Sessions need a laptop or desktop.
If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer.
SQL · Foundations
Answer a manager’s questions from a database you did not build.
What you’ll end up with
One finished answers file. The statements you wrote, still runnable, answering what was sold, to whom, when, where — and how much of the data can be trusted.
10½
hours in all — about 6½ guided, 4 on your own
6
sessions. Each designed to be completed in one sitting
Free
No payment and no card required.
Finishing gives you a completion record showing the work you built, and all three levels earn the Alongrail Certificate in SQL. See what you’ll build →
You don’t need prior experience with SQLite in Sqlime. There’s no payment and no card required.
From two raw files to a finished set of queries
01100 min
Open it and find out what you have
You have the database open in your browser, you have seen both tables, and you have written down how many rows each one holds.
02110 min
Ask for the rows you actually want
You can pull out exactly the rows that answer a question — several conditions at once — and sort and cut the result deliberately.
03115 min
Find out what the values really are
You can tell what a value actually is rather than what its column claims, find the rows where something is missing, and collapse one thing written several ways into one thing.
04110 min
Count and total it, and say how precisely
You can produce the totals, averages and extremes a manager asks for, rounded to a precision you chose and labelled so somebody else can read them.
0595 min
One row per group, and the duplicates nobody mentioned
You can answer a question once per category, month or any other value, filter which groups come back, and use the same machinery to find records that were entered twice.
0685 min
Two tables at once, and what the join lost
You can answer a question that neither table can answer alone, and say how many rows the join dropped and why.
What you need before you start
A laptop or desktop
Sessions need a laptop or desktop. If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer. SQLite in Sqlime runs in the browser, on Windows or a Mac.
Chrome or Edge
Alongrail runs in the browser too, in its own tab beside SQLite in Sqlime.
The course files
Everything you work with is in the download.
What’s free
The whole course: every session, both parts, the files, and your record. Alongrail charges nothing for it. No payment, and no card at any point.
The software
SQLite in Sqlime costs nothing for this course.
The data you’ll work with
Every file is invented — the companies, the people and everything in them are made up for the course, and the files are deliberately messy, the way real business data is. Cleaning them is part of the work.
Before you start
The course covers SQLite in Sqlime, in your browser.
- A current desktop browser. Nothing is installed and no account is created at any point.
- The query tool's address, www.alongrail.com/sqlime, which you open as an ordinary web page — Alongrail's own copy of Sqlime, at a fixed version
- The file redkite.db, downloaded from the course page into one folder you can find again — the course uses Downloads\Alongrail\SQL Foundations
- The file stonebridge.db, downloaded from the same place into the same folder, for the on-your-own run
- A plain text editor you already have, for keeping the statements you write
Alongrail teaches the software and gives you a record of what you built, with a link to the work itself. What happens with it afterwards is yours. We don’t place people and we take no part in anyone’s recruitment process.
Enrol free and start now.
Sign in, confirm the one thing the course needs, and session 1 opens. No payment, and no card at any point.
If something goes wrong on the way, press “Something’s wrong” in the panel, or write to hello@alongrail.com — we reply within one working day.
Frequently asked questions
What you build
Open a database somebody else built, in a browser, with nothing installed — and answer the questions a manager actually asks of it, checking each answer before you send it.
An answers file you keep: the statements you wrote, still runnable, that answer one question per session about a wholesale supplier's two years of orders — what was sold, to whom, when, where, and how much of what the file says can be trusted.
How a session works
- Open SQLite in Sqlime
- Share your screen
- One instruction
- You do it
- It confirms it
- Next
You open SQLite in Sqlime and share your screen. Alongrail reads what’s there and gives you one instruction. You do it. It confirms the step landed, then gives you the next one. If something doesn’t match what you see, one button gets you back on track.
Guided
In the Fields list, tick Region. The chart fills in.
One field on the axis, one measure as the value.
then
On your owna different company’s data
Same job, a different company's files. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask.
Guided, then on your own.
The second part of every session uses a different company’s data, with the same kind of mess in different places. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask. It’s the work your record points to.
About 10½ hours in all·about 6½ guided·about 4 on your own
What you earn — the record, the certificate and a sample
Completion record
- Name
- Your name
- Course
- SQL Foundations — answer a manager's questions from a database you did not build
- Completed
- The date you finish
- Project
- The set of queries you built on your own →
- Skills demonstrated
- Opening a database file in a browser and establishing what it holds before trusting it · Retrieving rows that meet several conditions at once, sorted and limited deliberately · Establishing what values really are — numbers stored as text, absences, and one category spelt several ways — before computing with them · Counting and totalling, and knowing which count ignores absent values · Answering a question per group, filtering groups, and finding duplicates nobody mentioned · Joining two tables and checking what the join lost · Verifying your own answer against the row count before reporting it
What was built
An answers file you keep: the statements you wrote, still runnable, that answer one question per session about a wholesale supplier's two years of orders — what was sold, to whom, when, where, and how much of what the file says can be trusted.
The 6 sessions, and when each was completed on their own
Each session was completed twice: once with step-by-step guidance on one company’s data, then on a second company’s data from a brief, with guidance only when asked. Every check passed on both. Alongrail records the sessions, the checks and the dates; the dashboard itself is the learner’s own, hosted where they chose.
A completion record for SQL Foundations, now. It names the course, the date you finished, the skills you demonstrated, and links the set of queries you built on your own. It’s private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time.
The record is a description of work you did, not a claim about you. Anyone who opens it can see the work for themselves.
The Alongrail Certificate in SQL when all three levels are complete. Foundations is the first of three. Practitioner and Professional are in development, with no dates. See the track →
Your screen stays yours
It looks when you ask. Never otherwise. Images of your screen are not stored. What Alongrail sees →
Nothing you build is public until you publish it. Your record is private until you say so, and you can unpublish it at any time.
What’s SQLite in Sqlime?
SQLite in Sqlime is the software this course is built in. It runs in your browser.
You won’t learn it by watching hours of tutorials. You’ll learn it by building something real with it.
Who you’re building it for
Redkite Supply Co. sells office supplies to businesses across four regions. Somebody has exported two tables out of the order system and handed you the file: one row per order, and one row per customer. The sales lead wants to know how the year went, which categories carry the business, which month was busiest and which region is worth the next hire. Nobody has checked the export, and nobody will. You have no software, no access to the order system and no one to ask. What you have is the file and a browser.
Your job is to build the set of queries that answers it.
Do I need to know SQLite in Sqlime already?
No. The course assumes you’ve never opened it.
What if I get stuck?
Press the button in the panel and say what you see. Alongrail works out where you actually are and picks the instruction back up.
Why 10½ hours, when other courses are 40?
Because the time is spent doing the work rather than watching it. About 6½ hours is guided; the rest is you building the same thing again on your own.
What does Alongrail see on my screen?
Only the window you choose to share, and only when you ask it to look. Images of your screen are not stored by Alongrail. What Alongrail sees →
Can I use a Mac?
Yes. SQLite in Sqlime runs in the browser.
What if I miss a week?
Nothing closes. The dates are there to help you keep moving, not to catch you out.
What’s the “on your own” part?
The second half of every session: the same work on a different company’s data, with Alongrail quiet unless you ask. Both parts are needed for your completion record.
Is it really free?
Yes. No payment, and no card at any point.
Who can see what I build?
Nobody, until you say so. Your record is private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time. What you build stays in your own files or account; where a step publishes something to the software’s own site, the step says so and says who can see it.
Where this course sits
SQL Foundations is Foundations in SQL. The track has three levels; each one you complete earns its own record, and all of them together earn the Alongrail Certificate in SQL. All the courses →