SQL Interview Questions and Answers

1. Q: What is SQL?

A: SQL stands for Structured Query Language, used to communicate with databases.

2. Q: What are the types of SQL commands?

A: They include DDL, DML, DCL, TCL, and DQL.

3. Q: What is a primary key?

A: A primary key uniquely identifies each row in a table and cannot be NULL.

4. Q: What is a foreign key?

A: A foreign key links two tables and refers to the primary key in another table.

5. Q: What is the difference between WHERE and HAVING?

A: WHERE filters rows before grouping, HAVING filters after grouping.

6. Q: What is the difference between INNER JOIN and LEFT JOIN?

A: INNER JOIN returns matching rows; LEFT JOIN returns all rows from the left table.

7. Q: What is normalization?

A: The process of organizing data to reduce redundancy and improve integrity.

8. Q: What is denormalization?

A: The process of combining tables to improve read performance.

9. Q: What is a constraint?

A: Rules applied on columns to limit the data, e.g., NOT NULL, UNIQUE.

10. Q: What is an index?

A: A database object that improves the speed of data retrieval.

11. Q: What is a view?

A: A virtual table based on the result of an SQL query.

12. Q: What is the difference between DELETE, TRUNCATE, and DROP?

A: DELETE removes specific rows; TRUNCATE removes all rows; DROP removes the table.

13. Q: What is a subquery?

14. Q: What is a stored procedure?

A: A group of SQL statements stored and executed in the database.

15. Q: What is a trigger?

A: A procedure that runs automatically in response to events on a table.

16. Q: What is the difference between UNION and UNION ALL?

A: UNION removes duplicates; UNION ALL includes duplicates.

17. Q: What is a NULL value?

A: A field with no value.

18. Q: How do you check for NULL values?

A: Using IS NULL or IS NOT NULL.

19. Q: What is a transaction?

A: A unit of work performed within a database.

20. Q: What are ACID properties?

A: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability.

21. Q: What is a cursor?

A: A pointer used to retrieve rows from a result set one at a time.

22. Q: What is the use of GROUP BY?

A: To group rows with the same values in specified columns.

23. Q: What is the difference between CHAR and VARCHAR?

A: CHAR has fixed length; VARCHAR has variable length.

24. Q: What is a schema?

A: A collection of database objects like tables, views, and procedures.

25. Q: What is a composite key?

A: A primary key made of two or more columns.

26. Q: What is a unique key?

27. Q: What is a self join?

A: A table joined with itself.

28. Q: What is a cross join?

A: Returns the Cartesian product of two tables.

29. Q: How do you find duplicate records in a table?

A: Using GROUP BY and HAVING COUNT > 1.

30. Q: What is an alias in SQL?

A: A temporary name for a table or column.

31. Q: What is CASE in SQL?

A: Used for conditional logic within queries.

32. Q: How do you sort data in SQL?

A: Using the ORDER BY clause.

33. Q: How do you get the current date in SQL?

A: Using functions like GETDATE() or CURRENT_DATE.

34. Q: What is the LIMIT clause?

A: Used to specify the number of records to return.

35. Q: What is a default constraint?

A: Assigns a default value when no value is specified.

36. Q: What are wildcards in SQL?

A: Symbols like %, _, used with LIKE for pattern matching.

37. Q: What is a correlated subquery?

A: A subquery that uses values from the outer query.

38. Q: What is EXISTS in SQL?

A: Checks if a subquery returns any records.

39. Q: How do you rename a table?

40. Q: What is the difference between SQL and MySQL?

A: SQL is a language; MySQL is a database system.

41. Q: What is data integrity?

A: Ensuring accuracy and consistency of data.

42. Q: What is a temporary table?

A: A table created for short-term use, often within a session.

43. Q: What is the BETWEEN operator?

A: Used to filter values within a range.

44. Q: How do you fetch even or odd rows in SQL?

A: Using modulo: % 2 = 0 for even, % 2 != 0 for odd.

45. Q: What is COALESCE()?

A: Returns the first non-null value among its arguments.

46. Q: What is the IFNULL() function?

A: Replaces NULL with a specified value.

47. Q: What is the difference between IN and EXISTS?

A: IN compares with a list; EXISTS checks for result presence.

48. Q: What is the use of DISTINCT?

A: Removes duplicate values in results.

49. Q: How do you find the second highest salary in a table?

A: Using subqueries or LIMIT with OFFSET.

50. Q: How do you avoid SQL injection?

A: Using prepared statements or parameterized queries.

1. Q: Write a program to reverse a string.

A: Use slicing like string[::-1] or a loop.

2. Q: Find the factorial of a number.

A: Use recursion or a loop multiplying from 1 to n.

3. Q: Check if a number is prime.

A: Divide n by all numbers from 2 to sqrt(n).

4. Q: Find the largest element in an array.

A: Use max() or iterate and track the max.

5. Q: Check if a string is a palindrome.

A: Compare the string with its reverse.

6. Q: Find the Fibonacci sequence up to n terms.

A: Use a loop and store previous two values.

7. Q: Check if a number is even or odd.

A: Use modulo operator: n % 2.

8. Q: Swap two numbers without using a third variable.

A: Use arithmetic: a = a + b, b = a - b, a = a - b.

9. Q: Find duplicates in a list.

A: Use a set or a dictionary to count occurrences.

10. Q: Count the number of vowels in a string.

A: Iterate and check if each char is a vowel.

11. Q: Sort an array without using built-in sort.

A: Use bubble sort, selection sort, etc.

12. Q: Find the sum of digits of a number.

A: Use a loop: sum += n % 10; n //= 10.

13. Q: Reverse a number.

14. Q: Find the length of a string without using len().

A: Use a loop to count characters.

15. Q: Find the GCD of two numbers.

A: Use Euclidean algorithm.

16. Q: Find the LCM of two numbers.

A: Use formula: LCM = (a*b)//GCD.

17. Q: Check if two strings are anagrams.

A: Sort both and compare or use a frequency map.

18. Q: Find the missing number in an array 1 to n.

A: Sum of n natural numbers - sum of array.

19. Q: Check if a year is a leap year.

A: Divisible by 4, but not by 100 unless also by 400.

20. Q: Implement binary search.

A: Use divide and conquer by halving the search space.

21. Q: Find the first non-repeating character in a string.

A: Use a dictionary to count and check.

22. Q: Check if a string contains only digits.

A: Use str.isdigit() or iterate and check each char.

23. Q: Convert a decimal number to binary.

A: Use bin() or repeated division by 2.

24. Q: Implement a stack using a list.

A: Use append() for push and pop() for pop.

25. Q: Find the second largest number in an array.

A: Track max and second max.

26. Q: Reverse a linked list.

27. Q: Check if a linked list has a cycle.

A: Use Floyd's cycle detection algorithm.

28. Q: Implement a queue using two stacks.

A: Use two stacks to simulate enqueue/dequeue.

29. Q: Find intersection of two arrays.

A: Use sets or loops to find common elements.

30. Q: Implement a basic calculator.

A: Parse the expression and evaluate with stack for precedence.