TOP SQL & Database Courses [Plus a List of Free SQL Courses]

In this article, we’ll explore some popular and well-reviewed SQL courses on Udemy and some other online learning platforms. If you have any suggestions as to what might be added or you took any of the below-mentioned courses and would like to leave a review, please do so below the article in the comments section. We’ll greatly appreciate your input.

The Complete SQL Bootcamp

Authors: Jose Portilla
Subject matter: SQL, PostgreSQL, data analysis
Number of lessons/hours: 8.5 hours/88 lectures
Level: Beginner
Features: 26 articles, 16 downloadable resources
Last update: 9/2019

This course is among the most recommended online. Jose Portilla, the instructor, has N-number of years of experience in both teaching Data Science and programming, he also has multiple publications and patents in various fields such as microfluidics, materials science, and data science technologies. Currently, he works as the Head of Data Science for Pierian Data Inc. and teaches programming courses to top companies such as The New York Times, Credit Suisse, and more. This is to say that the course is written and taught by a very renowned expert. Herein, you’ll learn how to read and write complex queries using PostgreSQL, which you’ll use while working for any of the other databases such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon Redshift, Oracle, and much more. The course starts with the SQL Statement Fundamentals, followed by Advanced SQL commands, PostgreSQL with Python, database and tables. All of those are structured in such a way that after each theoretical part, you’ll have practical assignments where you can test the skills you’ve learned. The reviewers highly praised the structured content of the course, the teaching style and the depth of explanations of the instructor.

A few great suggestions on Data Science courses, featuring Jose Portilla among other worthwhile instructors:

The Ultimate MySQL Bootcamp: Go from SQL Beginner to Expert

Authors: Colt Steele, Ian Schoonover
Subject matter: databases, Nodejs, mySQL, complex SQL queries
Number of lessons/hours: 20 hours//319 lectures
Level: beginner
Features: 138 articles, 4 downloadable resources
Last update: 10/2019

The course is led by two full stack developers and coding instructors, who have a few other bestselling web development courses and bootcamps on Udemy. After a brief introduction to SQL and databases comes a full-fledged course on creating databases and tables, CRUD commands, string functions, aggregate functions, data types with a closing final project of building your own Instagram database clone. The course is riddled with ample opportunity to get your hands dirty writing code and practice skills you learn during lectures. Upon completing this course, you’ll be able to interact with and query any SQL database, generate reports and integrate MySQL into complete applications, among practical skills. The reviewers are happy with the contents of the course, its depth, and its smooth delivery. Colt delves into minute details of the subject matter and breaks it all up in chunks to make it easily digestible.

Colt Steele’s SQL course reviewed:

SQL for Data Analysis: Weekender Crash Course for Beginners

Authors: David Kim, Peter Sefton
Subject matter: data analysis with SQL
Number of lessons/hours: 3.5 hrs/37 lectures
Level: beginner (non-techie)
Features: 7 articles, 3 downloadable resources,
Last update: 4/2019

The course is created by Udemy staff, namely David Kim, Product Manager at Udemy and Peter Sefton, Data Scientist at Udemy. Overall this is a very short course spanning over as few as three hours, so there’s a high chance you’ll finish it within a day. The syllabus is aimed at non-technical folks, namely marketers, startup bunch, newbie data analysts, college grads, job-seekers, product managers, etc. There are no prerequisites to the course, the teaching style is very easy to follow and quite entertaining. The short intro into SQL is followed by basic queries and bonus lectures on JOINs, cohort analysis, analysis preamble, and analysis query.

SQL & Database Design A-Z™: Learn MS SQL Server + PostgreSQL

Authors: Kirill Eremenko, Ilya Eremenko, SuperDataScience Team
Subject matter: SQL, Queries, database design, PostgreSQL
Number of lessons/hours: 12.5 hr/103 lectures
Level: beginner
Features: 4 articles
Last update: 7/2019

The main selling point of this course is that in addition to SQL, you’ll learn the concepts of database design, the normalization of databases, as well as the differences between OLAP and OLTP databases. The course is well structured starting with basic SQL, fundamentals of database theory, and incrementally moving into practical applications of the aforesaid knowledge with creating tables and database design. While most of the reviewers positively received the course, others commented that the software used by the instructor was outdated and students had to figure out some of the initial set up stages on their own using online resources.

To get a sense of Kirill’s teaching style, he’s an example of his webinar on data science career:

Database Systems

Authors: David G. Sullivan
Subject matter: databases, SQL
Number of lessons/hours: runs January 29 – May 16, 2020
Level: intermediate
Features: instructor-led; degree Credit
Last update: regularly

The course is offered by Harvard Extension. The syllabus covers the fundamental concepts of database systems and such topics as data models; query languages; implementation techniques of database management systems (index structures, concurrency control, recovery, and query processing); management of semistructured and complex data; distributed and noSQL databases.

Oracle SQL: Become a Certified SQL Developer From Scratch!

Authors: Oracle Master Training, Code Star Academy
Subject matter: Oracle 1Z0-061 SQL Fundamentals
Number of lessons/hours: 12.5 hours/ 115 lectures
Level: beginner/intermediate
Features: 8 articles, 14 downloadable resources
Last update: 11/2019

This course is for anyone who wants to pass Oracle 1Z0-061 SQL Fundamentals Certification Exam. You can start the course regardless of your current knowledge of SQL, so either you’re a complete beginner or know SQL already, you can benefit from the course. The syllabus covers Data, Database, RDBMS concepts, Restricting and Sorting Data, Managing Tables Using DML Statements, Oracle Data Types, Joins, SET Operators, SQL Queries and Subqueries, and more. There are hundreds of examples, assessments, and materials for study and practice. Generally, the students left positive reviews. Among complaints, though, a bit thick accent of the instructor which made it difficult to understand him easily.

Course ad:

The Complete Oracle SQL Certification Course

Authors: Imtiaz Ahmad
Subject matter: Oracle SQL Fundamentals
Number of lessons/hours: 10 hrs/38 lectures
Level: beginner
Features: 6 articles/1 downloadable resource
Last update: 10/2019

The instructor, Imtiaz, is one of the award-winning Udemy instructors, also a software engineer with years of experience building software on Wall Street for such companies as S&P, Goldman Sachs, AOL, and JP Morgan; he’s also the founder of Job Ready Programmer, an online programming school, where he currently teaches. In this course, you’ll learn the database basics, single table queries, single-row functions, grouping functions, multi-table queries, and joins, among others. The reviewers generally praised the course but mentioned that if you’re into taking a professional Oracle exam, then you’d definitely need other resources and studying materials to make your learning journey a complete one.

SQL – MySQL for Data Analytics and Business Intelligence

Authors: 365 Careers
Subject matter: SQL, MySQL, relational database management theory, databases
Number of lessons/hours: 9.5 / 286 lectures
Level: beginner
Features: 154 articles/95 downloadable resources
Last update: 12/2019

In this course, you’ll learn professionally tested SQL best practices, work with a sophisticated real-life database, start using MySQL, learn relational database management theory, become a proficient MySQL Workbench user, answer specific business questions by using SQL’s aggregate functions, approach more advanced topics in programming like SQL’s triggers, sequences, local and global variables, indexes, and more, handle complex SQL joins, and learn hands-on coding in SQL. Some students mentioned that despite the announced skills you were supposed to master, the course was really beginner-like and didn’t address more advanced and sophisticated SQL techniques.

SQL Advanced

Authors: Amarnath Reddy
Subject matter: key advance concepts in SQL
Number of lessons/hours: 4.5/ 82 lectures
Level: intermediate/advanced
Features: 7 articles, 21 downloadable resources
Last update: 12/2018

Amarnath Reddy, the author of the course, has more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry, he’s also a bestselling instructor and the pioneer of the data architecture discipline. This course will teach you some advanced concepts in SQL, you’ll learn how to partition the tables for better management and performance optimization, create advanced reports with subtotals at various grouping levels, perform complex pattern matching using Regular Expressions, perform analysis with ease using the analytical functions. People were generally pleased with the course content, however, some still complained of the teacher’s accent and lack of explanation for queries he was running.

Free SQL courses:

edX SQL courses
Coursera SQL courses
Lynda SQL courses (free month)
Khan Academy SQL courses
Plurasight courses (10-day free trial)
Alison SQL courses
Microsoft SQL Server training (some courses are available for free)

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