition is fulfilled.

Full Join: Full join returns all the records when there is a match in
any of the tables. Therefore, it returns all the rows from the left-hand
side table and all the rows from the right-hand side table.

Q16. What do you mean by Denormalization?

Denormalization refers to a technique which is used to access data


from higher to lower forms of a database. It helps the database
managers to increase the performance of the entire infrastructure as
it introduces redundancy into a table. It adds the redundant data
into a table by incorporating database queries that combine data
from various tables into a single table.

Q17. What are Entities and Relationships?

Entities: A person, place, or thing in the real world about which data
can be stored in a database. Tables store data that represents one
type of entity. For example – A bank database has a customer table
to store customer information. Customer table stores this
information as a set of attributes (columns within the table) for each
customer.

Relationships: Relation or links between entities that have


something to do with each other. For example – The customer name
is related to the customer account number and contact information,
which might be in the same table. There can also be relationships
between separate tables (for example, customer to accounts).

Q18. What is an Index?

An index refers to a performance tuning method of allowing faster


retrieval of records from the table. An index creates an entry for each
value and hence it will be faster to retrieve data.
Q19. Explain different types of index.

There are three types of index namely:

Unique Index:

This index does not allow the field to have duplicate values if the
column is unique indexed. If a primary key is defined, a unique index
can be applied automatically.

Clustered Index:

This index reorders the physical order of the table and searches
based on the basis of key values. Each table can only have one
clustered index.

Non-Clustered Index:

Non-Clustered Index does not alter the physical order of the table
and maintains a logical order of the data. Each table can have many
nonclustered indexes.

Q20. What is Normalization and what are the advantages of it?

Normalization is the process of organizing data to avoid duplication


and redundancy. Some of the advantages are:

Q21. What is the difference between DROP and TRUNCATE


commands?

DROP command removes a table and it cannot be rolled back from


the database whereas TRUNCATE command removes all the rows
from the table.

Q22. Explain different types of Normalization.

There are many successive levels of normalization. These are called


normal forms. Each consecutive normal form depends on the
previous one.The first three normal forms are usually adequate.

 First Normal Form (1NF) – No repeating groups within rows


 Second Normal Form (2NF) – Every non-key (supporting) column
value is dependent on the whole primary key.
 Third Normal Form (3NF) – Dependent solely on the primary key
and no other non-key (supporting) column value.

Q23. What is ACID property in a database?

ACID stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability. It is


used to ensure that the data transactions are processed reliably in a
database system.

Atomicity: Atomicity refers to the transactions that are completely


done or failed where transaction refers to a single logical operation of
a data. It means if one part of any transaction fails, the entire
transaction fails and the database state is left unchanged.

Consistency: Consistency ensures that the data must meet all the
validation rules. In simple words, you can say that your transaction
never leaves the database without completing its state.

Isolation: The main goal of isolation is concurrency control.

Durability: Durability means that if a transaction has been


committed, it will occur whatever may come in between such as
power loss, crash or any sort of error.

Q25. What are the different operators available in SQL?

There are three operators available in SQL, namely:

1. Arithmetic Operators
2. Logical Operators
3. Comparison Operators

Apart from this SQL Interview Questions blog, if you want to get
trained from professionals on this technology, you can opt for a
structured training from edureka! Click below to know more.
Q26. Are NULL values same as that of zero or a blank space?

A NULL value is not at all same as that of zero or a blank space. NULL
value represents a value which is unavailable, unknown, assigned or
not applicable whereas a zero is a number and blank space is a
character.

Q27. What is the difference between cross join and natural join?

The cross join produces the cross product or Cartesian product of


two tables whereas the natural join is based on all the columns
having the same name and data types in both the tables.

Q28. What is subquery in SQL?

A subquery is a query inside another query where a query is defined


to retrieve data or information back from the database. In a
subquery, the outer query is called as the main query whereas the
inner query is called subquery. Subqueries are always executed first
and the result of the subquery is passed on to the main query. It can
be nested inside a SELECT, UPDATE or any other query. A subquery
can also use any comparison operators such as >,< or =.

Q29. What are the different types of a subquery?

There are two types of subquery namely, Correlated and Non-


Correlated.

Correlated subquery: These are queries which select the data from
a table referenced in the outer query. It is not considered as an
independent query as it refers to another table and refers the column
in a table.

Non-Correlated subquery: This query is an independent query


where the output of subquery is substituted in the main query.

Q30. List the ways to get the count of records in a table?

To count the number of records in a table, you can use the below
commands:
SELECT * FROM table1

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table1

SELECT rows FROM sysindexes WHERE id = OBJECT_ID(table1)


AND indid < 2

Q31. Write a SQL query to find the names of employees that


begin with ‘A’?

To display name of the employees that begin with ‘A’, type in the
below command:

1SELECT * FROM Table_name WHERE EmpName like 'A%'

Q32. Write a SQL query to get the third highest salary of an


employee from employee_table?

1SELECT TOP 1 salary


2FROM(
3SELECT TOP 3 salary
4FROM employee_table
5ORDER BY salary DESC) AS emp
6ORDER BY salary ASC;

Q33. What is the need for group functions in SQL?

Group functions work on the set of rows and returns one result per
group. Some of the commonly used group functions are: AVG,
COUNT, MAX, MIN, SUM, VARIANCE.
Q34 . What is a Relationship and what are they?

Relation or links are between entities that have something to do with


each other. Relationships are defined as the connection between the
tables in a database. There are various relationships, namely:

 One to One Relationship.


 One to Many Relationship.
 Many to One Relationship.
 Self-Referencing Relationship.

Q35. How can you insert NULL values in a column while


inserting the data?

NULL values can be inserted in the following ways:

 Implicitly by omitting column from column list.


 Explicitly by specifying NULL keyword in the VALUES clause

Q36. What is the main difference between ‘BETWEEN’ and ‘IN’


condition operators?

BETWEEN operator is used to display rows based on a range of


values in a row whereas the IN condition operator is used to check
for values contained in a specific set of values.

Example of BETWEEN:
SELECT * FROM Students where ROLL_NO BETWEEN 10 AND 50;
Example of IN:
SELECT * FROM students where ROLL_NO IN (8,15,25);
-
Q37. Why are SQL functions used?

SQL functions are used for the following purposes:

 To perform some calculations on the data

 To modify individual data items


 To manipulate the output

 To format dates and numbers

 To convert the data types

Q38. What is the need of MERGE statement?

This statement allows conditional update or insertion of data into a


table. It performs an UPDATE if a row exists, or an INSERT if the row
does not exist.

Q40. What is CLAUSE in SQL?

SQL clause helps to limit the result set by providing a condition to


the query. A clause helps to filter the rows from the entire set of
records.

For example – WHERE, HAVING clause.

Apart from this SQL Interview Questions Blog, if you want to get
trained from professionals on this technology, you can opt for a
structured training from edureka! Click below to know more.

Q41. What is the difference between ‘HAVING’ CLAUSE and a


‘WHERE’ CLAUSE?

HAVING clause can be used only with SELECT statement. It is


usually used in a GROUP BY clause and whenever GROUP BY is not
used, HAVING behaves like a WHERE clause.
Having Clause is only used with the GROUP BY function in a query
whereas WHERE Clause is applied to each row before they are a part
of the GROUP BY function in a query.
ConCLUSion
In this chapter, we have shared some sample SQL technical interview question with answers for
beginners and experience.

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