History — SQL Technical Interview Questions & Answers

History

History

  • MySQL started in the 1990s (Widenius / Axmark / Larsson), became the web’s popular open-source RDBMS (LAMP: Linux Apache MySQL PHP). Sun bought it, then Oracle. MariaDB is a fork after the Oracle acquisition.
  • For a job: you don’t mug years. You say: open-source RDBMS, LAMP stack, Oracle owns MySQL, MariaDB is a compatible-ish fork.
  • Trap: a page of dates with no LAMP / fork sentence.
  • On the example next to this theory: History: create two demo rows, then SELECT qty >= 2 ordered. Say which labels come back.

Technical Interview Tip: LAMP + Oracle ownership + MariaDB fork. That’s the history line.

Code Examples for History

History — sample query

-- History
CREATE TABLE demo (
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  label TEXT NOT NULL,
  qty INTEGER DEFAULT 0
);
INSERT INTO demo (id, label, qty) VALUES
  (1, 'alpha', 2),
  (2, 'beta', 5);
SELECT label, qty FROM demo WHERE qty >= 2 ORDER BY qty DESC;

History: create two demo rows, then SELECT qty >= 2 ordered. Say which labels come back.

How to Explain History to an Interviewer

Who owns MySQL now?

Oracle MariaDB is a fork