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SQL Scenario based Interview Questions

May 4, 2021

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Contents

1. How to select UNIQUE records from a table using a SQL Query?

2. How to delete DUPLICATE records from a table using a SQL Query?
3. How to read TOP 5 records from a table using a SQL query?
4. How to read LAST 5 records from a table using a SQL query?
5. What is the result of Normal Join, Left Outer Join, Right Outer Join and Full Outer Join
between the tables A & B? 
6. How to find the employee with second MAX Salary using a SQL query?

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7. How to find the employee with third MAX Salary using a SQL query without using
Analytic Functions?

1. How to select UNIQUE records from a table using a

SQL Query?
Consider below EMPLOYEE table as the source data

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE (

EMPLOYEE_ID NUMBER(6,0),
NAME VARCHAR2(20),
SALARY NUMBER(8,2)
);

INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(100,'Jennifer',4400);

INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(100,'Jennifer',4400);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(101,'Michael',13000);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(101,'Michael',13000);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(101,'Michael',13000);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(102,'Pat',6000);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(102,'Pat',6000);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(103,'Den',11000);

SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE;

EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

100 Jennifer 4400

100 Jennifer 4400

101 Michael 13000

101 Michael 13000

101 Michael 13000

102 Pat 6000

102 Pat 6000

103 Den 11000

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METHOD-1: Using GROUP BY Function

GROUP BY clause is used with SELECT statement to collect data from

multiple records and group the results by one or more columns.
The GROUP BY clause returns one row per group. By applying GROUP
BY function on all the source columns, unique records can be queried
from the table.

Below is the query to fetch the unique records using GROUP BY function.

Query:

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID,
NAME,
SALARY
FROM EMPLOYEE
GROUP BY EMPLOYEE_ID, NAME, SALARY;

Result:

EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

100 Jennifer 4400

101 Michael 13000

102 Pat 6000

103 Den 11000

METHOD-2: Using ROW_NUMBER Analytic Function 

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The ROW_NUMBER Analytic function is used to provide consecutive

numbering of the rows in the result by the ORDER selected for
each PARTITION specified in the OVER clause. It will assign the value 1
for the first row and increase the number of the subsequent rows.

Using ROW_NUMBER Analytic function, assign row numbers to each unique set of
records.

Query:

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID,
NAME,
SALARY,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY ORDER BY
EMPLOYEE_ID) AS ROW_NUMBER
FROM EMPLOYEE;

Result:

EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY ROW_NUMBER

100 Jennifer 4400 1

100 Jennifer 4400 2

101 Michael 13000 1

101 Michael 13000 2

101 Michael 13000 3

102 Pat 6000 1

102 Pat 6000 2

103 Den 11000 1

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Once row numbers are assigned, by querying the rows with row number 1 will give the
unique records from the table.

Query:

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, NAME, SALARY

FROM( SELECT
EMPLOYEE_ID,
NAME,
SALARY,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY ORDER BY
EMPLOYEE_ID) AS ROW_NUMBER
FROM EMPLOYEE)
WHERE ROW_NUMBER = 1;

Result:

EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

101 Michael 13000

100 Jennifer 4400

102 Pat 6000

103 Den 11000

Related Article: SQL Analytic Functions Interview Questions

2. How to delete DUPLICATE records from a table

using a SQL Query?
Consider the same EMPLOYEE table as source discussed in previous question

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METHOD-1: Using ROWID and ROW_NUMBER Analytic

Function

An Oracle server assigns each row in each table with a

unique ROWID to identify the row in the table. The ROWID is the
address of the row which contains the data object number, the data
block of the row, the row position and data file.

STEP-1: Using ROW_NUMBER Analytic function, assign row

numbers to each unique set of records. Select ROWID of the rows
along with the source columns

Query:

SELECT ROWID,
EMPLOYEE_ID,
NAME,SALARY,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY ORDER BY
EMPLOYEE_ID) AS ROW_NUMBER
FROM EMPLOYEE;

Result:

ROWID EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY ROW_NUMBER

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAA 100 Jennifer 4400 1

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAB 100 Jennifer 4400 2

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAC 101 Michael 13000 1

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAD 101 Michael 13000 2

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAE 101 Michael 13000 3

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAF 102 Pat 6000 1


AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAG 102 Pat 6000 2

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AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAH 103 Den 11000 1

STEP-2: Select ROWID of records with ROW_NUMBER > 1

Query:

SELECT ROWID FROM(

SELECT ROWID,
EMPLOYEE_ID,
NAME,
SALARY,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY ORDER
BY EMPLOYEE_ID) AS ROW_NUMBER
FROM EMPLOYEE)
WHERE ROW_NUMBER > 1;

Result:

ROWID

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAB

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAD

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAE

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAG

STEP-3: Delete the records from the source table using the ROWID
values fetched in previous step

Query:

DELETE FROM EMP WHERE ROWID IN ( 

SELECT ROWID FROM(
SELECT ROWID,
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ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY ORDER BY

EMPLOYEE_ID) AS ROW_NUMBER
FROM EMPLOYEE)
WHERE ROW_NUMBER > 1);

Result:

The table EMPLOYEE will have below records after deleting the duplicates

ROWID EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAA 100 Jennifer 4400

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAC 101 Michael 13000

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAF 102 Pat 6000

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAH 103 Den 11000

METHOD-2: Using ROWID and Correlated subquery

Correlated subquery is used for row-by-row processing. With a normal

nested subquery, the inner SELECT query runs once and executes
first. The returning values will be used by the main query. A correlated
subquery, however, executes once for every row of the outer query. In
other words, the inner query is driven by the outer query.

In the below query, we are comparing the ROWIDs’ of the unique set of records and
keeping the record with MIN ROWID and deleting all other rows.

Query:

DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE A WHERE ROWID > (SELECT MIN(ROWID) FROM

EMPLOYEE B WHERE B.EMPLOYEE_ID = A.EMPLOYEE_ID ); 

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Result:

The table EMPLOYEE will have below records after deleting the duplicates

ROWID EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAA 100 Jennifer 4400

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAC 101 Michael 13000

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAF 102 Pat 6000

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAH 103 Den 11000

The opposite of above discussed case can be implemented by keeping the record with
MAX ROWID from the unique set of records and delete all other duplicates by
executing below query.

Query:

DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE A WHERE ROWID < (SELECT MAX(ROWID) FROM

EMPLOYEE B WHERE B.EMPLOYEE_ID = A.EMPLOYEE_ID );

Result:

The table EMPLOYEE will have below records after deleting the duplicates

ROWID EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAA 100 Jennifer 4400

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAC 101 Michael 13000

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAF 102 Pat 6000

AAASnBAAEAAACrWAAH 103 Den 11000 

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3. How to read TOP 5 records from a table using a SQL

query?
Consider below table DEPARTMENTS as the source data

CREATE TABLE Departments(

Department_ID number,
Department_Name varchar(50)
);

INSERT INTO DEPARTMENTS VALUES('10','Administration');

INSERT INTO DEPARTMENTS VALUES('20','Marketing');
INSERT INTO DEPARTMENTS VALUES('30','Purchasing');
INSERT INTO DEPARTMENTS VALUES('40','Human Resources');
INSERT INTO DEPARTMENTS VALUES('50','Shipping');
INSERT INTO DEPARTMENTS VALUES('60','IT');
INSERT INTO DEPARTMENTS VALUES('70','Public Relations');
INSERT INTO DEPARTMENTS VALUES('80','Sales');

SELECT * FROM Departments;

DEPARTMENT_ID DEPARTMENT_NAME

10 Administration

20 Marketing

30 Purchasing

40 Human Resources

50 Shipping

60 IT

70 Public Relations

80 Sales

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ROWNUM is a “Pseudocolumn” that assigns a number to each row

returned by a query indicating the order in which Oracle selects the
row from a table. The first row selected has a ROWNUM of 1, the
second has 2, and so on.

Query:

SELECT * FROM Departments WHERE ROWNUM <= 5;

Result:

DEPARTMENT_ID DEPARTMENT_NAME

10 Administration

20 Marketing

30 Purchasing

40 Human Resources

50 Shipping

4. How to read LAST 5 records from a table using a

SQL query?
Consider the same DEPARTMENTS table as source discussed in previous question.

In order to select the last 5 records we need to find (count of total number of records
– 5) which gives the count of records from first to last but 5 records.

Using the MINUS function we can compare all records from DEPARTMENTS table
with records from first to last but 5 from DEPARTMENTS table which give the last 5
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records of the table as result.

MINUS operator is used to return all rows in the first SELECT

statement that are not present in the second SELECT statement.

Query:

SELECT * FROM Departments

MINUS

SELECT * FROM Departments WHERE ROWNUM <= (SELECT COUNT(*)-5 FROM

Departments);

Result:

DEPARTMENT_ID DEPARTMENT_NAME

40 Human Resources

50 Shipping

60 IT

70 Public Relations

80 Sales

5. What is the result of Normal Join, Left Outer Join,

Right Outer Join and Full Outer Join between the
tables A & B?

Table_A 

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COL

null

Table_B

COL

null

null

Normal Join:

Normal Join or Inner Join is the most common type of join. It returns
the rows that are exact match between both the tables.

The following Venn diagram illustrates a Normal join when combining two result sets:

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Query:

SELECT a.COL as A,
b.COL as B
FROM TABLE_A a JOIN TABLE_B b
ON a.COL = b.COL;

Result:

A B

1 1

1 1

0 0

Left Outer Join:

The Left Outer Join returns all the rows from the left table and only the 
matching rows from the right table. If there is no matching row found
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from the right table, the left outer join will have NULL values for the
columns from right table.

The following Venn diagram illustrates a Left join when combining two result sets:

Query:

SELECT a.COL as A,
b.COL as B
FROM TABLE_A a LEFT OUTER JOIN TABLE_B b
ON a.COL = b.COL;

Result:

A B

1 1

1 1

0 0

NULL NULL

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Right Outer Join:

The Right Outer Join returns all the rows from the right table and only
the matching rows from the left table. If there is no matching row found
from the left table, the right outer join will have NULL values for the
columns from left table.

The following Venn diagram illustrates a Right join when combining two result sets:

Query:

SELECT a.COL as A,
b.COL as B
FROM TABLE_A a RIGHT OUTER JOIN TABLE_B b
ON a.COL = b.COL;

Result:

A B

1 1

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1 1

0 0

NULL NULL

NULL NULL

Full Outer Join:

The Full Outer Join returns all the rows from both the right table and
the left table. If there is no matching row found, the missing side
columns will have NULL values.

The following Venn diagram illustrates a Full join when combining two result sets:

Query:

SELECT a.COL as A,
b.COL as B
FROM TABLE_A a FULL OUTER JOIN TABLE_B b

ON a.COL = b.COL;

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Result:

A B

1 1

1 1

0 0

NULL NULL

NULL NULL

NULL NULL

NOTE: NULL do not match with NULL

6. How to find the employee with second MAX Salary

using a SQL query?
Consider below EMPLOYEES table as the source data

CREATE TABLE Employees(

EMPLOYEE_ID NUMBER(6,0),
NAME VARCHAR2(20 BYTE),
SALARY NUMBER(8,2)
);

INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY)

VALUES(100,'Jennifer',4400);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY)
VALUES(101,'Michael',13000);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(102,'Pat',6000);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(103,'Den', 11000);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) 
VALUES(104,'Alexander',3100);

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INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(105,'Shelli',2900);

INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(106,'Sigal',2800);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(107,'Guy',2600);
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES(EMPLOYEE_ID,NAME,SALARY) VALUES(108,'Karen',2500);

SELECT * FROM Employees;

EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

100 Jennifer 4400

101 Michael 13000

102 Pat 6000

103 Den 11000

104 Alexander 3100

105 Shelli 2900

106 Sigel 2800

107 Guy 2600

108 Karen 2500

METHOD-1: Without using SQL Analytic Functions

In order to find the second MAX salary, employee record with MAX salary needs to be
eliminated. It can be achieved by using below SQL query.

Query:

SELECT MAX(salary) AS salary FROM Employees WHERE salary NOT IN (

SELECT MAX(salary) AS salary FROM Employees);

Result: 

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SALARY

11000

The above query only gives the second MAX salary value. In order to fetch the entire
employee record with second MAX salary we need to do a self-join on Employee table
based on Salary value.

Query:

WITH
TEMP AS(
SELECT MAX(salary) AS salary FROM Employees WHERE salary NOT IN (
SELECT MAX(salary) AS salary FROM Employees)
)
SELECT a.* FROM Employees a JOIN TEMP b on a.salary = b.salary

Result:

EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

103 Den 11000

METHOD-2: Using SQL Analytic Functions

Query:

The DENSE_RANK is an analytic function that calculates the rank of a

row in an ordered set of rows starting from 1. Unlike the RANK
function, the DENSE_RANK function returns rank values as

consecutive integers.

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SELECT Employee_Id,
Name,
Salary
FROM(
SELECT Employees.*,
DENSE_RANK() OVER(ORDER BY Salary DESC) as SALARY_RANK
FROM Employees)
WHERE SALARY_RANK =2

Result:

EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

103 Den 11000

By replacing the value of SALARY_RANK, any highest salary

rank can be found easily.

Related Article: SQL Analytic Functions Interview Questions

7. How to find the employee with third MAX Salary

using a SQL query without using Analytic Functions?
Consider the same EMPLOYEES table as source discussed in previous question

In order to find the third MAX salary, we need to eliminate the top 2 salary records. But
we cannot use the same method we used for finding second MAX salary (not a best
practice). Imagine if we have to find the fifth MAX salary. We should not be writing a
query with four nested sub queries.

STEP-1:

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The approach here is to first list all the records based on Salary in the descending
order with MAX salary on top and MIN salary at bottom. Next, using ROWNUM select
the top 2 records.

Query:

SELECT salary FROM(

SELECT salary FROM Employees ORDER BY salary DESC)
WHERE ROWNUM < 3;

Result:

Salary

13000

11000

STEP-2:

Next find the MAX salary from EMPLOYEE table which is not one of top two salary
values fetched in the earlier step.

Query:

SELECT MAX(salary) as salary FROM Employees WHERE salary NOT IN (

SELECT salary FROM(
SELECT salary FROM Employees ORDER BY salary DESC)
WHERE ROWNUM < 3
);

Result:

SALARY
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6000

STEP-3:

In order to fetch the entire employee record with third MAX salary we need to do a self-
join on Employee table based on Salary value.

Query:

WITH
TEMP AS(
SELECT MAX(salary) as salary FROM Employees WHERE salary NOT IN (
SELECT salary FROM(
SELECT salary FROM Employees ORDER BY salary DESC)
WHERE ROWNUM < 3)
)
SELECT a.* FROM Employees a join TEMP b on a.salary = b.salary

Result:

EMPLOYEE_ID NAME SALARY

102 Pat 6000

In order to find the employee with nth highest salary, replace

the rownum value with n in above query.

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