Complete SQL Roadmap (Beginner to Expert)
Stage 1: SQL Fundamentals (Beginner Level)
- 1. Introduction to Databases: What is SQL, RDBMS, Tables, Records, Primary Keys
- 2. Basic SQL Syntax: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, ORDER BY, DISTINCT
- 3. Filtering Data: WHERE, AND, OR, NOT, BETWEEN, IN, LIKE, IS NULL
- 4. Sorting and Limiting: ORDER BY, LIMIT, OFFSET, TOP
- 5. Working with Expressions: +, -, *, /, AS, built-in functions
Stage 2: Intermediate SQL
- 6. Aggregation and Grouping: COUNT(), SUM(), AVG(), MAX(), MIN(), GROUP BY, HAVING
- 7. Joins: INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, FULL JOIN, SELF JOIN
- 8. Subqueries: Scalar, Correlated, Nested, IN, EXISTS
- 9. Set Operations: UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPT
- 10. Data Types: Numeric, String, Date/Time, Boolean, JSON
Stage 3: Data Manipulation (DML)
- 11. Inserting Data: INSERT INTO, bulk inserts
- 12. Updating Data: UPDATE, conditional updates
- 13. Deleting Data: DELETE, TRUNCATE, safe deletions
- 14. Transactions: BEGIN, COMMIT, ROLLBACK, Savepoints
- 15. Constraints: NOT NULL, UNIQUE, DEFAULT, CHECK, PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY
Stage 4: Schema Design & DDL
- 16. Creating Tables: CREATE TABLE, column types, defaults
- 17. Modifying Tables: ALTER TABLE, ADD, DROP, RENAME
- 18. Dropping Tables & Databases: DROP TABLE, DROP DATABASE, CASCADE
- 19. Views: CREATE VIEW, WITH CHECK OPTION, updating views
- 20. Indexing: CREATE INDEX, clustered vs non-clustered
Stage 5: Advanced SQL Concepts
- 21. Window Functions: ROW_NUMBER(), RANK(), LEAD(), LAG(), OVER(PARTITION BY)
- 22. Common Table Expressions (CTEs): WITH ... AS, recursive CTEs
- 23. Stored Procedures: CREATE PROCEDURE, IN, OUT, CALL
- 24. Functions: User-defined functions, scalar & table-valued
- 25. Triggers: AFTER INSERT, BEFORE UPDATE, auditing, automation
- 26. Error Handling: TRY...CATCH, exception blocks
Stage 6: Optimization & Performance
- 27. Query Optimization: Execution plan, indexes, join order
- 28. Explain Plans: EXPLAIN, ANALYZE
- 29. Denormalization: When and how to denormalize
- 30. Partitioning: Horizontal partitioning, range/hash partitioning
- 31. Sharding & Scaling: Distributed SQL systems
Stage 7: DBMS Specific Features
- 32. MySQL: AUTO_INCREMENT, ENUM, JSON fields
- 33. PostgreSQL: JSONB, Arrays, RETURNING, SERIAL
- 34. SQL Server: TOP, IDENTITY, MERGE, TRY_CAST()
- 35. Oracle: Cursors, %TYPE, %ROWTYPE, Packages
Stage 8: Administration & Security
- 36. User Management: CREATE USER, GRANT, REVOKE, roles
- 37. Backup and Restore: mysqldump, pg_dump
- 38. Logging & Auditing: Triggers, logs, query monitoring
- 39. Security Best Practices: SQL injection, permission control
- 40. Data Migration & ETL: Import/export CSV/JSON, ETL tools
Stage 9: Modern SQL & Extensions
- 41. JSON Handling: JSON_EXTRACT, ->, IS JSON
- 42. Full-Text Search: MATCH AGAINST, tsvector
- 43. Geospatial Queries: ST_Distance(), PostGIS
- 44. NoSQL Features in SQL: Hybrid/document queries
Stage 10: Practical SQL Project Ideas
- 45. Business Analysis: Sales dashboard, engagement reports
- 46. Web App Backend: Login/signup, product inventory
- 47. Data Cleaning: NULLs, standardizing inputs
- 48. Data Pipeline: SQL & Python ETL, DBT, Airflow
- 49. Audit Logging: Triggers + log tables