The One Place You Can’t Learn SQL? A University

Despite being a job requirement for data engineering, data analyst and data science roles, institutions don’t teach SQL at the level of programming languages like Python, C++ and Java.

Across industries SQL knowledge is imperative for any business or tech professional who interacts with data on a daily basis — but don’t expect to learn it in school.

Note: Although I’m skeptical of the degree to which SQL is taught in schools, it’s worth saying here that a lot of learning gaps I’ve encountered stem from both personal experience and data self-reported by computer science and data science students. My intent is not to disparage the data science curriculum of universities, but simply to wonder why isn’t SQL taught in an institutionalized way in the manner that languages like Python are?

SQL: A Critical Job Requirement

Although SQL is nearly 50 years old, the language is as relevant as ever as data engineers, data analysts and even data scientists leverage SQL to preprocess and analyze data. As of 2021 there were between 100–200,000 unique job postings per month that mentioned candidates must have knowledge of and proficiency in SQL. In 2021, according to a dataquest analysis, nearly 43% of all data-related jobs listed SQL as a requirement. This figure increases to nearly 60% when searching for data related to data analyst positions. Even for data engineering, approximately 55% of job postings mentioned SQL. A 2020 StackOverflow developer survey discovered that SQL usage ranked above that of other programmatic languages; in 2020 SQL was even more widely used than the lingua franca of data, Python. In fact, SQL is the third most-used language across the entire tech industry.

As a data engineer I use SQL every day, even if it’s just running simple queries for quality assurance after building a pipeline. SQL knowledge isn’t just essential from a developer’s perspective; it’s essential in communicating with your organization’s data and deriving insights from day one.

SQL 100?

Although my job demands intermediate to advanced knowledge of SQL, I never learned the query language during my data science graduate program. While I learned Python, R and a range of business intelligence tools, the only exposure I had to SQL was SQL lite as a portion of an assignment. With the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicting that data-related jobs will continue to grow by 30 percent within the next four years, the number of schools creating data science programs continues to rise. While, 10 years ago, data science was still a buzzword, today it is a full-fledged discipline with hundreds of schools offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. In fact, before I graduated in 2021, my school was creating an undergraduate program for data science since the demand from incoming and graduating students was so apparent. Missing in any of this planned curricula? Any mention of SQL.

It’s unfair to allege that schools simply don’t teach SQL. The fact is that SQL is often discussed and sometimes taught in the context of database courses. Stanford has famously made its database courses available online for public consumption. Other large schools teach similar courses that delve into database construction and the basics of querying. However, I have yet to see or read a course catalogue that promotes a comprehensive SQL course.

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Python’s Stranglehold on Computer Science and Data Science Education

Python is the most in-demand programming language for graduating data scientists (note: I’m referring to purely programmatic languages, not querying languages like SQL or comparable dialects). In 2014, at the beginning of the data science craze, Python dominated classrooms as the number one programming language taught in computer science programs. Today, Python retains that crown and title as the most popular programming language for data science. With its impressive suite of mathematical, statistical, analytical, visualization and machine learning libraries, Python is a one-stop-shop for data professionals. It makes sense, intuitively, that a student learning data science would eschew SQL in favor of Pandas’ query methods, for instance. Perhaps the issue is also that computer scientists and developers tend to look down on SQL since it is too accessible to many business professionals who wouldn’t otherwise be considered programmers. But this is just a hunch.

However, I believe the real reason is that there is already an existing and accessible catalogue of quality, affordable SQL courses.

University of the Internet

With more universities offering hybrid and 100% remote programs, online education has exploded in the past decade. The 2020 pandemic only served to accelerate this rapid growth. Platforms like Udemy, Coursera and Edx offer courses and programs endorsed by accredited universities like Harvard for free or for a fraction of a university credit. While students might learn Python in a computer science lecture hall, they’re learning SQL in their dorms, in their homes or during their first internships and jobs. The fact is that learning basic SQL is incredibly easy and can be accomplished in a few days. A relative of mine who worked in television production mentioned that he learned SQL for a job that didn’t require it to access video files. His source? A book: SQL for Dummies.

Maybe the reason that SQL isn’t widely taught is that universities figure that students who are motivated and adept enough to pass computer science and data science courses can simply pick up a querying language on their own. Perhaps they feel that university courses would simply reiterate what thousands of independent online instructors have already noted. Whatever the reason, there is a growing disconnect between employer expectations and a university’s ability to equip data students with fundamental database skills. Sure they could close the gap, or they could just send them a link to free SQL resources and, like many programs, say good luck.

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