Which SQL skills do data analyst jobs actually ask for?

Half of the postings (50%) name SQL. Most of them stop there or set a level: 42% ask for strong, advanced or proficient SQL and 8% for basic or working SQL. Specific techniques are named far less often: joins in 4%, window functions in 3% and CTEs in 2%.

A low share for a technique says how postings are written, not that the job does without it. A posting that asks for strong SQL rarely lists the parts.

Of the postings that mention SQL, 59% also name Python, 38% Tableau, 31% Power BI and 17% Snowflake.

• Learn SQL for analysis: aggregation, joins, window functions, CTEs, query optimization and data modeling. Those are the topics postings name when they name any.
• Skip database administration unless you want a DBA job. Backup, indexing, installation and replication each appear in under 1% of SQL postings.
• Aim past basic. 524 (42%) of SQL postings ask for strong, advanced or proficient SQL, against 99 (8%) for basic or working.
• Pair SQL with Python and one BI tool, the tools most often named next to it.

• Sample: analyst-titled postings with a job description in the US, India, UK and Canada, plus the junior analyst set from all countries, read from each role's page on realanalystjobs.com on 7 and 8 October 2026.
• Exclusions: postings from the reposting sites Jobgether and Weekday were removed, and duplicates were removed, leaving 2,464 postings.
• Counting: a posting mentions SQL when its description names it. Topics were counted within the 1,237 postings that mention SQL, by matching the description text. Joins count only as SQL joins, not phrases like join our team.

• A pattern count of what postings say. Topics a posting assumes without naming are not counted.
• One snapshot of one board in early October 2026, read from company career pages.
• Shares of the tools named alongside SQL are reported as shares only; the counts behind them are in the source analysis.