Most business data lives in databases, not spreadsheets. SQL (Structured Query Language) is the standard language for asking those databases questions, and it is the single most requested skill in BI analyst job listings. Once you can write a query, you no longer depend on someone else to export the data for you.
You'll start by seeing how a database is set up, with tables and the data inside them. From there you'll learn the core of every query: SELECT and FROM to choose columns, WHERE to filter rows, ORDER BY to sort, and GROUP BY with aggregate functions to summarise. The module finishes with JOINs, which let you combine related tables such as customers and orders into a single result.
These fundamentals are what you will build on in the next module, Advanced SQL, where you'll move on to subqueries, CTEs, and window functions.
Set up a working SQL environment, create your first tables, and insert data into them so you have something to query.
A visual walkthrough of SELECT and FROM, picking specific columns, and the essential clauses (WHERE, ORDER BY, GROUP BY, HAVING, DISTINCT), plus the order SQL actually runs them in.
How to filter a table down to just the rows you need using comparison operators, AND / OR, and pattern matching.
How to group rows, calculate totals and averages with aggregate functions, and sort the output, the same kind of summary you built with pivot tables in Excel.
How to combine two or more related tables using primary and foreign keys, and how each join type handles rows with no match.