Top 100 advanced SQL questions and answers for query writing!

1. How to retrieve the second-highest salary of an employee?

SELECT MAX(salary)
FROM employees
WHERE salary < (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees);
2. How to get the nth highest salary in ?

SELECT salary
FROM (SELECT salary, DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rank
FROM employees) AS ranked_salaries
WHERE rank = N;
3. How do you fetch all employees whose salary is greater than the average
salary?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE salary > (SELECT AVG(salary) FROM employees);
4. Write a query to display the current date and time in .

SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
5. How to find duplicate records in a table?
SELECT column_name, COUNT(*)
FROM table_name
GROUP BY column_name
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;
6. How can you delete duplicate rows in ?

WITH CTE AS (
SELECT column_name,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY column_name ORDER BY
column_name) AS row_num
FROM table_name
)
DELETE FROM CTE WHERE row_num > 1;
7. How to get the common records from two tables?

SELECT *
FROM table1
INTERSECT
SELECT *
FROM table2;
8. How to retrieve the last 10 records from a table?
SELECT *
FROM employees
ORDER BY employee_id DESC
LIMIT 10;
9. How do you fetch the top 5 employees with the highest salaries?

SELECT *
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC
LIMIT 5;
10. How to calculate the total salary of all employees?

SELECT SUM(salary)
FROM employees;
11. How to write a query to find all employees who joined in the year 2020?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE YEAR(join_date) = 2020;
12. Write a query to find employees whose name starts with 'A'.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE 'A%';
13. How can you find the employees who do not have a manager?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE manager_id IS NULL;
14. How to find the department with the highest number of employees?

SELECT department_id, COUNT(*)

FROM employees
GROUP BY department_id
ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC
LIMIT 1;
15. How to get the count of employees in each department?

SELECT department_id, COUNT(*)

FROM employees
GROUP BY department_id;
16. Write a query to fetch employees having the highest salary in each
department.

SELECT department_id, employee_id, salary

FROM employees AS e
WHERE salary = (SELECT MAX(salary)
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = e.department_id);
17. How to write a query to update the salary of all employees by 10%?

UPDATE employees
SET salary = salary * 1.1;
18. How can you find employees whose salary is between 50,000 and
1,00,000?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE salary BETWEEN 50000 AND 100000;
19. How to find the youngest employee in the organization?

SELECT *
FROM employees
ORDER BY birth_date DESC
LIMIT 1;
20. How to fetch the first and last record from a table?

(SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY employee_id ASC LIMIT 1)

UNION ALL
(SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY employee_id DESC LIMIT 1);
21. Write a query to find all employees who report to a specific manager.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE manager_id = ?;
22. How can you find the total number of departments in the company?

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT department_id)

FROM employees;
23. How to find the department with the lowest average salary?

SELECT department_id, AVG(salary)

FROM employees
GROUP BY department_id
ORDER BY AVG(salary) ASC
LIMIT 1;
24. How to delete all employees from a department in one query?

DELETE FROM employees

WHERE department_id = ?;
25. How to display all employees who have been in the company for more
than 5 years?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), join_date) > 1825;
26. How to find the second-largest value from a table?

SELECT MAX(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name < (SELECT MAX(column_name) FROM table_name);
27. How to write a query to remove all records from a table but keep the
table structure?

TRUNCATE TABLE table_name;

28. Write a query to get all employee records in XML format.

SELECT employee_id, name, department_id

FROM employees
FOR XML AUTO;
29. How to get the current month’s name from ?
SELECT MONTHNAME(CURDATE());
30. How to convert a string to lowercase in ?

SELECT LOWER('STRING_VALUE');
31. How to find all employees who do not have any subordinates?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE employee_id NOT IN (SELECT manager_id FROM employees WHERE
manager_id IS NOT NULL);
32. Write a query to calculate the total sales per customer in a sales table.

SELECT customer_id, SUM(sales_amount)

FROM sales
GROUP BY customer_id;
33. How to write a query to check if a table is empty?

SELECT CASE
WHEN EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM table_name)
THEN 'Not Empty'
ELSE 'Empty'
END;
34. How to find the second highest salary for each department?
SELECT department_id, salary
FROM (SELECT department_id, salary,
DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY department_id ORDER BY salary
DESC) AS rank
FROM employees) AS ranked_salaries
WHERE rank = 2;
35. Write a query to fetch employees whose salary is a multiple of 10,000.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE salary % 10000 = 0;
36. How to fetch records where a column has null values?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE column_name IS NULL;
37. How to write a query to find the total number of employees in each job
title?

SELECT job_title, COUNT(*)

FROM employees
GROUP BY job_title;
38. Write a query to fetch all employees whose names end with ‘n’.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE '%n';
39. How to find all employees who work in both departments 101 and 102?

SELECT employee_id
FROM employees
WHERE department_id IN (101, 102)
GROUP BY employee_id
HAVING COUNT(DISTINCT department_id) = 2;
40. Write a query to fetch the details of employees with the same salary.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE salary IN (SELECT salary
FROM employees
GROUP BY salary
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1);
41. How to update salaries of employees based on their department?
UPDATE employees
SET salary = CASE
WHEN department_id = 101 THEN salary * 1.10
WHEN department_id = 102 THEN salary * 1.05
ELSE salary
END;
42. How to write a query to list all employees without a department?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE department_id IS NULL;
43. Write a query to find the maximum salary and minimum salary in each
department.

SELECT department_id, MAX(salary), MIN(salary)

FROM employees
GROUP BY department_id;
44. How to list all employees hired in the last 6 months?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE hire_date > ADDDATE(CURDATE(), INTERVAL -6 MONTH);
45. Write a query to display department-wise total and average salary.
SELECT department_id, SUM(salary) AS total_salary, AVG(salary) AS avg_salary
FROM employees
GROUP BY department_id;
46. How to find employees who joined the company in the same month and
year as their manager?

SELECT e.employee_id, e.name

FROM employees e
JOIN employees m ON e.manager_id = m.employee_id
WHERE MONTH(e.join_date) = MONTH(m.join_date)
AND YEAR(e.join_date) = YEAR(m.join_date);
47. Write a query to count the number of employees whose names start and
end with the same letter.

SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM employees
WHERE LEFT(name, 1) = RIGHT(name, 1);
48. How to retrieve employee names and salaries in a single string?

SELECT CONCAT(name, ' earns ', salary) AS employee_info

FROM employees;
49. How to find employees whose salary is higher than their manager's
salary?
SELECT e.employee_id, e.name
FROM employees e
JOIN employees m ON e.manager_id = m.employee_id
WHERE e.salary > m.salary;
50. Write a query to get employees who belong to departments with less
than 3 employees.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE department_id IN (SELECT department_id
FROM employees
GROUP BY department_id
HAVING COUNT(*) < 3);
51. How to write a query to find employees with the same first name?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE first_name IN (SELECT first_name
FROM employees
GROUP BY first_name
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1);
52. How to write a query to delete employees who have been in the company
for more than 15 years?
DELETE FROM employees
WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), join_date) > 5475;
53. Write a query to list all employees working under the same manager.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE manager_id = ?;
54. How to find the top 3 highest-paid employees in each department?

SELECT *
FROM (SELECT *,
DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY department_id ORDER BY salary
DESC) AS rank
FROM employees) AS ranked_employees
WHERE rank <= 3;
55. Write a query to list all employees with more than 5 years of experience
in each department.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), join_date) > 1825;
56. How to list all employees in departments that have not hired anyone in
the past 2 years?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE department_id IN (SELECT department_id
FROM employees
GROUP BY department_id
HAVING MAX(hire_date) < ADDDATE(CURDATE(), INTERVAL -2
YEAR));
57. Write a query to find all employees who earn more than the average
salary of their department.

SELECT *
FROM employees e
WHERE salary > (SELECT AVG(salary)
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = e.department_id);
58. How to list all managers who have more than 5 subordinates?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE employee_id IN (SELECT manager_id
FROM employees
 GROUP BY manager_id
HAVING COUNT(*) > 5);
59. Write a query to display employee names and hire dates in the format
"Name - MM/DD/YYYY".

SELECT CONCAT(name, ' - ', DATE_FORMAT(hire_date, '%m/%d/%Y')) AS

employee_info
FROM employees;
60. How to find employees whose salary is in the top 10%?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE salary >= (SELECT PERCENTILE_CONT(0.9)
WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY salary ASC)
FROM employees);
61. Write a query to display employees grouped by their age brackets (e.g.,
20-30, 31-40, etc.).

SELECT CASE
WHEN age BETWEEN 20 AND 30 THEN '20-30'
WHEN age BETWEEN 31 AND 40 THEN '31-40'
ELSE '41+'
END AS age_bracket,
COUNT(*)
FROM employees
GROUP BY age_bracket;
62. How to find the average salary of the top 5 highest-paid employees in
each department?

SELECT department_id, AVG(salary)

FROM (SELECT department_id, salary,
DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY department_id ORDER BY salary
DESC) AS rank
FROM employees) AS ranked_employees
WHERE rank <= 5
GROUP BY department_id;
63. How to calculate the percentage of employees in each department?

SELECT department_id,
(COUNT(*) * 100.0 / (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM employees)) AS percentage
FROM employees
GROUP BY department_id;
64. Write a query to find all employees whose email contains the domain
'@example.com'.

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE email LIKE '%@example.com';
65. How to retrieve the year-to-date sales for each customer?

SELECT customer_id, SUM(sales_amount)

FROM sales
WHERE sale_date BETWEEN '2024-01-01' AND CURDATE()
GROUP BY customer_id;
66. Write a query to display the hire date and day of the week for each
employee.

SELECT name, hire_date, DAYNAME(hire_date) AS day_of_week

FROM employees;
67. How to find all employees who are older than 30 years?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), birth_date) / 365 > 30;
68. Write a query to display employees grouped by their salary range (e.g., 0-
20K, 20K-50K).

SELECT CASE
WHEN salary BETWEEN 0 AND 20000 THEN '0-20K'
WHEN salary BETWEEN 20001 AND 50000 THEN '20K-50K'
ELSE '50K+'
 END AS salary_range,
COUNT(*)
FROM employees
GROUP BY salary_range;
69. How to list all employees who do not have a bonus?

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE bonus IS NULL;
70. Write a query to display the highest, lowest, and average salary for each
job role.

SELECT job_role, MAX(salary) AS highest_salary, MIN(salary) AS lowest_salary,

AVG(salary) AS avg_salary
FROM employees
GROUP BY job_role;