Course map · One concept at a time · Free

SQL TutorialEvery lesson, from SELECT to window functions and beyond

This is the whole DB Quacks SQL tutorial on one page. Each lesson teaches one concept — a few combine several — gives you a task, and checks your query against real data the moment you run it — in your browser, with no signup and nothing to install. The MotherDuck cloud track at the end is the one exception: it needs a free MotherDuck account.

How the lessons work

Every lesson opens with a short story from the duck village, a task, and an editor. You write the SQL, press run, and DuckDB executes it on the spot against the village database. When your result matches the expected one, the level is complete. Stuck? Each lesson has a hint, a preview of the expected output, and a link to the documentation for the feature it teaches.

Lessons build on each other, so start at the top if SQL is new to you. If you already know the basics, jump straight to the concept you need: every SQL lesson works on its own. In the cloud track, some lessons use a share or database you attach or create in an earlier one, so take that track in order.

SQL tutorial (38 lessons)

Chapter 1: Reading a table

1. SHOW TABLES in DuckDB — The Great Catalog Mystery
2. DESCRIBE a Table in SQL — Schema and Tell
3. SQL SELECT * — All Ducks on Deck
4. SQL WHERE Clause — Where in the Pond is Carmen San-Duck-o?
5. SQL ORDER BY — The Chaos of the Annual Pond Census
6. SQL LIMIT — The Overwhelming Data Buffet

Chapter 2: Shaping and summarizing rows

7. SQL Calculated Columns — The Great Age Conversion Crisis
8. SQL SELECT DISTINCT — Fifty Shades of Duck
9. DuckDB USING SAMPLE — The SAMPLE Awakens
10. SQL Aggregate Functions — The Great Duck Statistics Quest
11. SQL Date Intervals — Duck to the Future: Temporal Mechanics
12. SQL GROUP BY — Birds of a Feather GROUP Together
13. SQL HAVING — HAVING a Ball with Conditional Counting

Chapter 3: Querying files

14. Read a CSV File in DuckDB — The Duck Hunt: CSV Edition
15. Read a JSON File in DuckDB — JSON and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
16. Read a Parquet File in DuckDB — Parquet and Recreation

Chapter 4: Joins and CASE WHEN

17. SQL INNER JOIN — The Parent Trap: A JOIN Story
18. SQL JOIN with WHERE — Pond Bouncers: The WHERE-JOIN Chronicles
19. SQL CASE WHEN — CASE Closed: The Duck Detective Story
20. SQL LEFT JOIN — No Duck LEFT Behind
21. Join CSV and JSON Files in SQL — When Harry Met Sally: A Table-JSON Love Story
22. GROUP BY, HAVING and ORDER BY — DuckCon 2024: Executive Dashboard Madness

Chapter 5: UNION, window functions and CTEs

23. SQL UNION — UNION Jack and the Quest for Set Operations
24. SQL ROW_NUMBER — The ROW_NUMBER Awakens
25. SQL LAG and LEAD — Back to the Future: LAG and LEAD
26. SQL Running Total with SUM OVER — The Running Man: A SUM OVER Story
27. SQL CTE (WITH Clause) — WITH Great Power: The CTE Symphony
28. Recursive CTE in SQL — Duck Dynasty: The Recursive Family Saga

Chapter 6: Subqueries, PIVOT, ROLLUP and JSON

29. SQL Subquery — Inception: We Need to Go Deeper
30. DuckDB SELECT * EXCLUDE — The SELECT-List Wizard of Oz
31. SQL PIVOT — The Matrix: PIVOT Reloaded
32. SQL UNPIVOT — Transformers: UNPIVOT in Disguise
33. SQL ROLLUP — The Lord of the Rings: ROLLUP of Power
34. DuckDB JSON Functions — JSON Bourne: The Schema Identity

Chapter 7: Remote files, spatial, full-text search and ASOF JOIN

35. Query Remote Files with DuckDB httpfs — Cloud Atlas: The Remote Awakening
36. DuckDB Spatial — Finding Nemo: A Spatial Odyssey
37. DuckDB Full-Text Search — The Lord of the Strings: Full-Text Search
38. DuckDB ASOF JOIN — Endgame - Data Assembly

MotherDuck cloud track (20 lessons)

Chapter 1: Connecting and first queries

1. Connect DuckDB to MotherDuck — To Infinity and Be-Pond
2. Query a MotherDuck Table — First Contact
3. MotherDuck Hybrid Queries — The Bridge Over Troubled Data

Chapter 2: Exploring cloud tables

4. DESCRIBE a MotherDuck Table — X Marks the Schema
5. Join Local and Cloud Tables — Hot Duck Summer
6. Aggregate Cloud Data in MotherDuck — Crunching the Cloud

Chapter 3: Attaching shares

7. ATTACH a MotherDuck Share — Open Sesame Data
8. Query Several MotherDuck Shares — Roll Call Across Worlds

Chapter 4: Your own database and share

9. CREATE DATABASE in MotherDuck — A Room of One's Own
10. Copy Data into a MotherDuck Table — Stock the Pond
11. CREATE SHARE in MotherDuck — Share and Share Alike

Chapter 5: Remote files from URLs

12. DuckDB read_csv from a URL — The CSV Scrolls
13. DuckDB read_parquet from a URL — Parquet-ly Cloudy
14. Join a Remote CSV with Cloud Tables — The Great Convergence

Chapter 6: DuckLake time travel

15. DuckLake Time Travel — Quack to the Future
16. Compare DuckLake Snapshots — Spot the Difference
17. DuckLake Time Travel with Shares — Past Meets Present Meets Shared

Chapter 7: Scale, EXPLAIN and everything together

18. Aggregate 100 Million Rows in MotherDuck — The Hundred-Million Row March
19. EXPLAIN a MotherDuck Hybrid Query — Two Engines, One Query
20. Combine Local, Cloud and DuckLake Data — Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

After the tutorial

Put the concepts to work on the story-driven SQL challenges, where each case needs several of them at once, or try the weekly challenge. Preparing for a job? The SQL interview questions page maps the classic questions to the lessons above.