5 Best SQL Certifications to boost your Career in 2021

6 min readJan 10, 2021

Introduction

The database is the center of all transactions, and SQL is the most popular language for interacting with the database. Learning SQL will help you in many ways throughout your career, and if you are learning on your own or along with projects, you may leave some concepts which are not used in your particular project but are important otherwise. Certifications give you a proper method to learn. Since you learn from experts, you will get practical knowledge and tricks to effectively use SQL for best performance and less time of execution.

Best SQL Certifications

There are many courses and certifications by various organizations; however, we have chosen the most effective ones that are recognized by most big companies and will make you industry-ready:

1. Ultimate MySQL Bootcamp: Udemy

This Udemy course starts with the basics of MySQL and goes up to teaching some advanced concepts. The course provides a lot of exercises. It is up to you to take the course at the speed that you want to.

Course Details

ContentOn-demand videos of 20 hours, four downloadable resources, and 141 articlesAccessLifetime access; self-paced learningPrerequisiteNoneLanguageEnglish with subtitles in English, Italian, Japanese, Polish, French, German, etcPriceRs.365LevelBasic

Course Syllabus

SQL overview and installation: SQL vs. MySQL, installation on Windows and Mac
Creating database and tables: Table create and drop, basic data types
Data insertion, NULL, NOT NULL, Primary keys, table constraints
CRUD commands: SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, challenge exercises
String functions: concat, substring, replace, reverse, char length, upper and lower
Using distinct, order by, limit, like, wildcards
Aggregate functions: count, group by, min, max, sum, avg
Data Types in detail: char, varchar, decimal, float, double, date, time, datetime, now, curdate, curtime, timestamps
Logical operators: not equal, not like, greater than, less than, AND, OR, between, not in, in, case statements
One to many: Joins, foreign keys, cross join, inner join, left join, right join, Many to many
Instagram data clone: Instagram Clone Schema, Users Schema, likes, comments, photos, hashtags, complete schema
Working with lots of BIG data: JUMBO dataset, exercises
Introducing Node: Crash course on Node.js, npm, MySQL, and other languages
Building a web app: setting up, connecting Express and MySQL, adding EJS templates, connecting the form
Database triggers: writing triggers, Preventing Instagram Self-Follows With Triggers, creating logger triggers, Managing Triggers, And A Warning

2. Learn SQL Basics for Data Science Specialization

This is a specialization course that aims to apply all SQL concepts used for data science practically. The first course of the specialization is a basic course that will enable you with all the SQL knowledge you will need for the rest of the courses. There are four courses:

SQL for Data Science.
Data Wrangling, Analysis, and AB Testing with SQL.
Distributed Computing with Spark SQL.
SQL for Data Science Capstone Project.

Course Details

mode of learningOnlineLevelBeginnerDurationFour months (with 5 hours/week)LanguageEnglish with English subtitlesPriceCoursera monthly subscription

Course Syllabus

1. SQL for Data Science (14 hours)

Introduction, selecting, and fetching data using SQL.
Filtering, Sorting, and Calculating Data with SQL.
Subqueries and Joins in SQL.
Modifying and Analyzing Data with SQL.

2. Data Wrangling, Analysis, and AB Testing with SQL

Data of Unknown Quality.
Creating Clean Datasets.
SQL Problem Solving.
Case Study: AB Testing.

3. Distributed Computing with Spark SQL

Introduction to Spark.
Spark Core Concepts.
Engineering Data Pipelines.
Machine Learning Applications of Spark.

4. SQL for Data Science Capstone Project

Project Proposal and Data Selection/Preparation.
Descriptive Stats & Understanding Your Data.
Beyond Descriptive Stats (Dive Deeper/Go Broader).
Presenting Your Findings (Storytelling).

3. Database Foundation (1Z0–006)

This oracle academy is wholesome and career-focused, using industry-relevant technologies. The database curriculum consists of 4 courses:

Database foundations.
Database Design and Programming with SQL.
Programming with PL/SQL.
Application Express Development foundations.

You can give the certification exam with or without taking up the courses. Oracle recommends doing these courses.

Exam Details

TitleOracle Database FoundationsDuration150 minutesNumber of questions75Pass percentage60%FormatMultiple choicePriceRs.7188Pre-requisitesNone

Exam Syllabus

Database Concepts.
Relational Database Concepts.
Gathering Requirements for Database Design.
Using Conceptual Data Modelling.
Types of Databases Models.
Defining Levels of Data Abstraction.
The Language of Database and Data modeling.
Defining Instance and Schema in Relational Databases.
Data modeling — Creating the Physical Model.
Using Unique Identifiers, Primary and Foreign Keys.
Defining Supertype and Subtype Entity Relationships.
Resolving Many to Many Relationships and Composite Unique Identifiers.
Documenting Business Requirements and Rules.
Tracking Data Changes Over Time.
Using Attributes.
Validating Data Using Normalization.
Mapping the Physical Model.
Mapping Primary, Composite Primary, and Foreign Keys.
Identifying Relationships.
Introduction to SQL.
Using Data Manipulation Language (DML) and Transaction Control Language (TCL).
Using Data Definition Language (DDL).
Defining and using Basic Select statements.
Defining Table Joins.
Identifying Hierarchical, Recursive, and Arc Relationships.
Displaying Sorted Data.

4. Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business Specialization

This is a Specialization from Coursera that aims to touch upon SQL from a business point of view. If you aim to get into data science or related fields, this will be a good course. Along with SQL, you will also gain skills like Microsoft Excel, Business Analytics, data science tools, and algorithms and more about business processes. There are five courses in this specialization:

Business Metrics for Data-Driven Companies.
Mastering Data Analysis in Excel.
Data Visualization and Communication with Tableau.
Managing Big Data with MySQL.
Increasing Real Estate Management Profits: Harnessing Data Analytics.

Details

Mode of learningOnlineLevelBeginnerDurationSeven months (with 4 hours/week)LanguageEnglish with subtitles in English, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, etc.PriceCoursera monthly subscriptionCertificationyes, shareable on LinkedIn

Syllabus

Business Metrics for Data-Driven Companies (8 hours): Introduction to business metrics, business analytics marketplace, applying business metrics to the business case study.
Mastering Data Analysis in Excel (21 hours): Excel essentials, binary classification, information measures, linear regression, model building.
Data Visualization and Communication with Tableau (25 hours): Tableau, visualizations, logic, project.
Managing Big Data with MySQL (41 hours): relational databases, queries for a single table, group data, addressing complex data through queries.
Increasing Real Estate Management Profits: Harnessing Data Analytics (23 hours): Data extraction and Visualization, modeling, cash flow, and profits, data dashboard.

5. MySQL for Data Analytics and BI

Through this Udemy course, you can become an SQL expert for data and business analytics. The course covers MySQL in-depth and starts from basics then moves to advanced SQL topics. It also has a lot of exercises to perfect your knowledge.