6 Free Database and SQL Courses for Beginners - Best of Lot

Hello guys, we are already in the first week of New year and everyone is talking about their goals to improve them as a better person, a better programmer, or get better health. If you have also made your goal and one of them is to improve your SQL skill then you have come to the right place because I am going to share some of the free courses to learn and master SQL this year. As you already know, SQL is one of the essential skills and much more important than any fancy library or framework you are thinking to learn.  If you ask me which two skill every programmer should have, I would say SQL and UNIX, these two have survived for a long time and will survive for many coming decades.

SQL is also very interesting, once you get a hang of it, you would love to write queries and analyzing the performance of your queries.

Even though SQL is so important and many programmers realize this, I have found that a lot more programmer just doesn't spend much time to improve their SQL skills. They think that knowing just SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements is enough, which is not correct.

Even though SQL is not as vast as C++ or Java but still there are a lot of things to learn like indexing, choosing the right index, writing a correct query which performs better and there are always many database-specific nuisances.

Things that may work in one data like Oracle, it's not guaranteed to work on another database, especially if you are using a database-specific feature and not limited to SQL ANSI standard.

Anyway, you don't need to worry, if you have made a goal to learn SQL or improve your SQL skill then you will definitely going to spend some time learning more about SQL and the database you are currently working.

You can take help from these courses, books and several tutorials which I have shared in this blog to fill the gaps in your understanding. Btw, I also recommend everyone to join a comprehensive course like The Complete SQL Bootcamp for structured learning.

Top 6 Free Courses to Learn Database and SQL in 2020

These courses have been made free by their instructor for promotional and education reasons but you better check the price before joining the course. Sometimes, Instructors convert their free course to the paid course once they reach their promotional target and you may need to pay to access the material which was available for free earlier.

That's why I join the course when they are free and use it when I get some time to spend. Once you join, the course will be free for you. Without any further ado, here is my list of some of the best yet free courses to learn SQL and Database in 2020:

1.Introduction to Databases and SQL Querying

This is an introductory course on Databases and SQL Querying. There are no pre-requisites for this course. If you are looking to get acquainted with the concept of Databases and Queries for maybe your next interview as an analyst, this is the right course for you.

All you need is a windows machine and we will walk through step by step, right from setting up your environment to creating your first table to writing your first SQL query.

This course is structured in a way that you can follow along with me. At the end of this course, you should be comfortable writing simple queries including queries related to Dates, String manipulation, Aggregation, etc

This is an ideal course for SQL beginners with absolutely no experience in the database. You will not only learn basic SQL Syntax but also learn essential concepts of databases. No Prior Programming experience is required. This course is probably not for you if you're looking to learn more advanced and complex queries

2.SQL: The Hitch Hikers Guide To Writing SQL Queries

The course is aimed at Beginners to Intermediate levels. It covers all the bases for you to get up to speed with writing SQL before you progress on to more advanced SQL for transforming and analyzing data.

It will explain everything step by step and in detail so you get to know SQL very well. The course uses Microsoft SQLServer 2014 express, which you can download for free from Microsoft's SQL Server website.

After completing this course you should be able to understand write join queries involving multiple tables, writing aggregation based queries using group by and having a clause, learn how to How to do backups and restores.

You will also learn more advanced SQL query techniques for data analysis and discovery.

3.Advanced Databases and SQL Querying

This course is an advanced T-SQL Querying course. The course expects that student is already aware of basic database concepts and are comfortable writing basic T-SQL queries like SELECT, JOINs, etc.

Students are expected to have taken my previous course (Introduction to Databases and Querying). This course covers advanced concepts like Views, Triggers, Dynamic Queries, etc. The T-SQL Scripts for all demos are uploaded. The course about 2+hours and has assignments at the end of each concept.

If you looking for your next database job or trying to improve your existing database knowledge and apply it in your projects, this is the course for you.

4.Microsoft SQL Server - An Introduction

A quick tour of the various programs of SQL Server (T-SQL, DBA, SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS), and how to learn them. We'll then look at all the various programs that you can use:

1. SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS, which allows you to learn T-SQL and DBA)
2. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), which automates the conversion of data.
3. SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), which allows the creation of cubes, and
4. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), which allows for the creation of reports.

In short, a nice course to learn SQL with Microsoft SQL Server. If you happen to use this database then this is just the perfect course for and it's free.

5.Oracle SQL - A Complete Introduction

In this course, you will learn how to write basic SQL statements to view data, insert data, update existing data and delete data in a database.

It's perfect for a beginner or first-timers who have no idea about database or SQL and want to learn these skills using Oracle database.

6.Database Design

Learn relational database Design with practical concepts and examples. This series works with any database system!

This is an ideal course for developers who write SQL code and have at least a year of SQL experience and if you are thinking to become a DBA.

That's all about some of the best SQL courses to learn online for free. People often things that free means of low quality but these courses are very good, high-quality courses. We are lucky that their authors have made them available for free and big thanks to them for sharing their hard-work for free for other people's benefit.  I hope you can achieve your goal of improving your SQL skill this year and I am sure you will thank yourself for learning SQL.

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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you find these Database and SQL courses useful then please share with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.

P. S. - If you don't mind paying a small amount for learning something as valuable as Database and SQL concepts then I also suggest you take a look at these best SQL and Database courses on HackerNon which are not free but definitely worth of your time and money.