60 Best Resources for Learning SQL

calendar Oct 29, 2018 · 14 min read · sql  ·
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Are you looking for the best way to learn SQL?

Are you unsure where to begin?

The good news is that there are a lot of SQL tutorials online. There are many ways to learn SQL that are suitable for different people. Some people like reading articles or books, others like watching videos. Some have exercises, some have a practice SQL sandbox, some don't.

This list contains 60 different places to learn SQL. Take a look at the list and find one that looks good to you!

Criteria

This list contains a range of resources for learning SQL. For it to appear on this list, it needed to:

  • Cover the basics of SQL. Many intermediate-level resources didn't make this list for that reason.
  • Not a vendor's manual. While the Oracle and MySQL documentation can explain the syntax, other places are usually better at explaining SQL.
  • Available in English.

Several resources were found in my research but not included in this list.

Also, there are several websites that offer paid courses (Lynda, Pluralsight, Udemy). Each of them has hundreds of SQL courses. Rather than list them all individually here, I've deliberately listed one entry for each, and you can visit each website and decide which course is the best way to learn SQL for you.

My Shortlist

I've listed over 50 tutorials here for learning SQL.

Don't want to sift through them all and just want to learn from a good quality tutorial?

Here's my short list, in no particular order, based on my own experience and recommendations online (e.g. StackOverflow, Reddit):

Click on each of them to be taken to that place in this guide for more information.

Which SQL Distribution Should I Learn?

This list contains resources for learning many different types of SQL: Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and more.

Which version should you learn? And does it matter? These versions of SQL are offered by different vendors. They are all based on the SQL standard language, which is probably about 80% of their features. So, learning one vendor's SQL makes it pretty easy to learn another vendor's SQL.

  • Oracle: database is targeted towards large organisations, but they also offer a small, free version called Oracle Express.
  • SQL Server: a Microsoft database, also targeted towards large organisations. Good integration with other Microsoft technologies.
  • MySQL: this is a smaller, free to use version of the SQL database, that uses the standard SQL. It doesn’t have the capabilities for larger systems that Oracle and SQL Server have, though.
  • PostgreSQL: another well-known free to use database system. Comparable to MySQL. Read: why use PostgreSQL.
  • SQLite: a free standalone database, often used in small applications and mobile apps.

If you want a summary of the commands for each vendor, check out the SQL Cheat Sheets.

So which version should you choose?

I think it depends where you want to go with your career.

  • Web development for small/mid-sized projects or personal projects? MySQL or PostgreSQL.
  • Web development with .Net technologies? SQL Server
  • Web development with Java or Oracle technologies? Oracle
  • Database administration career? Oracle or SQL Server
  • Mobile app development? SQLite.

These are just general suggestions. You can easily switch between types of SQL databases after learning the differences and syntax related to it.

Let's take a look at the list!

Text-Based Tutorials

This section includes text-based tutorials such as blog posts or articles on websites.

SQL Tutorial (1KeyData)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

This site includes some short explanations on each of the SQL topics with several examples.

Beginner SQL Tutorial

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This tutorial looks like some of the other text-based tutorials such as W3Schools. I found the explanations to include poor English. I also noticed that each link on the sidebar opens in a new tab which may be annoying. It teaches joins as using the WHERE clause rather than ANSI joins.

Data Boot Camp (Chartio)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This tutorial focuses on using Chartio's BI tool. On first impressions, it looks to be good quality.

SQL Basics (Data Quest)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

Explains SQL concepts well. Uses SQLite.

SQL for Data Analysis (Data36)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A good quality PostgreSQL tutorial. It has a video course for a more in-depth tutorial that can be purchased.

SQL Tutorial (Do Factory)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This tutorial has short posts, but the explanations are good. It includes an SQL sandbox but it does not load.

SQL Tutorial (Fresh 2 Refresh)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: Yes

This site has a lot of ads on it, making it hard to navigate. Some of the topics are only covered briefly. However it does include an SQL editor which is a bonus.

SQL Tutorial (Geeks For Geeks)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This page contains links to articles on many different introductory topics in SQL. Each topic is explained well. The only criticism I have is that the page isn't laid out very well - beginner topics are mixed in with more advanced topics.

SQL Tutorial for Beginners (Guru99)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A tutorial on MySQL and PostgreSQL. Seems like a good quality tutorial. One minor criticism is that the SQL code uses backticks ` instead of single quotes ' for strings, making it hard to copy and paste.

Modern SQL (Markus Winand)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

The tutorial covers many types of databases (MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle, DB2, SQLite, PostgreSQL, MariaDB). Focuses on "modern" SQL such as new features.

The SQL Tutorial for Data Analysis (Mode Analytics)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

This site has a good layout. It uses their Mode tool to practice SQL. You need an account for this to practice, but it's free.

MySQLTutorial.org

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: Yes

It seems like a good quality tutorial. Their "Try It Out" section is helpful, as it lets you run SQL queries.

SQL for Web Nerds (Philip Greenspun)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

It's a useful tutorial but the site looks like it hasn't been updated in a long time. It's based on Oracle 10g which is quite old.

Postgres Guide

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A neat looking tutorial on PostgreSQL. It only covers some of the basic topics (some features of SELECT) and leaves out a lot of others.

SQL Tutorial (Quackit)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

Follows a standard layout of the topic list on the left sidebar. The explanations are OK and it includes a lot of topics. The site is easy to read and navigate.

SQLCourse.com

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: Yes

The SQL practice feature is very simple - just a text box. The navigation text is very small and site layout looks old. The course is not very extensive.

Learn SQL (SQL Easy)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: Yes

It has a short explanation of different concepts and has a practice SQL feature for each lesson. It looks like the same course as sqlteaching.com. It uses SQLite.

SQL Teaching

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: Yes

It has a short explanation of different concepts and has a practice SQL feature for each lesson. It looks like the same course as sql-easy.com. It uses SQLite.

Learn SQL (SQL-Tutorial.net)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

Each topic includes a short explanation and several examples. It covers a lot of the basics of SELECT statements.

SQL-Tutorial.ru

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

The navigation on this site is a bit hard to follow, but the tutorial seems quite thorough.

SQL Tutorial (SQLTutorial.org)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This tutorial includes code and database diagrams and seems pretty good.

SQL Zoo

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

Very highly reviewed online. Has a good tutorial, exercises, and the ability to practice your SQL queries. Uses SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, DB2, and PostgreSQL.

SQL Exercises (SQL-EX.ru)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

Not a tutorial but has SQL exercises and a practice area.

SQLBolt

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

Highly reviewed online. Has a good interactive SQL feature and good exercises.

SQL (Study By Yourself)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

This seems like a thorough tutorial. I found the navigation hard to follow. The explanation of topics seems very formal and a bit hard to get started with.

SQL Tutorial (Tizag)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This seems like a good tutorial. I found the navigation on the left a bit too small.

Learn SQL (Treasure Data)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A tutorial that focuses on comparing Excel features to SQL.

Learn SQL in 20 minutes (Tutorial Zine)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

An easy to follow blog post. The source code is neat. But the post only skims on a few topics and only has a couple of examples

Learn SQL (Tutorials Point)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This tutorial has several ads on the pages which get in the way. The articles are also quite short and poor quality.

SQL for Beginners (Tutsplus)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This tutorial is all on a single blog post and uses a command line for SQL. It has a lot of positive comments.

SQL Tutorial (W3Schools)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

The W3Schools tutorial is commonly suggested online in places such as StackOverflow and Reddit. It has a lot of topics.

Free SQL Tutorial (Webucator)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This tutorial explains topics well. It has posts that are easy to follow.

Free SQL Tutorial (Webucator)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This tutorial explains topics well. It has posts that are easy to follow.

Video Tutorials

This section includes free video tutorials.

Interactive SQL Tutorial (BitDegree)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

An SQL tutorial on the BitDegree website, which includes a range of videos. It has over 18,000 students enrolled.

Learn Database Design with MySQL From Scratch (Eduonix)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

This includes more than just learning SQL. The enrolment page has some spelling errors so I'm unsure about the quality of the course.

Intro to SQL: Querying and managing data (Khan Academy)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

Khan Academy is well-regarded in the industry so I'm sure this is a good quality course on learning SQL.

SQL Database Fundamentals (Microsoft)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

Microsoft offers SQL training on SQL Server. It's highly rated on their website.

Databases for Developers 12-Week Bootcamp (Oracle)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

Oracle offers a 12-week bootcamp/course on the Oracle database. I haven't taken it but I've heard good things about it.

SQL Fundamentals (Sololearn)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

Sololearn offers a range of courses and has gamified the learning process (earning points, unlocking achievements).

SQL (Stanford Lagunita)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

An online course offered by Standford University. Several other courses are also available.

SQL for Beginners Tutorial (Datagy.io)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

A great introductory SQL tutorial by Datagy. A free PDF is also available for download.

YouTube Tutorials

This section includes free video tutorials available on YouTube, either as a single video or a series of smaller videos.

Oracle SQL Tutorial (Caleb Curry)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A series of videos offered by Caleb Curry. Good quality, great reviews in the comments, and draws concepts on a whiteboard behind him. Also offers courses on other topics.

SQL Full Course for Beginners (FreeCodeCamp.org)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A long video (4 hours 20 minutes) offered by FreeCodeCamp which teaches an introduction to SQL.

Learn SQL In 1 Hour (Joey Blue)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A one hour video teaching the basics of SQL.

SQL Tutorial (The Bad Tutorials)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A series of short SQL tutorial videos by Madhur.

SQL Crash Course (Traversy Media)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

A one hour video by Brad Traversy on the basics of SQL.

This section includes paid tutorials or courses.

Various Kindle eBooks (Amazon)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: $0 to $60
  • Exercises: Yes and No
  • Practice SQL: No

Amazon offers a large range of eBooks on learning SQL. They are usually less expensive than online courses, and using either the Kindle app on your phone or the web reader, you can follow along online.

Database Development Courses (CBT Nuggets)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free week, then $84/month
  • Exercises: Unsure
  • Practice SQL: No

A series of courses offered by CBTNuggets. Focuses on SQL Server and their certifications.

Learn SQL (Codecademy)

Website

  • Format: Video, Text
  • Price: Free with Paid option ($15.99 to $19.99/month)
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

A good quality tutorial. Codecademy is highly regarded in the industry, and it has a lot more than just SQL.

Coursera

Website

  • Format: Video, Text
  • Price: $39-$79/month
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

Coursera is a well-known training site and offers a range of courses as well as SQL.

Lynda

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: $19.99-$25/month
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

A well-known training site that offers courses on SQL and many other topics.

SQL In Motion (Manning)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: $59.99
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

This is an introductory SQL course I developed for Manning Publications, the company that has published a large range of quality books for software developers.

Various SQL courses (Pluralsight)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: $35/month or $299/year
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

Pluralsight offers a large range of video courses for software developers, and has quite a few on SQL.

SQL and Relational Databases (Safari Books)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Free trial, then paid ($39 per month)
  • Exercises: No
  • Practice SQL: No

Safari Books Online offers a range of courses, and one of them here is SQL and Relational Databases.

SQL Practice Problems

Website

  • Format: Video and Text
  • Price: $24 or $49
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

Rather than a tutorial, this is a collection of SQL practice problems in text and video format to help you improve your SQL.

Various SQL courses (Udemy)

Website

  • Format: Video
  • Price: Paid
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

Udemy is an online marketplace for all kinds of courses. There's a large range of SQL courses that are suitable for beginners.

Vertabelo Academy (Vertabelo)

Website

  • Format: Text
  • Price: Free trial, then $29
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

A very well designed set of tutorials, one of the best I've seen. It has a good range of topics and includes exercises.

Learn SQL The Hard Way (Zed Shaw)

Website

  • Format: Video and Text
  • Price: $19.99
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: No

A well-known book for learning SQL, this also comes with videos and exercises.

Other Methods

These resources are unique or different methods of learning SQL.

SchemaVerse

Website

  • Format: Interactive
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

A strategy game where you use SQL to compete against other players. An interesting concept!

GalaXQL (Sol Tutorials)

Website

  • Format: Interactive
  • Price: Free
  • Exercises: Yes
  • Practice SQL: Yes

An interactive text-based method for learning and practicing SQL.

Conclusion - Best Way to Learn SQL

This list contains many different resources for learning SQL. There's a range of text-based resources (articles and websites), videos, free and paid courses, and even interactive courses.

Do you have any suggestions to add to this list? Add them into the comments below and if they meet the criteria I'll add them here!

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