The SQL Job Interview

Jitbit Software recently shared the SQL questions that ask potential employees at interviews. They give you a small schema and ask you to write the SQL queries to achieve a few goals. I looked through the questions. Some were easy. Others had me sweating. I bet I could hack through most of them. But if I was under pressure in an interview, I don't think I could solve them all. Oh oh.

It seems this test is to weed out developers who do database programming, but just click buttons on an ORM tool. You need more than that kind of knowledge if you want to tune SQL statements. Personally I don't want to tune SQL. There are specialists for that. I like writing apps that serve business needs. Yeah I try to make sure my SQL works fast enough to not be a problem. I even submit my queries to DBA peer review just in case I overlook anything.

Maybe it is time to brush up on the old plain SQL skills. The first step should be to install a free Oracle database on the computer I use the most. Used to have one on there. Then I got a new laptop, and haven't got around to doing this chore. The time is now. My SQL skills may depend on it. By the way, I don't ever use an ORM myself. I roll all my own SQL. Turns out that my SQL statements are usually quite basic indeed.