I've never used SQL before and want to learn MySQL, including database fundamentals and more advanced concepts. What resources and practice approach would you recommend? Is LeetCode useful for learning SQL?
How should I start learning MySQL and database concepts from scratch?
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quietly+rerouted_9
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Start with an interactive SQL tutorial such as SQLBolt, then install MySQL and practice against a dataset that interests you. Try answering small questions with SELECT and WHERE, then move on to joins, grouping, and subqueries.
LeetCode is useful once you know the basics, especially for interview-style query problems. It won't give you much practice designing a database or figuring out how to organize tables.
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For the database fundamentals side, look for an introductory database course alongside your query practice. Cover table relationships, keys, and normalization, then try designing a small database yourself. Free university database lecture videos can help with the theory.
A simple project could be an app that saves data from a form and lets you filter it. That gives you a reason to think about both the table design and the queries.
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Keep the official MySQL documentation handy as a reference. It can be dry for a first lesson, but it's useful when you want the precise behavior of a feature or need to check MySQL-specific syntax.
quietly+rerouted_9:
Would PostgreSQL be a reasonable starting point if my goal is MySQL?
mildly+unrouted_5:
It can teach you general SQL and database concepts, but there are differences in syntax and features. If MySQL is the target, practicing with MySQL also helps you learn its specifics.
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u5+sidefolder_83:
A dataset you actually care about makes it easier to come up with questions to investigate. Kaggle is one place to look for datasets.