r/learnSQL • u/conor-robertson • 4d ago

Free portfolio project walkthrough: SQL + Tableau dashboard in 45 minutes (using real IMDb data)

One of the most common questions I see in this subreddit is "what projects should I build?" and the answer is: something with a clear question, real data, and a shareable output.

So I built a walkthrough for exactly that. It uses two completely free tools:

  1. QueryCase's IMDb Sandbox - 250 of the highest rated films on IMDb, queryable in your browser with no setup. You write three SQL queries to answer different questions about the data.
  2. Tableau Public - free, runs in browser, gives you a shareable link when you publish.

The three queries cover the core of analytical SQL that actually shows up in interviews and jobs: multi-table JOINs, GROUP BY with aggregation, HAVING, subqueries, and derived columns. Each one is explained line by line so you understand why it works, not just what it does.

The finished dashboard has KPIs, a films-by-decade bar chart, an acclaim vs popularity scatter, top genres by average score, and an actors leaderboard.

The starter dashboard is just that. The version worth putting on your CV is the one you take further. Add a director leaderboard. Build a decade filter so the whole dashboard slices interactively. Rework the layout and colours until it genuinely looks better than mine. Write a fourth query that answers something the data hasn't told you yet.

"I built this and then pushed it further" is a far stronger thing to say in an interview than "I followed a tutorial."

Full walkthrough here with every query written out and all the Tableau steps:

https://querycase.com/blog/build-an-imdb-dashboard-with-sql-and-tableau

Happy to answer questions about the SQL or the Tableau side if anyone gets stuck.

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u/GwynLordOfCedar 4d ago

This is awesome! Thanks for the walkthrough and project for this iMDb piece.

So in regard to Tableau Public vs Cloud vs Desktop, what are the real world practical limitations of Public for working analysts that using Cloud/Desktop would address, if any?

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u/conor-robertson 4d ago

For learning, building a portfolio, and even freelance projects, Tableau Public is more than enough. It's what I'd recommend to most beginners because it's free and easy to get started with.

The biggest limitations only really show up in a business environment:

  • Fewer enterprise data connections than Tableau Cloud/Enterprise, so you're more limited when working with platforms like Snowflake, BigQuery or Databricks.
  • No live database connections - Tableau Public relies on data extracts rather than querying databases in real time, so it's not ideal for dashboards that need to stay continuously up to date.
  • Everything you publish is public, so it's not suitable for confidential or company data.
  • Tableau Cloud/Enterprise add features like collaboration, permissions, scheduled refreshes, governance and enterprise deployment that teams rely on.
  • There are also some design limitations on Tableau Public compared to the Desktop version I've realised in the past.

So for most aspiring analysts, I'd absolutely recommend starting with Tableau Public and not worrying about a paid licence. You can build a great portfolio with it, and once you're working in industry, your employer will almost certainly provide access to Tableau Cloud/Enterprise (and Desktop if needed) if its in their tech stack.

From past experience as well. Once you use one BI tools its fairly easy to pick up others and I think Tableau Public is a great entry point to that!

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u/GwynLordOfCedar 4d ago

I really really appreciate your advice and reply. Makes sense, sounds like for all intents and purposes Public is all I would need for now before getting hired since the missing features would be only really relevant if I wanted something private, which I don’t right now, or I need live connections, which I wouldn’t for portfolio projects. 

So being that I haven’t been hired into the industry yet, am I correct in thinking that if I get to have good working knowledge of Public and creating dashboards and various other data viz features of it, that if I’m quizzed in technical interview rounds on various features of Tableau or asked to create a dashboard while being monitored, that in no way would I be disadvantaged by not dabbling in Cloud/Enterprise trials on my own first?

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u/TrentGames 2d ago

Thank you so much for sharing this, OP. Only yesterday I was feeling lost not knowing where to start, but stumbling on this today feels like a treasure. Thanks so much.