Top Departments SQL Query | Dataford Interview Questions

Here is a dataset; please write the SQL queries to identify the top three departments by volume at Brown University.

Use distinct request records submitted during calendar year 2025. Exclude rows marked as test records, include only departments belonging to Brown University, and return exactly three departments with deterministic alphabetical tie-breaking.

Output

One row per department with department_name, total_volume, and volume_rank
Include the three highest-volume departments only
Sort by volume_rank, then department_name

Schema

institutions

Column	Type	Description
institution_idPK	INT	Institution identifier
institution_name	VARCHAR(150)	Institution name

departments

Column	Type	Description
department_idPK	INT	Department identifier
institution_id	INT	Owning institution identifier
department_name	VARCHAR(150)	Department name
is_active	BOOLEAN	Whether the department is currently active

requests

Column	Type	Description
request_idPK	INT	Request identifier
department_id	INT	Department associated with the request
request_type	VARCHAR(80)	Type of request
submitted_at	TIMESTAMP	Request submission timestamp
is_test	BOOLEAN	Whether the request is test data

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Problem