DA0-002 Data Acquisition and Preparation Practice Question
A data analyst wants to retrieve the top 5 highest-paid employees from a table named 'employees' that has columns 'employee_id', 'salary', and 'name'. Which SQL query should they use?
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
✓
SELECT name, salary FROM employees ORDER BY salary DESC LIMIT 5;
ORDER BY salary DESC sorts from highest to lowest, and LIMIT 5 restricts to the first 5 rows.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
SELECT TOP 5 name, salary FROM employees ORDER BY salary DESC;
Why it's wrong here
TOP is used in SQL Server, but LIMIT is more standard; however, the question does not specify RDBMS, and LIMIT is widely used.
- ✓
SELECT name, salary FROM employees ORDER BY salary DESC LIMIT 5;
Why this is correct
Correct syntax.
- ✗
SELECT name, salary FROM employees ORDER BY salary ASC LIMIT 5;
Why it's wrong here
ASC gives lowest salaries.
- ✗
SELECT name, salary FROM employees WHERE ROWNUM <= 5 ORDER BY salary DESC;
Why it's wrong here
ROWNUM is Oracle-specific and would filter before sorting.
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