Best free SQL courses on YouTube, ranked by total hours

You can learn enough SQL to be useful in a weekend, and the free courses on YouTube range from exactly that to a full university course on how databases work inside. The short ones below take under two hours. The long ones are 25-hour references, interview problem sets and lecture series, which is a different commitment, not a better course.

The totals are live, counted from each playlist, so you can see which kind you're signing up for before you start. Most of these teach MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQL Server; the queries you learn carry over between them with small changes.

#	Course	Videos	Total	At 1.5×
1	CMU Intro to Database Systems (15-445/645 - Fall 2025) · Intro to Database Systems (Fall 2025) — CMU Database Group Carnegie Mellon's 15-445/645, filmed in full: storage, indexes, query execution and optimisation, transactions, recovery and distributed databases, with guest talks from database companies. Not a SQL course; the one to take once SQL feels easy.	25	1d 9h 43m	22h 29m
2	Complex SQL Questions for Interview Preparation · Complex SQL Questions for Interview Preparation — Ankit Bansal Interview problems from real companies, one per video, solved step by step. Still growing, and one entry is a three-hour last-minute revision. For after a beginner course, not instead of one.	96	1d 3h 44m	18h 29m
3	SQL Server tutorial for beginners · SQL Server tutorial for beginners — kudvenkat Venkat's classic SQL Server series: tables and constraints, joins, functions, stored procedures, triggers, transactions and isolation levels, then dynamic SQL. Mostly recorded 2012 to 2015, and T-SQL has barely changed since.	150	1d 3h 4m	18h 3m
4	Data Analyst Bootcamp · Data Analyst Bootcamp — Alex The Analyst Videos 3 to 20 are his whole MySQL series, beginner to advanced, plus two SQL projects: about four hours. The rest is Excel, Tableau, Power BI and Python, so the total is the whole analyst path.	84	23h 38m	15h 45m
5	CS50's Introduction to Databases with SQL · CS50's Introduction to Databases with SQL — Harvard Carter Zenke's seven lectures, from querying SQLite to designing, optimising and scaling a database. The problem sets are free on the CS50 site.	8	11h 8m	7h 25m
6	SQL for Data Analytics - Full Beginner and Intermediate Course · SQL for Data Analytics — Luke Barousse Two long videos: a four-hour beginner course, then a six-hour intermediate course with a project, both aimed at analyst jobs.	4	10h 45m	7h 10m
7	30DaySQLQueryChallenge · 30-Day SQL Query Challenge — techTFQ One interview problem a day for a month, each marked easy, medium or hard and explained in full. About 16 minutes a day.	30	7h 59m	5h 20m
8	SQL Course \| For Beginners · SQL Course for Beginners — Data with Baraa Baraa's original MySQL course: 37 short, very visual lessons, from how databases store data to joins, subqueries and creating tables. His newer 30-hour course is explained below the list.	37	4h 14m	2h 49m
9	SQL Tutorial In Hindi · SQL Tutorial in Hindi — Rishabh Mishra A compact Hindi course on PostgreSQL: the basics, joins, window functions and CTEs, then a music-store analysis project and interview questions.	21	4h 11m	2h 47m
10	Introduction to SQL (Computer Science) · Introduction to SQL — Socratica Thirteen tight, eight-minute lessons on PostgreSQL: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, joins, views and indexes. The shortest complete start here.	13	1h 49m	1h 13m

Course

Videos

Total

At 1.5×

CMU Intro to Database Systems (15-445/645 - Fall 2025) · Intro to Database Systems (Fall 2025) — CMU Database Group
Carnegie Mellon's 15-445/645, filmed in full: storage, indexes, query execution and optimisation, transactions, recovery and distributed databases, with guest talks from database companies. Not a SQL course; the one to take once SQL feels easy.

1d 9h 43m

22h 29m

Complex SQL Questions for Interview Preparation · Complex SQL Questions for Interview Preparation — Ankit Bansal
Interview problems from real companies, one per video, solved step by step. Still growing, and one entry is a three-hour last-minute revision. For after a beginner course, not instead of one.

1d 3h 44m

18h 29m

SQL Server tutorial for beginners · SQL Server tutorial for beginners — kudvenkat
Venkat's classic SQL Server series: tables and constraints, joins, functions, stored procedures, triggers, transactions and isolation levels, then dynamic SQL. Mostly recorded 2012 to 2015, and T-SQL has barely changed since.

150

1d 3h 4m

18h 3m

Data Analyst Bootcamp · Data Analyst Bootcamp — Alex The Analyst
Videos 3 to 20 are his whole MySQL series, beginner to advanced, plus two SQL projects: about four hours. The rest is Excel, Tableau, Power BI and Python, so the total is the whole analyst path.

23h 38m

15h 45m

CS50's Introduction to Databases with SQL · CS50's Introduction to Databases with SQL — Harvard
Carter Zenke's seven lectures, from querying SQLite to designing, optimising and scaling a database. The problem sets are free on the CS50 site.

11h 8m

7h 25m

SQL for Data Analytics - Full Beginner and Intermediate Course · SQL for Data Analytics — Luke Barousse
Two long videos: a four-hour beginner course, then a six-hour intermediate course with a project, both aimed at analyst jobs.

10h 45m

7h 10m

30DaySQLQueryChallenge · 30-Day SQL Query Challenge — techTFQ
One interview problem a day for a month, each marked easy, medium or hard and explained in full. About 16 minutes a day.

7h 59m

5h 20m

SQL Course | For Beginners · SQL Course for Beginners — Data with Baraa
Baraa's original MySQL course: 37 short, very visual lessons, from how databases store data to joins, subqueries and creating tables. His newer 30-hour course is explained below the list.

4h 14m

2h 49m

SQL Tutorial In Hindi · SQL Tutorial in Hindi — Rishabh Mishra
A compact Hindi course on PostgreSQL: the basics, joins, window functions and CTEs, then a music-store analysis project and interview questions.

4h 11m

2h 47m

Introduction to SQL (Computer Science) · Introduction to SQL — Socratica
Thirteen tight, eight-minute lessons on PostgreSQL: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, joins, views and indexes. The shortest complete start here.

1h 49m

1h 13m

Totals count available videos only and update as the playlists change. Private or deleted videos are excluded. Compare the top 5 side by side →

How to choose

Never written a query? Socratica for a two-hour start, or Baraa's beginner course. CS50 SQL if you want lectures with homework.
Heading for a data analyst job? Alex The Analyst's bootcamp or Luke Barousse, then techTFQ's 30-day challenge to get quick at it.
Interviews coming up? Ankit Bansal's problems, a few a day, after you've done a beginner course.
Using SQL Server at work? kudvenkat. It's the dialect he teaches.
Learning in Hindi? Rishabh Mishra.
SQL feels easy now? CMU's database course explains why your queries are fast or slow.

A playlist that counts its course twice

Data with Baraa's newer SQL Ultimate Course isn't in the ranking, because its playlist total would mislead you. Video 1 is the whole course as a single 30-hour upload, and videos 2 to 56 are the same material again, cut into chapters and projects. The playlist adds up to about 60 hours; from video 2 onwards it's about 30, which is the real course. Watch one version or the other.

A playlist total only means something once you know what's in the list. That's why every playlist page here lets you set a range and count just the part you'll watch.