Articles Cookbook
15 May 2025
Jakub Romanowski

Beyond the DBA: Exploring Emerging Data Roles for SQL Enthusiasts

SQL skills are in high demand – not just for maintaining databases, but for powering analytics, insights, and automation across industries. While Database Administrators (DBAs) still play an important role, the data field has expanded to include positions like Data Engineers, Analysts, and BI Developers that use SQL in new and practical ways. In this article, you'll explore how these roles differ, what skills they require, and how you can move into them by building on your existing SQL knowledge.
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13 May 2025
Agnieszka Kozubek-Krycuń

SQL and Chill: 5 Fun Datasets to Practice With on a Friday Night

Tired of boring practice datasets that make SQL feel like work? Kick back and sharpen your skills with five fun, quirky datasets that make learning SQL feel more like playing. It’s Friday night. You’re not in the mood to go out, there’s nothing good left to stream, and your brain is craving something a little more satisfying than scrolling your phone. So you fire up your laptop, open your SQL editor, and settle in for a different kind of unwind.
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8 May 2025
Jakub Romanowski

SQL Meets Google Calendar: Analyze a Year in Meetings

Do you ever feel like your calendar is running your life? Back-to-back meetings, barely any time to get actual work done – and no idea where your time went? You're not alone. What if you could run a quick SQL query and know exactly how much time you spent in meetings last year, which months were the busiest, and whether your weekly syncs are eating up your mornings? That’s what this guide is all about.
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6 May 2025
Agnieszka Kozubek-Krycuń

SQL Intermediate Practice Questions

Ready to take your SQL skills to the next level? These intermediate questions will help you practice real-world scenarios using GROUP BY, CASE WHEN, subqueries, CTEs, and more. If you’ve already mastered SQL basics and feel comfortable writing simple queries, it’s time to level up. Intermediate SQL skills are key to handling real-world reporting, deeper analysis, and solving more complex data tasks that go beyond basic SELECT statements. In this article, you’ll practice essential techniques like GROUP BY, CASE WHEN, subqueries, and Common Table Expressions (CTEs).
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1 May 2025
Jakub Romanowski

Exploring the Future of MS SQL Server Careers: Opportunities, Trends, and Growth

When people search for "the future possibility of a career in MS SQL Server," they’re usually looking for more than just reassurance – they want clarity. Is this a smart field to commit to? Will the jobs still be around in five or ten years? And if they double down on SQL Server, will it actually lead to better opportunities? The good news is that all signs point to yes – but the answers are more nuanced than a simple yes or no.
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1 May 2025
Jakub Romanowski

Free Course of the Month: 2025 Monthly SQL Practice Sets – Basic

Ready to sharpen your SQL skills with real-world challenges? We’ve got something special for you! Our 2024 Monthly SQL Practice Sets - Basic course is completely free throughout May 2025 – and it’s the perfect way to improve your SQL by doing, not just reading. Hey, got a minute? If you're looking to boost your SQL skills, now's the perfect opportunity. We've just made our 2024 Monthly SQL Practice Sets - Basic course completely free for the entire month of May 2025.
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30 Apr 2025
LearnSQL.com Team

New Monthly SQL Practice for May 2025!

Ready for our new SQL challenge? This time, we have prepared some slightly more difficult SQL tasks. Here’s the May’s SQL Practice course! This time, you will be helping Tiffany, the owner of an online course website. She’d like to analyze her business data – it’s the perfect opportunity to use your SQL skills. Can you find the average number of students enrolled in a course? Calculate the average number of total hours spent by all students on a course?
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29 Apr 2025
Agnieszka Kozubek-Krycuń

How to Use Google BigQuery to Practice SQL for Free

Want to practice SQL without installing anything or spending a dime? With Google BigQuery Sandbox, you can explore real datasets, write queries online, and build your SQL skills for free  –  no credit card required. This guide will show you how to get started step by step. What is Google BigQuery? Google BigQuery is a cloud-based data warehouse  –  a type of database made for storing and analyzing large amounts of data.
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24 Apr 2025
Jakub Romanowski

The Hidden Cost of bad SQL Queries: Performance and Business Impact

The cost of bad SQL queries isn’t just slow reports or laggy dashboards: it’s wasted server power, higher infrastructure bills, and even frustrated customers when things don’t load fast enough. If your database is working harder than it should, your business is paying the price. Let’s break down how inefficient queries hurt performance and why fixing them matters. Ever had a query that takes forever to run and wondered what's going on?
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22 Apr 2025
LearnSQL.com Team

The Most Useless SQL Queries (and What you Should do Instead)

They run. They return data. But they’re pointless. Here’s what not to write in SQL – and what to do instead. Some SQL queries run just fine – but that doesn’t mean they’re doing anything useful. In this article, we’ll walk through real examples of SQL queries that are valid, harmless-looking, and completely pointless. They waste resources, hide insights, or just add noise. For each one, you’ll see what’s wrong, and how to write a smarter alternative instead.
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