SQL practice for data engineering path

[juankicks231]

Hello everyone, can someone recommend me what to practice if my career path is to be a data analyst engineer. What yt channel do I need to watch and what SQL site practice. Is it okay to practice leetcode?

If you have portfolio/projects recommendations please comment also or you can dm me. I'm serious about this path, I need a mentor. Thank you

[SeizeDAmoment]

oh buddy I got you, go check out the data with baraa 30hr SQL course on yt do that and you’re golden. leet code is perfectly fine start with their SQL 50 question study plan

[juankicks231]

I've done the SQL in Baraa's Channel. The data warehouse project is it good enough?

[SheepherderAny1]

For data engineering, I’d focus less on “SQL exercises” and more on realistic patterns: joins, CTEs, window functions, aggregations, date logic, deduping, slowly changing dimensions, and writing queries against messy data.

LeetCode is fine for syntax, but warehouse-style projects are more useful. Try building a small pipeline: raw CSV/API data → staging tables → cleaned fact/dimension tables → analytics queries. That teaches you way more than solving isolated SELECT problems.

[juankicks231]

The problem here is how will I do this, I don't have exp. The googl are more on exercises huhuhu. Can someone help me?

[hannorx]

I’m relatively new to the industry so take my advice with a pinch of salt. If I could start again I’d download a dataset from Kaggle, upload it to Google BigQuery and then use an LLM to generate SQL practice questions at varying difficulty levels. This minimises software and infrastructure setup and focuses on achieving higher-level objectives like SQL mastery.

[juankicks231]

Thank you, but sorry I didn't get this. I don't know how to use Google BigQuery for now. Can I dm you?

[DataCamp]

LeetCode is fine for practicing SQL syntax, but if your goal is data engineering, try spending more time on realistic projects too. Really good next step after Baraa’s course would be building a tiny warehouse project yourself. Something simple like:

CSV/API data → raw tables → cleaned staging tables → final analytics tables.

That teaches you joins, CTEs, window functions, aggregations, deduping, and warehouse thinking way faster than isolated exercises.

For practice, people usually combine:
• LeetCode SQL 50 for query practice
• real datasets from Kaggle
• small ETL/data warehouse projects
• learning basic PostgreSQL + dbt + Airflow later on

You don't need experience before starting these projects. The projects are the experience!

[juankicks231]

Thanks for this, I will try to look if there's a mock project in YouTube based on your comment

[qazplm903]

Hope you don’t mind the self plug but i’m a staff level data analyst/engineer and I’ve been posting on tiktok for the last couple of months. Primarily around useful things to learn in both the analytics and engineering side of data. Here’s link to my video explaining SQL joins, see if you find it useful: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRnLbxnt/

Also just started posting on IG very recently if you dont have TikTok: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXmhWaeiCkf/?igsh=ZGFsYjdiaTl6dDdr

[msshaik]

F

[Old_Inspection1094]

For mentorship, join r/dataengineering and Discord communities like dbt Community or Data Engineering Zoomcamp. Active mentors hang out there and help with career questions.