LIMIT & OFFSET SQL practice problemEasyVerified answer

Basic LIMIT (with ORDER BY)

Return the first 5 employees from the table.

  • CTEs
  • Sorting
  • Top-N

Interview brief

Understand the request

HR analyst A quick sample of the employee table is needed to validate the export format.

List the first 5 employees by employee_id ascending. Show employee_id, first_name, last_name, department_id.

Return

  • Return all columns.

Constraints

  • Use LIMIT 5.

Data you will use

Review the relevant tables before deciding how to join, filter, or aggregate them.

employees

  • employee_idINTEGER
  • first_nameTEXT
  • last_nameTEXT
  • department_idINTEGER

Hints, when you need them

Open one clue at a time so you still do the reasoning.

Hint 1

LIMIT N restricts the result to at most N rows, but it operates on rows already produced — without ORDER BY the engine may return any N rows.

Hint 2

Always pair LIMIT with an ORDER BY that defines what 'first' means (here, employee_id ascending).

Hint 3

SELECT employee_id, first_name, last_name, department_id FROM employees ORDER BY employee_id LIMIT 5;

Verified SQL answer

Attempt the problem first, then compare structure and reasoning—not just syntax.

Reveal solution and explanation
SELECT employee_id, first_name, last_name, department_id FROM employees ORDER BY employee_id LIMIT 5;

Why this works

The single most common LIMIT bug in production is using it without ORDER BY. Today's query may return employee_ids 1-5; tomorrow, after an index is added or the engine optimiser changes, it could return any 5 rows. Make ORDER BY a habit.

Expected result

Use this output to verify values, aliases, ordering, and row count.

employee_idfirst_namelast_namedepartment_id
1JohnDoe1
2JaneSmith2
3MikeJohnson1
4SarahWilliams3
5DavidBrown1

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