Top-N Per Department with Window Functions | Dataford Interview Questions

Write a SQL query using window functions such as DENSE_RANK or ROW_NUMBER to find the top three highest-paid employees in each department at UKG.

Use the provided employee and department data. Include ties at the third salary rank and exclude employees without a matching department.

Output

One row per qualifying employee with employee_id, employee_name, department_name, salary, and salary_rank.
Include salary ranks 1 through 3, order by department name, salary descending, then employee ID ascending.

departments

Column	Type	Description
department_idPK	INT	Unique department identifier
department_name	VARCHAR(100)	Department display name
cost_center	VARCHAR(20)	Optional finance cost-center code

employees

Column	Type	Description
employee_idPK	INT	Unique employee identifier
employee_name	VARCHAR(100)	Employee full name
department_id	INT	Department assigned to the employee
salary	NUMERIC(12,2)	Annual base salary

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