The interview preparation can be an emotional and mental roller coaster for anyone, but with this tutorial’s help, we want to make your journey smooth to a MySQL interview. In this article, we have made sure to include the best possible study material for you, so that you can follow through to brush up on your skills and be ready for the interview.
Hence, we would like to remind you that preparing for an interview is not a shortcut process, generally, we need to start the preparation between 2-3 months prior to the interview. Although, if you don’t have much time before the interview or you just got to know that you have an interview within a week or less and have knowledge of MySQL, you can surely work with this tutorial as it compiles all the things you’d need to crack that interview.
So let’s get started!
Interviews for any technical role generally consist of two levels:
1. MCQ and Hands-on
2. Face-to-face interview
Both require a good amount of knowledge and projects related to the domain. In our case, we’ll be either sitting for an intern or entry-level role for DBA or MySQL developer. This will require a good understanding of MySQL as a platform and SQL queries.
We have also provided websites where you can apply for jobs, at the end of this tutorial.
Tips for Beginners
- Make notes: Keeping notes is essential for revisiting the concepts. Note-keeping doesn’t mean writing it all down, instead, it means you need to write whatever you understood in a concept and keep the crux of it as notes, to revise later. Try to make your notes short and write them in your own language.
- When studying, just study: When studying focus on the current topic and don’t let your mind wander. Staying focused is hard, but you can do it! Start with creating small tasks(for example, you are studying joins, so one of the tasks can be inner join, its application, and practical questions), and when you accomplish them give yourself a treat in the form of short breaks. If it’s a light topic, you can stretch for an hour but if it’s a heavy topic sit for a maximum of 30-45 minutes in a go, and after that take a 10-15 minute break. This technique is only suitable when you are studying a new topic. The topics you have already covered, don’t need this kind of attention as you’ve already understood them.
- Mark only what’s needed: We have a tendency to mark everything we have read in our first read itself. Instead, read a topic at least twice before highlighting something. It gives you clarity on what’s important and what’s not. First, make sense of what you’re reading and later mark the thing which is making sense to you and seems essential to remember.
- Practice, Practice, Practice! : Practice never kills, and the more you practice the more you’ll retain conceptually. So practice whatever you’ve learned, as you’re going for technical interview preparation, you’ll get a lot of practical questions. Therefore, keep practising, make your own questions, and ask them yourself.
Best Tutorials for MySQL
As we are in our final year or we are currently working, it’s easy to forget the basic concepts of any subject. You can brush up on your MySQL basics from the below-mentioned tutorials, you can find both tutorials on YouTube:
- MySQL Tutorial for Beginners by Mosh: This is one of the most-watched MySQL tutorials for beginners and for all the right reasons. Mosh’s way of teaching is effortless and elaborative. I personally followed this to refresh my basics of MySQL. This tutorial covers topics from SELECT statements, clauses in SQL, Operations in SQL, JOINs, and so on.
- SQL Tutorial for Beginners by FreeCodeCamp: This tutorial for SQL is astoundingly awesome to learn from, by FreeCodeCamp. Simple, elaborative, and easy-to-understand tutorial. This tutorial is easy to follow along and provides concept clarity.
When you are through with the basics and ready to move on to the next level, you can follow the MySQL Advance Tutorial Series created by CopyCat. It is an in-depth and easy-to-follow video series on youtube that you can follow along with while they clear your understanding of advanced concepts of MySQL.
Books You Can Use for MySQL Interview
Books have been the best friend of humans for ages because they let you delve into the core concepts. The following books are certainly referred to by everyone once they start a career as a DBA. These books are a must when it comes to understanding the concepts in depth. You can easily find these books at your college library or at any public library.
First Book: Database Management System Concepts by Korth, Silberschatz, and Sudarshan.
Second Book: MySQL(TM): The Complete Reference Paperback by Vikram Vaswani
The two books mentioned above are easy to understand and follow. They contain a good amount of detailed explanations of MySQL concepts.
Basic Questions You Need to Prepare Before the MySQL Interview
There are some basic questions that are a must for an interview. Remember that these are not the only questions asked in the interview, they are for your reference to be prepared with the questions like these or which might be at a similar length.
An article is already prepared for you to go through. Please refer to MySQL entry-level interview questions.
Hands-On Practice is Important
After you are through with the basic understanding of MySQL simultaneously work on the practical aspects of the same topics. Some of the topics are listed below for you to look out for their hands-on:
- SELECT Statement
- ALTER Statement
- UPDATE Statement
- DELETE Statement
- MIN, MAX, LIMIT, BETWEEN, DISTINCT, IN, AND, OR, IS NULL
- JOINS
- FOREIGN KEY
- HAVING and WHERE clause
- NESTED QUERIES
Where to Apply?
There are several websites through which you can apply. First of all, create your LinkedIn Account and add all the projects, your skills, your work experience, and your education in the profile. LinkedIn is the best website for you to maintain a professional profile.
Below are some of the websites you can use to apply for the job:
There are many other websites as well. Apart from that, if you are preparing for a particular company then keep an eye on their careers page as well as be in contact with their HR.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we understood how we can go out and about to prepare for a MySQL Interview. Finally, we would like to tell you that don’t stop believing in yourself, keep your hopes up, and never compare yourself with others.
Keep preparing, and keep excelling!