What are some strategies you have come up with to figure out what you need in a query?

Question

From what I'm gathering questions are set up much like word problems in mathematics. The key to solving word problems, as we know, is looking for keyword clues within the text (such as the word 'difference' means to subtract).

What words do you look for to know when it's appropriate to use a (left, right, inner, full, self, cross) join or a (correlated, nested) subquery?

What is the fastest method in figuring out what the inner query(ies) need to be?

Answer 1

What I like to do is read the questions word for word and then make a visual representation of the problem (drawing). It might not help you as much, but for me, drawing will help me understand exactly whats needed, and I would see it more clearly. To figure out a query, I logic is your greatest ally, and you should divide the problem into smaller queries before making the final sollution.