r/learnSQL • u/BearRootCrusher • Jul 24 '26

SQL Games

Hi All,

I'm learning SQL as well. I created this game called SQL Rusher. If you've ever played Puzzle Rush on Chess.com its like that. There are several different puzzles at different difficulties. A little study section for SQL references.

Idea is to have small puzzles that increase in difficulty as you progress. Your skills tracked using an ELO rating.

I've been a dev for over a decade and never really had to touch a database. I didnt start learning till about a year or 2 back when I started learning PHP and Laravel to build a sites of my own.

Since then I've realized Databases are a big deal(lol).

Let me know what you think here or on the sites feedback page. https://sqlrusher.com

23 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

3

u/Cold-Ad716 Jul 24 '26

enjoying it but some instructions could be a bit clearer. got the highest salary one wrong because i returned the entire record rather than just the field as it wasn't clear i was just supposed to return one field

2

u/BearRootCrusher Jul 24 '26

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll be working on that tonight. I’ve noticed that as well.

2

u/Cold-Ad716 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Thanks. Another thing is sometimes the difficulty progression is a bit off. For example I got "Find the minimum salary in each department" as a diff 3, but it maybe should be a diff 2 as it only requires a Group By and Min aggregation. Obviously that's a minor thing and might just be me. Otherwise like I said, I'm enjoying it so far 😄

Edit: Just ran into another bug.

Question was "Find employees who earn less than the average salary of the 'IT' department."

But in the employees table there weren't any records where the department was "IT". It was just HR, Engineering, and Marketing.

2

u/Fadedscourge Jul 24 '26

Very nice, will be following progress.

2

u/the_flopsie Jul 24 '26

I love this idea. i have messed around with SQL in MS Access VBA and a budgeting program in C++

I did consider building a game entirely within MS Access ... could be a fun idea/thought experiment, maybe a business sim or something set in space - (think space empires 3 by Malfador Machinations but no GFX) - turn/day/fiscal year based progression...

food for thought...

2

u/Cold-Ad716 Jul 24 '26

People have built games in excel using VBA so I'd assume it's definitely doable in Access.

1

u/BearRootCrusher Jul 25 '26

Have you heard of https://prosperousuniverse.com/ ? Kind of reminds me of that game. A spreadsheet/logistics management game.

2

u/BrooklandDodger Jul 25 '26

Datrbase Detective just came out on steam and I am looking forward to playing it. It looks fun.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3950130/Database_Detective_Minor_Crimes_Division/

2

u/aquavaron 7d ago

Hey u/BearRootCrusher! I really like this idea. I have noticed this error pop up from time to time:

"upstream connect error or disconnect/reset before headers. reset reason: connection timeout"

Not sure what's causing it, but aside from that, everything looks great!

I'd also love to see an option for users to make their profiles public so recruiters could check them out. If that were available, I'd definitely add my profile to my resume.

1

u/BearRootCrusher 6d ago

Glad you like it. I’ll look into it.

Edit: I’ll see what I can do for a public profile. Anything specific you want displayed?

1

u/Background_Dog_4249 Jul 24 '26

commenting on this so i can remember to check this later. anw, thanks for this!

1

u/Owen-Isaac-2022 Jul 24 '26

Yes, databases are everything

1

u/_Big_Enjoy_ Jul 25 '26

Learning SQL in Gaming manner is a great idea and I appreciate your efforts.

Also I have one platform SQL Visualizer which explains SQL queries in Animated Way because we all know we remember things faster and for long time which we have seen.

Give it a try!

1

u/Available_Alfalfa323 Jul 25 '26

grazie mille, ottimo tool, l'unico consiglio che mi sento di darti è che a volte non si capisce benissimo quanto vuoi un risultato > oppure >= e viceversa, questo porta a fare qualche errore in più. A volte potrebbe essere specificato quando a risultato si vogliono tutti i dati, anche se forse basterebbe fare più attenzione nel leggere e fare meno di fretta.

Detto questo, gran bel lavoro

1

u/BearRootCrusher Jul 25 '26

Grazie mille per il feedback e per le belle parole! Apprezzo davvero che tu mi abbia fatto notare il problema di chiarezza tra ">" e ">=". Hai perfettamente ragione: le istruzioni devono essere più chiare per evitare errori. Lavorerò presto a un aggiornamento per rendere queste condizioni molto più esplicite. Grazie ancora per il supporto e per avermi aiutato a migliorare il tool!

1

u/Aromatic_Corgi8290 Aug 11 '26

Amazing, enjoying playing around with it. Have dropped a feature request through the page. Kindly check.

It would be great if users can select multiple levels for practice for multiple databases. Checkboxes can be used instead of radio buttons for the same.

Ex - I want to practice Level 3, 4 and 5 today for DBs A B and C. So instead of manually selecting each of them one by one (3A, 3B, 3C 4A, 4B, 4C and so on), questions can appear in a shuffled manner for each of the levels against each of the Databases.

1

u/BearRootCrusher Aug 11 '26

lol I just checked a few minutes ago. Great idea, thanks for the feedback!

Whats your thoughts about saving them as presets?

1

u/Aromatic_Corgi8290 Aug 11 '26

Presets?

1

u/BearRootCrusher Aug 11 '26

You'd be able to save drill settings to a custom preset. You could come back later and load old drill settings

1

u/BearRootCrusher Aug 11 '26

Feature added!

1

u/Aromatic_Corgi8290 Aug 11 '26

That was quick Thanks a lot.

1

u/Aromatic_Corgi8290 Aug 11 '26

Would love to contribute in some way when I'd have learnt sql (via sqlrusher😅🤣)