Do THIS instead of watching endless tutorials - how I’d learn SQL FAST in 2024

SQL is a key data skill but where do you learn it how do you learn it and what are the important topics I know it's extremely intimidating even thinking about what is the first step especially because I came from a non-technical background when I was first learning SQL but sight now that I've been using SQL for many years as a data professional I know the more efficient and easier way to learn SQL and I will walk you through the exact steps that I would take if I'm learning SQL today first off let me get started

with what is SQL SQL stands for structured query language and it allows you to interact with data for example with this statement of Select * from table where number is greater than five this is just saying give me all the data from the table where the numbers are greater than five so it's very much like simple English and it's something that I really believe you can pick up without a computer science background now why should you learn SQL can't AI do it yes AI can code but SQL is still very much a required skill set

on many job listings including data analyst data scientist data engineer project manager so if you're interested in any of these job titles SQL is a skill that you should start learning in fact according to stack overflow survey from last year SQL Remains the third most used programming language across professional developers and employers value not just your ability to use SQL but your ability to use it to be able to draw insights to make business decisions as Reddit user mamertine best puts it I'm not paid because I can write SQL I'm paid because I can understand

data employers are looking for you to not just use SQL but your ability to critically think about data and learning SQL will help you start doing this now that we know SQL is fundamental how would I learn it these are the three steps that I would take step one choose an environment SQL is used within a specific environment called database management system dbms and each dbms has its own flavor of SQL according to stack Overflow survey where over 90,000 professional developers responded they said that the three most commonly used dbms's are postgresSQL mySQL SQLlight and

I'll make sure I include the links to these descriptions below so that you can start downloading them now what's the difference between these three and which one should you choose on the list well it really doesn't matter I would say the syntax is very similar across all three and they are all open source and free to download so I wouldn't be too concerned about which one to choose because you really can't go wrong but in my experience I've used postgresSQL and Microsoft SQL server and I really did not have any trouble transitioning between them so

I would just say pick one and then move on to step two I'll also mention that if you don't prefer to download any software onto your laptop there are always cloud databases as an option which are on AWS Google cloud and Microsoft Azure they have limited free options as well so check that out step two learn the basics quickly in this step I am not going to try to memorize all the syntax or learn all of it as much as possible because there is a lot of SQL syntaxes and nobody memorizes them what I do

want to focus on is learning the fundamentals and by fundamentals I mean what is a database what is a relational database what is SQL and what is its uses then I want to focus on the SQL syntax and structure this includes some of the statements like earlier select from where as well as the crud operations which stands for create read update and delete and how am I going to learn this well SQL is best learned by doing and research shows that when you passively learn you only retain about 20% of it whereas Active Learning allows

you to retain about 75% to 90% of the information Interactive Learning is really important when learning SQL and that's why I chose DataCamp when I was first learning SQL because the platform is very interactive and it allows you to code directly within their platform DataCamp is sponsoring this video and I'm so excited to tell you about their SQL associate certification the certification tests not only your SQL skills for practice but also it includes a learning path so that you can start learning the fundamentals and get started with the guided courses of learning to practice SQL

hands-on the SQL associate certification is a great way to prove your skills and level up your SQL abilities and I'm really excited to share that DataCamp is offering 25% off using my link in the description so make sure you take advantage of this offer and check it out now on to step three learn SQL in context not syntax the wrong way to learn SQL is by memorizing all the syntax this this will only teach you how to query the data but not actually understand it how I would start learning SQL in context is to start

with a familiar small dataset like my credit card statement with about 20 to 30 rows of data I'll then analyze it and try to answer questions like what is my spending habit and that will teach me how to load data how to create a data table and then be able to order my data set and start doing a lot of what a data analyst would do and start writing my own queries and as I do this these are the topics I would progress from beginner to advanced SQL so how much SQL should you know the

answer really depends on what your role is if you're a project manager a beginner level SQL is enough to be self-sufficient and be able to do your own queries and gather your own data but if you're looking for a more data heavy like a data analyst or a data scientist but more junior I would say a beginner to intermediate level is enough and that is about the level that a technical interview will be for SQL and then for advanced SQL I would say that's really for more senior level data roles as well as data Engineers

who are more heavy on the data infrastructure side my tip for learning SQL goal is to continue practicing it in context because this will solidify your knowledge as well as give you the confidence in your abilities there's a concept called curve of forgetting which relates to the idea of how we retain information on day one we remember about 100% of what we learned but on day 30 we only remember about 2% to 3% however when we expose ourselves to the same information daily whether it be 10 minutes minutes even 2 to 4 minutes as time

progresses we tend to get closer to the 100% mark of what we retain and this concept very much applies to learning SQL it's not a skill that you can learn in a day but it is a skill that as you practice you will get good at it and you will retain it so have the confidence and continue to practice your SQL skills if you found this video helpful please like and subscribe to the channel and watch my next video where I give my honest advice about data analysts and I have way more tips over there

to get you started thank you so much and I will see you on the next one