In this 5‑day intensive tutorial, Kedeisha Bryan outlines a practical, interview‑focused SQL learning plan for aspiring data analysts. She argues that mastering SQL quickly is possible by concentrating on core query‑building skills and avoiding low‑value DML or schema‑changing commands. The roadmap is broken down by day: Day 1 covers fundamental SELECT syntax, aggregations, and essential joins; Day 2 introduces advanced filtering, string manipulation, and datetime functions; Day 4 (the video’s ordering) dives into window functions such as RANK, DENSERANK, ROWNUMBER, LEAD, and LAG; Day 5 focuses on advanced joins (self‑joins, cross‑joins) and subqueries, including EXISTS/NOT EXISTS, followed by a final segment on Common Table Expressions (CTEs) and their distinction from subqueries. Bryan also explicitly advises learners to skip UPDATE, DELETE, and ALTER commands because analysts typically lack those permissions. She provides a downloadable 5‑day study plan in the video description, which has been used by thousands of students to prepare for SQL interview questions and land roles at companies like Roku, Microsoft, and Zendesk. The tone is instructional and motivational, encouraging viewers to practice deliberately and prioritize high‑impact concepts.
Chapters
Most people think it takes months to master SQL, but that's because they're learning it the wrong way. In this video, I'm going to give you the exact roadmap that I have used to coach beginners from not knowing what the heck SQL is to analyzing actual business data with SQL in just 5 days. This is the exact framework that I have used to coach my students to land roles at companies such as Roku, Microsoft, Zendesk, and more. So if you're ready to skip the fluff and learn the SQL skills that will actually get you hired, stick around for this video. Okay, so day 1, we want to get comfortable with basic SQL and joins. So SELECT FROM WHERE GROUP BY aggregations, COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, right? As an analyst, we're constantly going to be using aggregations, doing analysis, KPIs. So you definitely want to be comfortable with aggregations and then you want to be comfortable with joins. Our data that we need will be spread across multiple tables, so you need and must be comfortable with joining tables before you really move on to more advanced heavy SQL. There's just a lot of things you're not going to really truly understand if you don't understand joins. So again, basics: select from where group by aggregations, and then left join, inner join, and then expose yourself to union. This is a good practice that you can do for about two hours. So moving on to day 2, we're going to get into some more advanced filtering, and then we can be getting into string functions, datetime manipulation, and then filtering with wildcards with LIKE, IN, BETWEEN, and NOT, right? We're always going to have data. A lot of times we'll have data over time, so that's why it's good to have datetime manipulation. And then you can also create different features with your dates, so you definitely want to be comfortable with datetime manipulation. The functions can differ between different types of relational database platforms. So definitely want to be cognizant of that. But this is a good setup for day 2, and this can probably take you about an hour or so. All right, so day 5, advanced joins and then subqueries. So now we're gonna get into a bit more intermediate advanced SQL. And so we're gonna introduce a couple other joins, self joins and cross joins. The first set of joins, left join, inner join, you'll be doing those most, but you want to be able to identify or be able to identify, say, like hierarchical data to where you would be using a self-join, for example. And then you want to be getting into subqueries. So there's going to be times where you'll have to be starting to use more advanced manipulation in SQL. This is where subqueries will come in, being exposed to or understanding EXISTS, NOT EXISTS. Okay, so day 4, window functions. You want to be comfortable with window functions. Now this is, this is at the point where we're at advanced SQL. So RANK, DENSE_RANK, ROWNUMBER, LEAD, LAG, very comfortable with window functions. You don't want to be applying for an interview if you're not comfortable with window functions. All right, so day 5, final day, common table expressions or CTEs. You want to be comfortable with chaining multiple CTEs. Uh, being able to understand the difference between— the differences between CTEs and subqueries, understand when to use one over the other. Some people can use them interchangeably, some people prefer one or the other. You just want to make sure you understand what is a CTE, what is a subquery, when is the best time to use one, when is the best time to use a subquery. It's perfectly fine if you're not grasping these more advanced concepts as quickly as, say, the more junior concepts, which Which is fine. Just spend a little bit more time and spend a little bit more practice. Okay, so what not to learn. So avoid spending your time on update, alter table, delete. These are going to be permissions that in the real world, us as data analysts, we're not going to have these permissions to utilize anyways. So don't really bother or really spend your time on these and just double down on the concepts that I spoke about earlier in this video. It's just going to save you time. You want to be effective. You wanna learn concepts and then spend a lot of time practicing and not spending time learning and practicing concepts that you don't need. Okay, so what I have for you, if you check the link in the description, I have a 5-day SQL study plan, something that's been downloaded and used by thousands of students already. It's helped them prepare for SQL interviews. It's also helped them establish concepts that they've been struggling with, and it covers this exact roadmap. So if you check the link in the description, it's a 5-day SQL study plan. Study plan. Also remember to, you know, subscribe to the video if you really enjoy the content, and definitely let me know down below what else you'd like to learn about.
