I just passed the DataCamp SQL Associate Exam. Here's a short list of concepts you should be comfortable with for the exam, and some notes I have about the exam itself.
Timed Quiz Portion
The timed quiz portion of the exam tests your knowledge on SQL syntax, queries, data manipulation, and general knowledge database management concepts like normalization, data modeling.
Here's a shortlist the SQL concept(s) covered. If you're familiar with the terms, or have used them at least once, you'll be able to answer most questions.
Joins: LEFT JOIN, FULL JOIN, INNER JOIN, UNION, UNION ALL
String Manipulation: UPPER, LOWER, LIKE, ILIKE, ~, REGEX, TRIM, LEFT, RIGHT
Date Manipulation: DATE_PART, DATE_TRUNC, TO_CHAR
Number Manipulation: ROUND, TRUNC
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS: MAX, MIN, AVG, percentiles
The more general database questions may require taking the DataCamp courses because they seem to expect you to use the same language that instructors use in those courses.
Timed Practical Exam Portion
The timed practical exam is a mutli-part question where you write queries for some provided tables.
Most of the queries require simple joins, where clauses, and occasionally manipulating data such as missing values.
DataCamp provides a practical exam that's a good reference point for if you're ready. If you can complete the practice exam, you are more than prepared to complete the practical exam.
When you take the practical you're given 4 hours to complete it. If you've done the practice exam, you can complete much faster than in 4 hours.
You'll need to be able to:
- Join tables together
- Use subqueries and where clauses to filter out data
- Manipulate data to handle missing values, or set default values for columns
Preparing for the Certification Exam
Based on the exam(s) and the courses I've taken, these DataCamp courses reflect the content that I saw on the exam:
- SQL for Business Analysts
- Functions for Manipulating Data in PostgresSQL
- Manipulating Data in SQL
- Database Design
- Joining Data in SQL
If you want more SQL practice outside of DataCamp courses, I've used DataLemur, and StrataScratch to practice SQL data analysis questions.
Taking the Exam
Overall, I thought the exam felt like a survey of beginner to intermediate SQL knowledge. The timed exam has a handful of tricky questions, but overall a general understanding of SQL should allow you to a pass. The practical exam is also beginner to intermediate level SQL. If you know how to join tables, use filter clauses like WHERE and IN, manipulate text and numbers, and set default values, you can pass the exam.
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