1.
Second highest salary
• SELECT MAX(salary)
• FROM employees
• WHERE salary < (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM
employees);
• Uses subquery to exclude the top salary.
2. Department-wise avg salary
(with >5 employees)
• SELECT department_id, AVG(salary) AS
avg_salary
• FROM employees
• GROUP BY department_id
• HAVING COUNT(*) > 5;
• `HAVING` filters aggregated groups.
3. Customers with >3 orders in last
30 days
• SELECT customer_id
• FROM orders
• WHERE order_date >= CURRENT_DATE -
INTERVAL '30 days'
• GROUP BY customer_id
• HAVING COUNT(*) > 3;
• Aggregation + date filter.
4. Find duplicates on multiple fields
• SELECT col1, col2, COUNT(*)
• FROM my_table
• GROUP BY col1, col2
• HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;
• Helps detect data quality issues.
5. Transpose rows into columns
using CASE
• SELECT
• user_id,
• MAX(CASE WHEN month = 'Jan' THEN spend
END) AS Jan,
• MAX(CASE WHEN month = 'Feb' THEN spend
END) AS Feb
• FROM user_spend
• GROUP BY user_id;
6. INNER JOIN vs EXISTS
• SELECT name
• FROM customers c
• WHERE EXISTS (
• SELECT 1 FROM orders o WHERE
o.customer_id = c.id
• );
• `EXISTS` stops at the first match. Good for
correlated subqueries.
7. Products never sold
• SELECT p.*
• FROM products p
• LEFT JOIN order_items o ON p.id =
o.product_id
• WHERE o.product_id IS NULL;
• `LEFT JOIN` + NULL check = "no match"
rows.
8. Highest order value per
customer
• SELECT o.*
• FROM orders o
• WHERE amount = (
• SELECT MAX(amount) FROM orders WHERE
customer_id = o.customer_id
• );
• Correlated subquery per customer.
9. Compare today vs yesterday
active users
• WITH daily_users AS (
• SELECT activity_date, COUNT(DISTINCT
user_id) AS user_count
• FROM activity_log
• WHERE activity_date IN (CURRENT_DATE,
CURRENT_DATE - 1)
• GROUP BY activity_date
• )
• SELECT
10. Recursive CTE for hierarchy
• WITH RECURSIVE org_chart AS (
• SELECT id, parent_id, 1 AS level
• FROM employees
• WHERE parent_id IS NULL
• UNION ALL
• SELECT e.id, e.parent_id, oc.level + 1
• FROM employees e
• JOIN org_chart oc ON e.parent_id = oc.id
• )
11. Rank products by sales within
each category
• SELECT product_id, category,
• RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY category
ORDER BY total_sales DESC) AS rnk
• FROM product_sales;
• `RANK()` gives position per category.
12. 7-day rolling avg website visits
• SELECT visit_date,
• AVG(visits) OVER (ORDER BY visit_date
ROWS BETWEEN 6 PRECEDING AND CURRENT
ROW) AS rolling_avg
• FROM web_traffic;
• Smooth trends using sliding windows.
13. First and last transaction per
user
• SELECT *
• FROM (
• SELECT *,
• ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY
user_id ORDER BY tx_date ASC) AS rn_asc,
• ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY
user_id ORDER BY tx_date DESC) AS rn_desc
• FROM transactions
• )t
14. Detect gaps in sequential dates
• SELECT date,
• LAG(date) OVER (ORDER BY date) AS
prev_date,
• date - LAG(date) OVER (ORDER BY date) AS
gap
• FROM events;
• Easily identify missing dates or IDs.
15. Cumulative spend per
customer per month
• SELECT customer_id, month,
• SUM(spend) OVER (PARTITION BY
customer_id ORDER BY month) AS cum_spend
• FROM monthly_spend;
• Running totals within groups.
