Interview Q&A / SQL & DBMS

INTERVIEW Q&A · 69 QUESTIONS

SQL & DBMS interview questions

Joins, keys, normalisation, indexes and transactions for placement and backend interviews.

  1. What is a CTE and how is it different from a subquery?

    A CTE (WITH clause) names a query at the top of a statement so it can be read like a step and reused several times. Results are the same as a subquery, but CTEs read better and also support recursion.

    IntermediateQuick answer1 min read
  2. What is the difference between a correlated and a non-correlated subquery?

    A non-correlated subquery runs once and does not refer to the outer query. A correlated subquery refers to a column of the outer row, so it is evaluated once for each outer row, at least logically.

    IntermediateQuick answer1 min read
  3. What is the difference between IN and EXISTS?

    IN compares a value against a list of values returned by a subquery. EXISTS only checks whether the subquery returns any row and stops at the first match. EXISTS handles NULLs more safely, especially with NOT.

    IntermediateQuick answer1 min read