🧠 Advanced SQL Interview Question ⚡

📊 Find the top 3 highest-paid employees from each department

Table: Employees

employee_id | employee_name
| department_id | salary

🔍 Query:

WITH ranked AS (
SELECT employee_id,
employee_name,
department_id,
salary,
DENSE_RANK() OVER (
PARTITION BY department_id
ORDER BY salary DESC
) AS rnk
FROM Employees
)
SELECT *
FROM ranked
WHERE rnk <= 3;

🎯 Why this question matters:

✅ Tests window functions (DENSE_RANK)
✅ Evaluates partitioning concepts
✅ Checks top-N problem-solving skills
✅ Frequently asked in advanced SQL interviews

🚀 Pro Tip:

Use DENSE_RANK() instead of ROW_NUMBER() when you want to handle salary ties correctly.

🔥 Top-N per group questions are extremely popular in Data Analyst interviews.

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