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If you’re interested in pivoting to a data career, you probably know that using data effectively to answer business questions is at the core of most data professions—regardless of the tools you use. By building the right skill set, you can land a job as a data analyst and gradually explore other roles such as those of a data scientist, BI analyst and the like. So where should you start?

Should you learn a programming language like Python or R? Or should you dive right into learning a BI tool like Tableau? Or is it SQL?

Well, SQL is THAT tool you should know—and inarguably the most important skill—across multiple data professions from data analyst to data scientist and data engineer. That’s why we’ve put together this list of beginner-friendly courses to learn the basics of SQL in a few hours.

1. Intro to SQL: Querying and Managing Data

Intro to SQL: Querying and Managing Data is a course you can take for free on Khan Academy. You’ll learn how to query and manipulate data within relational database tables.

This course has several bite-sized lessons followed by challenges that test your understanding. The course is organized into sections as follows:

• The SQL Basics section covers basics like creating tables and inserting data, querying data and aggregating.
• The More Advanced SQL Queries section covers logical operators, the IN and LIKE operators and HAVING.
• The section Relational Queries in SQL focuses on using the different types of joins to use data from multiple tables to answer questions.
• The Modifying Databases with SQL section teaches you how to modify table schemas with SQL.

Link: Intro to SQL: Querying and Managing Data

2. SQL and Database for Beginners

If you prefer learning from instructor-led video tutorials, then the SQL Tutorial - Full Database Course for Beginners is a good introduction to SQL.

In about 4.5 hours, you’ll learn both the fundamentals of database design as well as querying databases with SQL. You’ll use MySQL, one of the most widely used relational database management systems (RDBMS).

First, you’ll explore database schema design and performing CRUD operations with SQL. You’ll then get to learn about aggregations, nested queries, joins, unions, functions, and triggers.

Link: SQL Tutorial - Full Database Course for Beginners

3. Intro to SQL

The Intro to SQL course on Kaggle is also a good option if you prefer text-based tutorials followed by exercises.

In this introductory SQL course, you’ll learn how to query datasets with SQL using the BigQuery Python client. The topics covered include:

• SQL fundamentals
• Filtering
• Aggregations
• Joins
• Writing readable SQL queries

Link: Intro to SQL

4. SQL Tutorial – W3Schools

SQL Tutorial by W3Schools is another great beginner-friendly resource to learn the basics of SQL commands and functions. The tutorial is organized into multiple bite-sized lessons, each focusing on a specific command or function. So you’ll learn what the commands are, how they work, followed by examples.

You can solve the examples in the online editor—without having to install anything in your local environment. This tutorial covers the basics of SQL as well as the different logical operators, window functions, and much more. Further, this also covers modifying database tables, constraints, and more.

This tutorial is not only a learning resource but also a concise reference. So if you want to quickly look up the syntax and example usage of a particular function, this SQL tutorial is a reference you may probably want to bookmark.

Link: SQL Tutorial

5. SQLZoo

SQLZoo is another beginner-friendly platform to learn and practice SQL. From basic SELECT statements to advanced concepts like window functions, SQLZoo offers bite-sized lessons with quick practice exercises in each of them.

The topics covered include:

• SELECT statement
• Aggregate functions
• Types of JOINs
• Understanding NULLs
• Window functions

You also have a set of assessment questions with slightly more difficult SQL questions. Which you can take to test yourself.

Link: SQLZoo

Wrapping Up

I hope you found this compilation of free SQL courses useful. These courses have been designed to get you up to speed with SQL fundamentals in a few hours.

If you’re looking for free learning resources with a more expansive curriculum, here are a couple of round-ups you may find helpful:

• 5 Free Courses to Master SQL for Data Science
• 5 Free University Courses to Learn Databases and SQL

These courses also require more effort from your end and will typically take a few weeks to work through. So keep learning and practicing!

Bala Priya C is a developer and technical writer from India. She likes working at the intersection of math, programming, data science, and content creation. Her areas of interest and expertise include DevOps, data science, and natural language processing. She enjoys reading, writing, coding, and coffee! Currently, she’s working on learning and sharing her knowledge with the developer community by authoring tutorials, how-to guides, opinion pieces, and more. Bala also creates engaging resource overviews and coding tutorials.