Udacity - Intro to Relational Databases Review

Intro to Relational Databases is a short 4 lesson course offered by Udacity that covers the basics of SQL databases. Lessons 1 and 2 cover basic SQL querying, including grouping, ordering and inner joins, lesson 3 addresses inserts and concerns when using a database backend for a webapp and lesson 4 covers database design principles and a few more advanced features like outer joins and subqueries. I won't get into the final project as Udacity's projects tend to be geared toward students with subscriptions.


Each lesson consist of several short videos with quizzes that involve multiple choice questions and coding exercises that revolve around altering and submitting SQL queries. The instructor is easy to understand and explains things well. The content is polished and I didn't notice any bugs, which is rare for a brand new course. On the other hand, the course is a bit too short and doesn't give beginners enough practice with newly introduced syntax before moving on. It would be helpful to give students a few short drills writing queries related to each newly introduced keyword from scratch. Also, to follow along with lesson 3, you have to download, install and interact with a virtual machine. The time necessary to download, install and figure out how to use the VM is probably more than is warranted with such a short course, although the VM may be used for other Udacity courses.


Intro to relational databases is a succinct overview of SQL basics that serves as a nice refresher for someone who has seen SQL before, but making it a little longer and providing more simple drills would probably be helpful for beginners.

I give Intro to relational databases 3.5 out of  5 stars: Good.