SQL data engineering interview problem. Difficulty: intermediate. Pattern: Subqueries. About 12 minutes. Part of the Pro drill bank.
Return one column second_highest_salary: the second highest distinct salary in employees. If multiple employees share the highest salary, still take the next lower distinct value.
Input: employees name | salary Alice Chen | 120000 Dan Park | 110000 Omar Ali | 105000 Bob Kumar | 95000 Eve Ng | 95000 Output: second_highest_salary | 110000 | Why this passes: Distinct ordered salaries: 120000, 110000, 105000, 95000. Second is 110000.
Topics: lakebench, sql, nth, salary.
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Interview-style drill: Find the second highest distinct salary.
Return one column `second_highest_salary`: the second highest distinct salary in `employees`. If multiple employees share the highest salary, still take the next lower distinct value.