SQL: Structured Query Language: the standard language for reading and changing data in relational databases.
Example
SELECT name FROM students WHERE city = 'Pune'; lists all students from Pune.
Why SQL matters for IT interns
SQL is useful for developers, testers and analysts alike, and it appears in many internship interviews.
Where you will hear it
You will hear this term in data, analytics, and AI work, and increasingly in general software teams too. If someone uses it and you are not sure what they mean in your project, it is completely fine to ask; every team uses terms a little differently.
Related terms
- Model: In machine learning, the result of training on data — something that takes new input and produces a…
- NoSQL: Databases that don’t use traditional tables with fixed columns.
- Prediction: The output a model gives for new input — a value, a category or a probability.
- Prompt: The instruction or input you give a generative AI tool to get a response.
- Testing (in Data & AI): Checking how well a trained model performs on data it hasn’t seen before, to see whether it will work in the…
- Training: Teaching a machine learning model with example data so it learns the patterns in it.
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Related guides
Frequently asked questions
What is SQL?
Structured Query Language: the standard language for reading and changing data in relational databases.
What is an example of SQL?
SELECT name FROM students WHERE city = 'Pune'; lists all students from Pune.
Why does SQL matter for IT interns?
SQL is useful for developers, testers and analysts alike, and it appears in many internship interviews.
Explore more internship terms
The IT Internship Glossary explains 199 terms you will hear before and during your internship, with simple definitions and real examples.
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About the author
Dhaivat has 16+ years of experience in the IT industry, working on AI and cloud technologies, project delivery, and engineering leadership. He has interviewed and mentored many interns, wrote The Lost Intern, and runs the non-commercial Career Impact Initiative, mentoring students for free.