Top 50 SQL Interview Questions &
Answers
1.What is DBMS?
A Database Management System (DBMS) is a
program that controls creation, maintenance and use
of a database. DBMS can be termed as File Manager
that manages data in a database rather than saving it
in le systems.
2.What is RDBMS?
RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management
System. RDBMS store the data into the collection of
tables, which is related by common elds between
the columns of the table. It also provides relational
operators to manipulate the data stored into the
tables.
Example: SQL Server.
3.What is SQL?
SQL stands for Structured Query Language , and it is
used to communicate with the Database. This is a
standard language used to perform tasks such as
retrieval, updation, insertion and deletion of data
from a database.
Standard SQL Commands are Select.
4.What is a Database?
Database is nothing but an organized form of data for
easy access, storing, retrieval and managing of data.
This is also known as structured form of data which
can be accessed in many ways.
Example: School Management Database, Bank
Management Database.
5.What are tables and Fields?
A table is a set of data that are organized in a model
with Columns and Rows. Columns can be categorized
as vertical, and Rows are horizontal. A table has
speci ed number of column called elds but can have
any number of rows which is called record.
Example:.
Table: Employee.
Field: Emp ID, Emp Name, Date of Birth.
Data: 201456, David, 11/15/1960.
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6.What is a primary key?
A primary key is a combination of elds which
uniquely specify a row. This is a special kind of unique
key, and it has implicit NOT NULL constraint. It
means, Primary key values cannot be NULL.
7.What is a unique key?
A Unique key constraint uniquely identi ed each
record in the database. This provides uniqueness for
the column or set of columns.
A Primary key constraint has automatic unique
constraint de ned on it. But not, in the case of
Unique Key.
There can be many unique constraint de ned per
table, but only one Primary key constraint de ned per
table.
8.What is a foreign key?
A foreign key is one table which can be related to the
primary key of another table. Relationship needs to
be created between two tables by referencing foreign
key with the primary key of another table.
9.What is a join?
This is a keyword used to query data from more
tables based on the relationship between the elds of
the tables. Keys play a major role when JOINs are
used.
10.What are the types of join and explain each?
There are various types of join which can be used to
retrieve data and it depends on the relationship
between tables.
Inner join.
Inner join return rows when there is at least one
match of rows between the tables.
Right Join.
Right join return rows which are common between
the tables and all rows of Right hand side table.
Simply, it returns all the rows from the right hand side
table even though there are no matches in the left
hand side table.
Left Join.
Left join return rows which are common between the
tables and all rows of Left hand side table. Simply, it
returns all the rows from Left hand side table even
though there are no matches in the Right hand side
table.
Full Join.
Full join return rows when there are matching rows in
any one of the tables. This means, it returns all the
rows from the left hand side table and all the rows
from the right hand side table.
11.What is normalization?
Normalization is the process of minimizing
redundancy and dependency by organizing elds and
table of a database. The main aim of Normalization is
to add, delete or modify eld that can be made in a
single table.
12.What is Denormalization.
DeNormalization is a technique used to access the
data from higher to lower normal forms of database.
It is also process of introducing redundancy into a
table by incorporating data from the related tables.
13.What are all the di erent normalizations?
The normal forms can be divided into 5 forms, and
they are explained below -.
First Normal Form (1NF):.
This should remove all the duplicate columns from
the table. Creation of tables for the related data and
identi cation of unique columns.
Second Normal Form (2NF):.
Meeting all requirements of the rst normal form.
Placing the subsets of data in separate tables and
Creation of relationships between the tables using
primary keys.
Third Normal Form (3NF):.
This should meet all requirements of 2NF. Removing
the columns which are not dependent on primary key
constraints.
Fourth Normal Form (3NF):.
Meeting all the requirements of third normal form
and it should not have multi- valued dependencies.
14.What is a View?
A view is a virtual table which consists of a subset of
data contained in a table. Views are not virtually
present, and it takes less space to store. View can
have data of one or more tables combined, and it is
depending on the relationship.
15.What is an Index?
An index is performance tuning method of allowing
faster retrieval of records from the table. An index
creates an entry for each value and it will be faster to
retrieve data.
16.What are all the di erent types of indexes?
There are three types of indexes -.
Unique Index.
This indexing does not allow the eld to have
duplicate values if the column is unique indexed.
Unique index can be applied automatically when
primary key is de ned.
Clustered Index.
This type of index reorders the physical order of the
table and search based on the key values. Each table
can have only one clustered index.
NonClustered Index.
NonClustered Index does not alter the physical order
of the table and maintains logical order of data. Each
table can have 999 nonclustered indexes.
17.What is a Cursor?
A database Cursor is a control which enables
traversal over the rows or records in the table. This
can be viewed as a pointer to one row in a set of
rows. Cursor is very much useful for traversing such
as retrieval, addition and removal of database
records.
18.What is a relationship and what are they?
Database Relationship is de ned as the connection
between the tables in a database. There are various
data basing relationships, and they are as follows:.
One to One Relationship.
One to Many Relationship.
Many to One Relationship.
Self-Referencing Relationship.
19.What is a query?
A DB query is a code written in order to get the
information back from the database. Query can be
designed in such a way that it matched with our
expectation of the result set. Simply, a question to the
Database.
20.What is subquery?
A subquery is a query within another query. The
outer query is called as main query, and inner query
is called subquery. SubQuery is always executed rst,
and the result of subquery is passed on to the main
query.
21.What are the types of subquery?
There are two types of subquery Correlated and
Non-Correlated.
A correlated subquery cannot be considered as
independent query, but it can refer the column in a
table listed in the FROM the list of the main query.
A Non-Correlated sub query can be considered as
independent query and the output of subquery are
substituted in the main query.
22.What is a stored procedure?
Stored Procedure is a function consists of many SQL
statement to access the database system. Several
SQL statements are consolidated into a stored
procedure and execute them whenever and wherever
required.
23.What is a trigger?
A DB trigger is a code or programs that automatically
execute with response to some event on a table or
view in a database. Mainly, trigger helps to maintain
the integrity of the database.
Example: When a new student is added to the
student database, new records should be created in
the related tables like Exam, Score and Attendance
tables.
24.What is the di erence between DELETE and
TRUNCATE commands?
DELETE command is used to remove rows from the
table, and WHERE clause can be used for conditional
set of parameters. Commit and Rollback can be
performed after delete statement.
TRUNCATE removes all rows from the table. Truncate
operation cannot be rolled back.
25.What are local and global variables and their
di erences?
Local variables are the variables which can be used or
exist inside the function. They are not known to the
other functions and those variables cannot be
referred or used. Variables can be created whenever
that function is called.
Global variables are the variables which can be used
or exist throughout the program. Same variable
declared in global cannot be used in functions. Global
variables cannot be created whenever that function is
called.
26.What is a constraint?
Constraint can be used to specify the limit on the data
type of table. Constraint can be speci ed while
creating or altering the table statement. Sample of
constraint are.
NOT NULL.
CHECK.
DEFAULT.
UNIQUE.
PRIMARY KEY.
FOREIGN KEY.
27.What is data Integrity?
Data Integrity de nes the accuracy and consistency of
data stored in a database. It can also de ne integrity
constraints to enforce business rules on the data
when it is entered into the application or database.
28.What is Auto Increment?
Auto increment keyword allows the user to create a
unique number to be generated when a new record is
inserted into the table. AUTO INCREMENT keyword
can be used in Oracle and IDENTITY keyword can be
used in SQL SERVER.
Mostly this keyword can be used whenever PRIMARY
KEY is used.
29.What is the di erence between Cluster and
Non-Cluster Index?
Clustered index is used for easy retrieval of data from
the database by altering the way that the records are
stored. Database sorts out rows by the column which
is set to be clustered index.
A nonclustered index does not alter the way it was
stored but creates a complete separate object within
the table. It point back to the original table rows after
searching.
30.What is Datawarehouse?
Datawarehouse is a central repository of data from
multiple sources of information. Those data are
consolidated, transformed and made available for the
mining and online processing. Warehouse data have
a subset of data called Data Marts.
31.What is Self-Join?
Self-join is set to be query used to compare to itself.
This is used to compare values in a column with other
values in the same column in the same table. ALIAS
ES can be used for the same table comparison.
32.What is Cross-Join?
Cross join de nes as Cartesian product where
number of rows in the rst table multiplied by
number of rows in the second table. If suppose,
WHERE clause is used in cross join then the query will
work like an INNER JOIN.
33.What is user de ned functions?
User de ned functions are the functions written to
use that logic whenever required. It is not necessary
to write the same logic several times. Instead,
function can be called or executed whenever needed.
34.What are all types of user de ned functions?
Three types of user de ned functions are.
Scalar Functions.
Inline Table valued functions.
Multi statement valued functions.
Scalar returns unit, variant de ned the return clause.
Other two types return table as a return.
35.What is collation?
Collation is de ned as set of rules that determine
how character data can be sorted and compared. This
can be used to compare A and, other language
characters and also depends on the width of the
characters.
ASCII value can be used to compare these character
data.
36.What are all di erent types of collation
sensitivity?
Following are di erent types of collation sensitivity -.
Case Sensitivity A and a and B and b.
Accent Sensitivity.
Kana Sensitivity Japanese Kana characters.
Width Sensitivity Single byte character and
double byte character.
37.Advantages and Disadvantages of Stored
Procedure?
Stored procedure can be used as a modular
programming means create once, store and call for
several times whenever required. This supports faster
execution instead of executing multiple queries. This
reduces network tra c and provides better security
to the data.
Disadvantage is that it can be executed only in the
Database and utilizes more memory in the database
server.
38.What is Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)?
Online Transaction Processing or OLTP manages
transaction based applications which can be used for
data entry and easy retrieval processing of data. This
processing makes like easier on simplicity and
e ciency. It is faster, more accurate results and
expenses with respect to OTLP.
Example Bank Transactions on a daily basis.
39.What is CLAUSE?
SQL clause is de ned to limit the result set by
providing condition to the query. This usually lters
some rows from the whole set of records.
Example Query that has WHERE condition
Query that has HAVING condition.
40.What is recursive stored procedure?
A stored procedure which calls by itself until it
reaches some boundary condition. This recursive
function or procedure helps programmers to use the
same set of code any number of times.
41.What is Union, minus and Interact commands?
UNION operator is used to combine the results of two
tables, and it eliminates duplicate rows from the
tables.
MINUS operator is used to return rows from the rst
query but not from the second query. Matching
records of rst and second query and other rows
from the rst query will be displayed as a result set.
INTERSECT operator is used to return rows returned
by both the queries.
42.What is an ALIAS command?
ALIAS name can be given to a table or column. This
alias name can be referred in WHERE clause to
identify the table or column.
Example-.
1 Select st.StudentID, Ex.Result from student st, E
Here, st refers to alias name for student table and Ex
refers to alias name for exam table.
43.What is the di erence between TRUNCATE and
DROP statements?
TRUNCATE removes all the rows from the table, and it
cannot be rolled back. DROP command removes a
table from the database and operation cannot be
rolled back.
44.What are aggregate and scalar functions?
Aggregate functions are used to evaluate
mathematical calculation and return single values.
This can be calculated from the columns in a table.
Scalar functions return a single value based on the
input value.
Example -.
Aggregate max(), count Calculated with respect to
numeric.
Scalar UCASE(), NOW() Calculated with respect to
strings.
45.How can you create an empty table from an
existing table?
Example will be -.
1 Select * into studentcopy from student where 1=2
Here, we are copying student table to another table
with the same structure with no rows copied.
46.How to fetch common records from two tables?
Common records result set can be achieved by -.
1 Select studentID from student. <strong>INTERSECT
47.How to fetch alternate records from a table?
Records can be fetched for both Odd and Even row
numbers -.
To display even numbers-.
1 Select studentId from (Select rowno, studentId fr
To display odd numbers-.
1 Select studentId from (Select rowno, studentId fr
from (Select rowno, studentId from student) where
mod(rowno,2)=1.[/sql]
48.How to select unique records from a table?
Select unique records from a table by using DISTINCT
keyword.
1 Select DISTINCT StudentID, StudentName from Stude
49.What is the command used to fetch rst 5
characters of the string?
There are many ways to fetch rst 5 characters of the
string -.
1 Select SUBSTRING(StudentName,1,5) as studentname
1 Select RIGHT(Studentname,5) as studentname from s
50.Which operator is used in query for pattern
matching?
LIKE operator is used for pattern matching, and it can
be used as -.
1. % Matches zero or more characters.
2. _(Underscore) Matching exactly one character.
Example -.
1 Select * from Student where studentname like a%
1 Select * from Student where studentname like ami
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23
REPLIES
jam show
good questions
Reply
Amandeep Sharma
What command is used to permanently remove a
record from a database table?
Drop is used to remove table not for single
record.in the above question asked about
removing a record from a database table????.
Reply
srikanta srikanta
1.delete with where clause.
2.using update
Use one of these then use
Commit
Reply
Manju
delete command is used to remove single
row from table
Reply
ashok kumar
DELETE command is used to remove
single row using where clause and
also used to delete entire records
from the table
Reply
Kishore
Truncate command will remove the records
permanently.
Reply
dummy mail2
No it will not remove permanently. It
will be stored in Recycle bin. It can
be rolled back by Flashback
command. To remove permanently
use to Purge command.
Reply
Bond
if we use truncate then its
cannot be rolled back.
Reply
ashok kumar
yes we cant roll bacck
Reply
Akshay
Yes u r right
Reply
Jyoti Agarwal
Delete Command is used to remove a row
permanently, but if you want to delete all
the records from the table then you use
truncat.
Reply
Prashanthi
what happen we are use delete
Reply
vijay
delete from table name
where column name = select row
Reply
mori Rajnisinh
Thnk u & good question
Reply
Monica Nishtala
Drop command will remove the entire database
table not just a record. Delete command is used to
delete certain rows or records.
Reply
Bond
the question is about removing the records
permanently not table. so non of the options
are correct. the correct answer is truncate.
Reply
peddi raju
How to apply the PIVote command
Reply
Sami
Thats is very good videos of SQL
Reply
Prashanthi
what is the answer for this
there are employee table with
fname,salary,dnumber(f_k)
and department table with dnumber(primary
key),dname
nd all employees whose salary is higher than the
average salary of their department?
Reply
Prashanthi
what is the query to show created tables
Reply
ashok kumar
select * from table
Reply
aftab
which command is used to delete the particular
column ?
Reply
Pankaj Kumar Rana
Few Questions Answers are itself wrong.
Like as below
12. What command is used to permanently
remove a record from a database table?
Answer: DELETE (Post Commit in actual it deletes
permanently which is used in big
organizations,but It can be rolled back with
ashback query within 1 or 2 days as per the undo
log capacity but cant be rolled back post truncate
even after using ashback query, then you need to
get the DB backup les to retrieve the data back ),
not DROP as DROP will drop the table not a
record.
14. Clause ORDER is used to sort records in either
ascending or descending order.
ORDER BY Clause always used to sort the records
in asc or desc order only.
Reply
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