SQL interview question: Fibonacci With a Recursive CTE
Generate Fibonacci Sequence with SQL
Can you generate the Fibonacci sequence using only SQL? This is a fun brain teaser that tests recursive CTE mastery.
Generate the first 15 Fibonacci numbers using WITH RECURSIVE.
Return position (1-15) and fib_number. The sequence starts: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...
Skills: recursive CTEs for computation (no tables needed)
Tables
departments 5 rows
- id integer PK
- name text
- location text
| id | name | location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engineering | San Francisco |
| 2 | Sales | New York |
| 3 | Marketing | Los Angeles |
employees 37 rows
- id integer PK
- first_name text
- last_name text
- email text
- department_id integer → departments
- salary integer
- hire_date text
- manager_id integer → employees
- title text
| id | first_name | last_name | department_id | salary | hire_date | manager_id | title | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alice | Chen | [email protected] | 1 | 250000 | 2015-01-15 | NULL | CEO |
| 2 | Robert | Martinez | [email protected] | 2 | 180000 | 2016-03-20 | NULL | CEO |
| 3 | Sarah | Johnson | [email protected] | 1 | 150000 | 2017-06-10 | 1 | VP Engineering |