DA0-002 Data Acquisition and Preparation Practice Question
A data analyst needs to retrieve the top 5 most expensive products from a 'products' table sorted by price descending. Which TWO SQL clauses are required to achieve this? (Select TWO).
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
ORDER BY price DESC
ORDER BY price DESC (C) is required because it sorts the result set by the price column in descending order, placing the most expensive products first. LIMIT 5 (E) is required because it restricts the result set to only the first five rows returned after sorting, giving the top 5 most expensive products. Together, ORDER BY price DESC followed by LIMIT 5 produce exactly the requested output. The other options do not belong: HAVING COUNT(*) > 1 (A) filters grouped aggregate results, WHERE price > 100 (B) applies a fixed numeric filter rather than selecting the top 5, and GROUP BY price (D) aggregates rows by price instead of simply sorting and limiting them.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
Why it's wrong here
HAVING filters grouped aggregate results, such as counts per group, and cannot rank or limit rows. It is tempting because HAVING appears alongside ORDER BY in aggregate queries, but the stem needs ORDER BY price DESC and TOP 5 (or LIMIT 5) to return the five most expensive products.
- ✗
WHERE price > 100
Why it's wrong here
A WHERE clause filters individual rows by a predicate; it cannot limit result count or order rows. It is tempting because filtering by price feels related to selecting expensive products, but the stem needs ORDER BY price DESC plus TOP 5 (or LIMIT 5) to rank and cap the output.
- ✓
ORDER BY price DESC
Why this is correct
ORDER BY price DESC sorts the result set by the price column in descending order, placing the most expensive products first. This directly satisfies the stem's requirement to rank products by price from highest to lowest, which the LIMIT clause then truncates to the top 5 rows.
- ✗
GROUP BY price
Why it's wrong here
GROUP BY collapses rows into aggregates per distinct price value, which neither sorts nor caps the result set. It is tempting because grouping is common in analytical queries, but the stem requires ORDER BY price DESC with TOP 5 (or LIMIT 5) to return the five highest-priced products.
- ✓
LIMIT 5
Why this is correct
LIMIT 5 caps the result set at five rows, satisfying the top-5 requirement. Paired with ORDER BY price DESC, which sorts products from most to least expensive, it returns exactly the five highest-priced products the analyst needs.
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