SQL Interview Whiteboard Question 1: Where are the Managers? Would you pass or fail?

3 May 2025 · 1 min

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In this instructional YouTube video, presenter Kedeisha Bryan poses a common SQL interview problem involving two tables—workers (containing basic employee data) and titles (listing every job title an employee has ever held). The task is to return the first name and current title of employees who are or have ever been managers, where "manager" can appear anywhere within the title (e.g., HR manager, engineering manager, marketing manager). Bryan highlights a typical mistake: filtering for titles that equal "manager" instead of checking for the substring "manager," which would miss many valid cases. He challenges viewers to write the correct SQL query and promises to share the exact solution with anyone who comments the word "SQL," emphasizing that failure to solve such questions could lead to interview failure.

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Here's a SQL interview question that looks straightforward but can trip you up if you rush it. We're working with 2 tables, workers and titles. You've got basic employee info in workers and all the job titles they've ever held in titles. The goal, find employees who currently are or were managers. Return their first name and their worker title. But here's where most people slip. You're not filtering by job equals manager. You're filtering by whether manager shows up in the title. That means HR manager counts, engineering manager counts, even marketing manager from over 2 years ago counts. Want to see the exact SQL query that solves this cleanly? I'll only send it to folks who drop SQL in the comments. If you can't solve this type of SQL question, you will fail your interviews. Comment SQL and I'll share the solution.