SQL exercises with solutions: ORDER BY and LIMIT

Updated on 22 September 2026

ORDER BY sorts (ASC ascending, DESC descending); LIMIT keeps the first n rows. These 6 exercises range from level 1 to level 2; they use the syntax of SQLite, SpeedQL’s SQL engine.

Tip: Add a second sort column to break ties.

Read the “ORDER BY, LIMIT” card in the cheat sheet

Exercise 1 · level 1

Show the name and salary of every employee, from the lowest to the highest salary.

Table `employees` (8 rows)
id	name	department	salary
1	Alice	Finance	32000
2	Bob	IT	41000
3	Claire	Finance	38000
4	David	HR	29000
5	Emma	IT	50000
6	Farid	IT	47000
7	Gaelle	HR	33000
8	Hugo	Finance	44000

Show the hint

Topics to use: ORDER BY, LIMIT.

Query structure:

SELECT …, …
FROM …
ORDER BY … ASC

Show the solution

SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary ASC;

Expected result (8 rows, in this order):

name	salary
David	29000
Alice	32000
Gaelle	33000
Claire	38000
Bob	41000
Hugo	44000
Farid	47000
Emma	50000

Exercise 2 · level 2

Show the name, department and salary of the employees, sorted by department (alphabetical order) and then, within each department, from the highest to the lowest salary.

Table `employees` (8 rows)
id	name	department	salary
1	Alice	Finance	32000
2	Bob	IT	41000
3	Claire	Finance	38000
4	David	HR	29000
5	Emma	IT	50000
6	Farid	IT	47000
7	Gaelle	HR	33000
8	Hugo	Finance	44000

Show the hint

Topics to use: ORDER BY, LIMIT.

Query structure:

SELECT …, …, …
FROM …
ORDER BY … ASC, … DESC

Show the solution

SELECT name, department, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY department ASC, salary DESC;

Expected result (8 rows, in this order):

name	department	salary
Hugo	Finance	44000
Claire	Finance	38000
Alice	Finance	32000
Gaelle	HR	33000
David	HR	29000
Emma	IT	50000
Farid	IT	47000
Bob	IT	41000

name

department

salary

Hugo

Finance

44000

Claire

Finance

38000

Alice

Finance

32000

Gaelle

33000

David

29000

Emma

50000

Farid

47000

Bob

41000

Exercise 3 · level 2

Show the name of the 3 cheapest products, from the cheapest to the most expensive.

Table `products` (6 rows)
id	name	category	price	stock
1	Keyboard	Office	25	40
2	Mouse	Office	15	0
3	Screen	Display	180	12
4	Headset	Audio	60	8
5	Webcam	Office	45	0
6	Speaker	Audio	35	25

Show the hint

Topics to use: ORDER BY, LIMIT.

Query structure:

SELECT …
FROM …
ORDER BY … ASC
LIMIT …

Show the solution

SELECT name
FROM products
ORDER BY price ASC
LIMIT 3;

Expected result (3 rows, in this order):

name
Mouse
Keyboard
Speaker

name

Mouse

Keyboard

Speaker

Exercise 4 · level 2

Show the name of the 2 highest-paid employees, highest salary first.

Table `employees` (8 rows)
id	name	department	salary
1	Alice	Finance	32000
2	Bob	IT	41000
3	Claire	Finance	38000
4	David	HR	29000
5	Emma	IT	50000
6	Farid	IT	47000
7	Gaelle	HR	33000
8	Hugo	Finance	44000

Show the hint

Topics to use: ORDER BY, LIMIT.

Query structure:

SELECT …
FROM …
ORDER BY … DESC
LIMIT …

Show the solution

SELECT name
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC
LIMIT 2;

Expected result (2 rows, in this order):

name
Emma
Farid

name

Emma

Farid

Exercise 5 · level 2

Show the name and number of goals of the 3 top scorers, from the most goals to the fewest.

Table `players` (9 rows)
id	name	team_id	position	goals
1	Alex Moreau	1	FW	9
2	Bilal Sow	1	MF	4
3	Carl Weber	2	FW	7
4	Diego Ruiz	2	DF	1
5	Eli Novak	3	FW	6
6	Femi Adeyemi	4	FW	11
7	Goran Petrov	4	GK	0
8	Hugo Lamy	5	MF	5
9	Ivan Kral	5	DF	2

Show the hint

Topics to use: ORDER BY, LIMIT.

Query structure:

SELECT …, …
FROM …
ORDER BY … DESC
LIMIT …

Show the solution

SELECT name, goals
FROM players
ORDER BY goals DESC
LIMIT 3;

Expected result (3 rows, in this order):

name	goals
Femi Adeyemi	11
Alex Moreau	9
Carl Weber	7

Exercise 6 · level 2

Show the city, day and maximum temperature of the 3 hottest readings, from the hottest down (on ties, by day then by city).

Table `readings` (15 rows)
id	city	day	temp_max	temp_min	rain_mm
1	Paris	2025-07-01	24	15	0
2	Paris	2025-07-02	27	17	0
3	Paris	2025-07-03	22	16	4.5
4	Paris	2025-07-04	19	14	12
5	Paris	2025-07-05	23	13	0
6	Lyon	2025-07-01	26	16	0
7	Lyon	2025-07-02	29	18	0
8	Lyon	2025-07-03	31	19	0
9	Lyon	2025-07-04	24	17	8.5
10	Lyon	2025-07-05	22	15	3
11	Marseille	2025-07-01	30	21	0
12	Marseille	2025-07-02	32	22	0
13	Marseille	2025-07-03	33	23	0
14	Marseille	2025-07-04	29	21	0
15	Marseille	2025-07-05	28	20	0

Show the hint

Topics to use: ORDER BY, LIMIT.

Query structure:

SELECT …, …, …
FROM …
ORDER BY … DESC, …, …
LIMIT …

Show the solution

SELECT city, day, temp_max
FROM readings
ORDER BY temp_max DESC, day, city
LIMIT 3;

Expected result (3 rows, in this order):

city	day	temp_max
Marseille	2025-07-03	33
Marseille	2025-07-02	32
Lyon	2025-07-03	31

Practice with automatic checking

In SpeedQL, you write your query and it is checked straight away, on these tables and then on a hidden dataset.

Practice on the 7 “ORDER BY, LIMIT” questions