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Second Highest Salary at NovaTech | Dataford Interview Questions - Dataford - Ace your Interview

Second Highest Salary at NovaTech

Easy

SQL & Data Manipulation

Asked at 7 companies7AggregationsSubqueriesRanking

Also asked at

Problem

Task

NovaTech wants a quick salary check from its employee records. Write a SQL query to return the second highest distinct salary from the employees table.

Requirements

Return exactly one column named second_highest_salary
Treat duplicate salaries as the same salary value
If a second highest salary does not exist, return NULL

Table Definition

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_id	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department	VARCHAR(50)	Employee department
salary	INT	Employee salary; may contain NULL

Sample Data

employee_id	employee_name	department	salary
104	Priya Shah	Finance	95000
101	Alice Chen	Engineering	120000
109	Omar Hassan	Support	0
103	Carla Gomez	Engineering	120000
106	Nina Patel	HR	88000
102	Brian Lee	Sales	99000
108	Elena Petrova	Finance	95000
105	David Kim	Marketing	NULL
110	Grace Liu	Engineering	135000
107	Felix Brown	Sales	-5000

Expected Output

second_highest_salary
120000

Use PostgreSQL-compatible SQL only.

Schema

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_idPK	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department	VARCHAR(50)	Employee department
salary	INT	Employee salary amount

Sample Data

Example 1

Input

{"employees":[[104,"Priya Shah","Finance",95000],[101,"Alice Chen","Engineering",120000],[109,"Omar Hassan","Support",0],[103,"Carla Gomez","Engineering",120000],[106,"Nina Patel","HR",88000],[102,"Brian Lee","Sales",99000],[108,"Elena Petrova","Finance",95000],[105,"David Kim","Marketing",null],[110,"Grace Liu","Engineering",135000],[107,"Felix Brown","Sales",-5000],["1","Lucas Walker","null","63"],["2","Isabella Martinez","Training","3"],["3","Felix Brown","Compliance","30"],["4","Charlotte Ba

Output[["120000"]]

Problem

Task

NovaTech wants a quick salary check from its employee records. Write a SQL query to return the second highest distinct salary from the employees table.

Requirements

Return exactly one column named second_highest_salary
Treat duplicate salaries as the same salary value
If a second highest salary does not exist, return NULL

Table Definition

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_id	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department	VARCHAR(50)	Employee department
salary	INT	Employee salary; may contain NULL

Sample Data

employee_id	employee_name	department	salary
104	Priya Shah	Finance	95000
101	Alice Chen	Engineering	120000
109	Omar Hassan	Support	0
103	Carla Gomez	Engineering	120000
106	Nina Patel	HR	88000
102	Brian Lee	Sales	99000
108	Elena Petrova	Finance	95000
105	David Kim	Marketing	NULL
110	Grace Liu	Engineering	135000
107	Felix Brown	Sales	-5000

Expected Output

second_highest_salary
120000

Use PostgreSQL-compatible SQL only.

Schema

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_idPK	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department	VARCHAR(50)	Employee department
salary	INT	Employee salary amount

Sample Data

Example 1

Input

{"employees":[[104,"Priya Shah","Finance",95000],[101,"Alice Chen","Engineering",120000],[109,"Omar Hassan","Support",0],[103,"Carla Gomez","Engineering",120000],[106,"Nina Patel","HR",88000],[102,"Brian Lee","Sales",99000],[108,"Elena Petrova","Finance",95000],[105,"David Kim","Marketing",null],[110,"Grace Liu","Engineering",135000],[107,"Felix Brown","Sales",-5000],["1","Lucas Walker","null","63"],["2","Isabella Martinez","Training","3"],["3","Felix Brown","Compliance","30"],["4","Charlotte Ba

Output[["120000"]]

Practice SQL

PostgreSQL

Open on desktop for the full SQL editor with syntax highlighting and autocomplete.

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Second Highest Salary at NovaTech

Easy

SQL & Data Manipulation

Asked at 7 companies7AggregationsSubqueriesRanking

Also asked at

Problem

Task

NovaTech wants a quick salary check from its employee records. Write a SQL query to return the second highest distinct salary from the employees table.

Requirements

Return exactly one column named second_highest_salary
Treat duplicate salaries as the same salary value
If a second highest salary does not exist, return NULL

Table Definition

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_id	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department	VARCHAR(50)	Employee department
salary	INT	Employee salary; may contain NULL

Sample Data

employee_id	employee_name	department	salary
104	Priya Shah	Finance	95000
101	Alice Chen	Engineering	120000
109	Omar Hassan	Support	0
103	Carla Gomez	Engineering	120000
106	Nina Patel	HR	88000
102	Brian Lee	Sales	99000
108	Elena Petrova	Finance	95000
105	David Kim	Marketing	NULL
110	Grace Liu	Engineering	135000
107	Felix Brown	Sales	-5000

Expected Output

second_highest_salary
120000

Use PostgreSQL-compatible SQL only.

Schema

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_idPK	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department	VARCHAR(50)	Employee department
salary	INT	Employee salary amount

Sample Data

Example 1

Input

{"employees":[[104,"Priya Shah","Finance",95000],[101,"Alice Chen","Engineering",120000],[109,"Omar Hassan","Support",0],[103,"Carla Gomez","Engineering",120000],[106,"Nina Patel","HR",88000],[102,"Brian Lee","Sales",99000],[108,"Elena Petrova","Finance",95000],[105,"David Kim","Marketing",null],[110,"Grace Liu","Engineering",135000],[107,"Felix Brown","Sales",-5000],["1","Lucas Walker","null","63"],["2","Isabella Martinez","Training","3"],["3","Felix Brown","Compliance","30"],["4","Charlotte Ba

Output[["120000"]]

Problem

Task

NovaTech wants a quick salary check from its employee records. Write a SQL query to return the second highest distinct salary from the employees table.

Requirements

Return exactly one column named second_highest_salary
Treat duplicate salaries as the same salary value
If a second highest salary does not exist, return NULL

Table Definition

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_id	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department	VARCHAR(50)	Employee department
salary	INT	Employee salary; may contain NULL

Sample Data

employee_id	employee_name	department	salary
104	Priya Shah	Finance	95000
101	Alice Chen	Engineering	120000
109	Omar Hassan	Support	0
103	Carla Gomez	Engineering	120000
106	Nina Patel	HR	88000
102	Brian Lee	Sales	99000
108	Elena Petrova	Finance	95000
105	David Kim	Marketing	NULL
110	Grace Liu	Engineering	135000
107	Felix Brown	Sales	-5000

Expected Output

second_highest_salary
120000

Use PostgreSQL-compatible SQL only.

Schema

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_idPK	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department	VARCHAR(50)	Employee department
salary	INT	Employee salary amount

Sample Data

Example 1

Input

{"employees":[[104,"Priya Shah","Finance",95000],[101,"Alice Chen","Engineering",120000],[109,"Omar Hassan","Support",0],[103,"Carla Gomez","Engineering",120000],[106,"Nina Patel","HR",88000],[102,"Brian Lee","Sales",99000],[108,"Elena Petrova","Finance",95000],[105,"David Kim","Marketing",null],[110,"Grace Liu","Engineering",135000],[107,"Felix Brown","Sales",-5000],["1","Lucas Walker","null","63"],["2","Isabella Martinez","Training","3"],["3","Felix Brown","Compliance","30"],["4","Charlotte Ba

Output[["120000"]]

Practice SQL

PostgreSQL

Open on desktop for the full SQL editor with syntax highlighting and autocomplete.

Up next

Top Products by Sales RevenueMedium Monthly Sales Trends by CategoryEasy

Second Most Recent Marketplace PurchaseHard

Next question