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SQL Transaction Interview Questions

Transactions make several changes succeed or fail together. Interviewers ask about them to see whether you think about what happens if something fails halfway.

These questions run real BEGIN and COMMIT blocks on a private copy of the database.

Patterns to know

  • Grouping changes so they all succeed or none do
  • Moving stock or money between rows safely
  • Partial rollback with SAVEPOINT and ROLLBACK TO

Medium questions

  1. Medium Transfer in a Transaction The Atomic Stock Transfer Free
  2. Medium Two Changes in One Transaction Cancel the Order, Cleanly Premium
  3. Medium INSERT and UPDATE in One Transaction Enroll and Count, Together Premium

Hard question

  1. Hard SAVEPOINT and ROLLBACK TO The Reversible Experiment Premium

More SQL interview topics

SQL Window Function Interview QuestionsSQL JOIN Interview QuestionsSQL GROUP BY Interview QuestionsSQL Subquery Interview QuestionsSQL CTE Interview QuestionsSQL SELECT and Filtering Interview QuestionsSQL INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE Interview Questions