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Learn SQL with the e-commerce dataset on Google BigQuery
I often get asked this question: I learnt the basics of SQL; what now? My answer is: Start using SQL to answer real-world business questions.
One of the tricky things about learning anything is getting from theoretical to practical. I’m from Vietnam, where learning how to drive is nightmarish. Seriously, look up “Vietnam traffic,” and you will know what I mean. So I know a ton of people who are licensed to drive but have never done it before outside of driving school.
Getting started driving for Vietnamese is hard and scary. The longer people put off driving after getting a license, the longer it will be since they last did it. After a while, they started forgetting the basics, making it ever more challenging to get started.
Learning SQL is pretty much the same. After you learn to write a simple statement, now what? Setting up a local database is hard, and not everyone who knows SQL can do it. Besides, working with fake data you created using Excel is no fun.
