29+ SQL Project Ideas for Beginners 2026-27

If you are a student learning databases, working on practical projects is the fastest way to understand SQL. This article gives you 30 SQL project ideas for beginners with clear explanations, example schemas, sample queries, difficulty levels, and suggested extensions.

Each project is designed so you can open a database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite — any relational DBMS), create the tables, populate sample data, and run real SQL queries to solve meaningful problems.

Why projects matter:

• They turn abstract concepts (joins, aggregations, indexes, transactions) into concrete experience.
• They build your portfolio: a recruiter or teacher can see what you built.
• They give practice in designing schemas, thinking about data types, and optimizing queries.

Quick SQL tips before you start

• Use CREATE TABLE with proper data types (INT, VARCHAR, DATE, DECIMAL, etc.).
• Always add primary keys and appropriate foreign keys to enforce relationships.
• Start with small sample datasets (20–200 rows) before scaling up.
• Use SELECT, JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, HAVING, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE.
• Learn INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, and subqueries.
• Practice basic indexing and see its effect on SELECT performance for larger data.
• Keep your SQL readable by using indentation and comments.

Must Read: Science Project Ideas — 150 Easy, Practical & Ready-to-Use Projects for Students

30 SQL Project Ideas for Beginners 2026-27

1. Student Management System

Objective: Manage student profiles, classes, grades, and attendance.
Suggested tables: Students, Courses, Enrollments, Grades, Attendance.
Sample schema (short):

sqlCopy codeCREATE TABLE Students (student_id INT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(100), dob DATE, email VARCHAR(100));
CREATE TABLE Courses (course_id INT PRIMARY KEY, title VARCHAR(100), credits INT);
CREATE TABLE Enrollments (enroll_id INT PRIMARY KEY, student_id INT, course_id INT, enroll_date DATE,
  FOREIGN KEY (student_id) REFERENCES Students(student_id),
  FOREIGN KEY (course_id) REFERENCES Courses(course_id));

Sample queries: List students with average grade:

sqlCopy codeSELECT s.name, AVG(g.marks) AS avg_marks
FROM Students s
JOIN Grades g ON s.student_id = g.student_id
GROUP BY s.name;

Difficulty: Easy
Steps: Create schema → insert sample students/courses → write queries to fetch grades, attendance percentages.
Extensions: Add semester GPA calculations, ranking, grade curves, and a trigger to prevent duplicate enrollments.

2. Library Management System

Objective: Track books, members, loans, returns, and fines.
Suggested tables: Books, Members, Loans, Authors, BookAuthors.
Sample queries: Find overdue books and calculate fines:

sqlCopy codeSELECT l.loan_id, b.title, m.name, DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), l.due_date) AS days_overdue
FROM Loans l
JOIN Books b ON l.book_id = b.book_id
JOIN Members m ON l.member_id = m.member_id
WHERE l.return_date IS NULL AND l.due_date < CURDATE();

Difficulty: Easy–Medium
Extensions: Add reservation system, book categories, statistics like most-borrowed books.

3. Inventory & Stock Management

Objective: Manage products, stock levels, suppliers, and sales.
Suggested tables: Products, Suppliers, StockMovements (in/out), Sales.
Sample queries: Reorder suggestions for low stock:

sqlCopy codeSELECT product_id, name, quantity
FROM Products
WHERE quantity < reorder_level;

Difficulty: Easy–Medium
Extensions: Add cost tracking, profit margin queries, use views to show current stock.

4. Simple E-commerce Orders Database

Objective: Store users, products, orders, and order items for a basic online store.
Suggested tables: Users, Products, Orders, OrderItems, Payments.
Sample queries: Total sales per product:

sqlCopy codeSELECT p.product_id, p.name, SUM(oi.quantity) AS total_sold
FROM Products p
JOIN OrderItems oi ON p.product_id = oi.product_id
GROUP BY p.product_id, p.name
ORDER BY total_sold DESC;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Add promotions table, abandoned cart analysis, customer segmentation.

5. Movie Database (like IMDb lite)

Objective: Record movies, actors, directors, genres, and ratings.
Suggested tables: Movies, Actors, Directors, MovieActors, Ratings, Genres.
Sample queries: Top-rated movies by genre:

sqlCopy codeSELECT m.title, AVG(r.rating) AS avg_rating
FROM Movies m
JOIN Ratings r ON m.movie_id = r.movie_id
JOIN MovieGenres mg ON m.movie_id = mg.movie_id
JOIN Genres g ON mg.genre_id = g.genre_id
WHERE g.name = 'Drama'
GROUP BY m.movie_id
ORDER BY avg_rating DESC;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Add user reviews, watchlists, and search functionality using full text.

6. Hospital Patient Management

Objective: Track patients, doctors, appointments, treatments, and prescriptions.
Suggested tables: Patients, Doctors, Appointments, Prescriptions, Treatments.
Sample queries: Doctor schedule for a date:

sqlCopy codeSELECT a.appointment_id, p.name AS patient, a.start_time
FROM Appointments a
JOIN Patients p ON a.patient_id = p.patient_id
WHERE a.doctor_id = 5 AND a.appointment_date = '2025-05-12'
ORDER BY a.start_time;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Add billing, insurance claims, patient history queries.

7. Employee Payroll System

Objective: Store employee details, payroll records, tax deductions, and payslips.
Suggested tables: Employees, Payroll, Deductions, Departments.
Sample queries: Monthly payroll summary:

sqlCopy codeSELECT e.department, SUM(p.net_pay) AS total_pay
FROM Payroll p
JOIN Employees e ON p.employee_id = e.employee_id
WHERE p.pay_month = '2025-05'
GROUP BY e.department;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Add overtime calculations, payslip generation using formatted SQL output or views.

8. Restaurant Order & Menu Database

Objective: Manage menu items, orders, tables, and staff shifts.
Suggested tables: MenuItems, Orders, OrderDetails, Tables, Staff.
Sample queries: Best selling menu items:

sqlCopy codeSELECT mi.name, SUM(od.quantity) AS sold
FROM MenuItems mi
JOIN OrderDetails od ON mi.menu_item_id = od.menu_item_id
GROUP BY mi.name
ORDER BY sold DESC;

Difficulty: Easy–Medium
Extensions: Add table reservations, kitchen order view, daily sales reports.

9. To-Do / Task Manager Database

Objective: Track tasks, users, priorities, deadlines, and status.
Suggested tables: Users, Tasks, Tags, TaskTags.
Sample queries: Tasks due this week grouped by user:

sqlCopy codeSELECT u.name, t.title, t.due_date
FROM Tasks t
JOIN Users u ON t.user_id = u.user_id
WHERE t.due_date BETWEEN CURDATE() AND DATE_ADD(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 7 DAY)
ORDER BY t.due_date;

Difficulty: Easy
Extensions: Add recurring tasks, task dependencies, and notifications.

10. Quiz/Test Management System

Objective: Create quizzes with questions, options, student answers, and scoring.
Suggested tables: Quizzes, Questions, Options, StudentAnswers, Results.
Sample queries: Calculate student score for a quiz:

sqlCopy codeSELECT sa.student_id, SUM(CASE WHEN sa.selected_option_id = o.correct_option_id THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS score
FROM StudentAnswers sa
JOIN Options o ON sa.question_id = o.question_id
WHERE sa.quiz_id = 2
GROUP BY sa.student_id;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Add timed quizzes, question banks, and analytics for most missed questions.

11. Personal Finance Tracker

Objective: Record income, expenses, categories, and generate monthly summaries.
Suggested tables: Transactions, Categories, Accounts.
Sample queries: Monthly expense by category:

sqlCopy codeSELECT c.name, SUM(t.amount) AS total_spent
FROM Transactions t
JOIN Categories c ON t.category_id = c.category_id
WHERE t.type = 'expense' AND MONTH(t.date) = 5 AND YEAR(t.date) = 2025
GROUP BY c.name;

Difficulty: Easy
Extensions: Budget alerts, recurring transactions, projection queries.

12. Fitness & Gym Tracker

Objective: Track members, workouts, trainer sessions, equipment usage.
Suggested tables: Members, Workouts, Sessions, Trainers.
Sample queries: Member workout history:

sqlCopy codeSELECT m.name, s.session_date, w.type, w.duration
FROM Sessions s
JOIN Members m ON s.member_id = m.member_id
JOIN Workouts w ON s.workout_id = w.workout_id
WHERE m.member_id = 10 ORDER BY s.session_date DESC;

Difficulty: Easy–Medium
Extensions: Add membership renewal alerts and performance progress charts (data for visualization).

13. Blogging Platform Database

Objective: Manage users, posts, comments, tags, and likes.
Suggested tables: Users, Posts, Comments, Tags, PostTags, Likes.
Sample queries: Most commented posts:

sqlCopy codeSELECT p.title, COUNT(c.comment_id) AS comment_count
FROM Posts p
LEFT JOIN Comments c ON p.post_id = c.post_id
GROUP BY p.post_id
ORDER BY comment_count DESC;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Full-text search, content moderation flags, user roles (admin, editor, author).

14. Event Management System

Objective: Manage events, attendees, tickets, venues.
Suggested tables: Events, Venues, Tickets, Attendees.
Sample queries: Available tickets for an event:

sqlCopy codeSELECT e.event_name, e.total_tickets - COUNT(t.ticket_id) AS tickets_left
FROM Events e
LEFT JOIN Tickets t ON e.event_id = t.event_id
WHERE e.event_id = 3
GROUP BY e.event_id;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Dynamic pricing, waitlists, event feedback analysis.

15. Car Rental Booking System

Objective: Store cars, customers, bookings, fleet status.
Suggested tables: Cars, Customers, Bookings, Maintenance.
Sample queries: Cars available for a date range:

sqlCopy codeSELECT c.car_id, c.model
FROM Cars c
WHERE c.car_id NOT IN (
  SELECT b.car_id FROM Bookings b
  WHERE NOT (b.end_date < '2025-06-01' OR b.start_date > '2025-06-10')
);

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Pricing by season, maintenance scheduling, branch-wise inventory.

16. Airline Booking System (Simplified)

Objective: Manage flights, passengers, bookings, seat assignments.
Suggested tables: Flights, Passengers, Bookings, Seats.
Sample queries: Available seats for a flight:

sqlCopy codeSELECT s.seat_no FROM Seats s
LEFT JOIN Bookings b ON s.seat_no = b.seat_no AND b.flight_id = 10
WHERE s.flight_id = 10 AND b.booking_id IS NULL;

Difficulty: Medium–Hard (for seat allocation logic)
Extensions: Pricing tiers, overbooking simulation, flight schedules.

17. Music Library & Playlist Manager

Objective: Store songs, artists, albums, playlists, and user favorites.
Suggested tables: Songs, Artists, Albums, Playlists, PlaylistSongs.
Sample queries: Create user playlist popular songs:

sqlCopy codeSELECT s.song_id, s.title, COUNT(p.song_id) AS popularity
FROM Songs s
JOIN PlaylistSongs p ON s.song_id = p.song_id
GROUP BY s.song_id
ORDER BY popularity DESC LIMIT 20;

Difficulty: Easy–Medium
Extensions: Add song play counts and recommendation queries using collaborative counts.

18. Forum / Q&A Database

Objective: Support questions, answers, comments, votes, and tags.
Suggested tables: Users, Questions, Answers, Votes, Tags, QuestionTags.
Sample queries: Highest voted answers for a question:

sqlCopy codeSELECT a.answer_id, a.content, SUM(v.vote) AS total_votes
FROM Answers a
LEFT JOIN Votes v ON a.answer_id = v.answer_id
WHERE a.question_id = 12
GROUP BY a.answer_id
ORDER BY total_votes DESC;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Reputation system, accepted answer flags, search and subscriptions.

19. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Lite

Objective: Track leads, customers, interactions, sales opportunities.
Suggested tables: Leads, Customers, Interactions, Opportunities.
Sample queries: Leads by source:

sqlCopy codeSELECT source, COUNT(*) AS lead_count FROM Leads GROUP BY source;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Sales funnel queries, conversion rates, lead scoring.

20. Ticketing Support System

Objective: Manage support tickets, priorities, agents, and statuses.
Suggested tables: Tickets, Agents, TicketUpdates, Customers.
Sample queries: Average resolution time:

sqlCopy codeSELECT AVG(DATEDIFF(resolved_date, created_date)) AS avg_resolution_days
FROM Tickets WHERE status = 'resolved';

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: SLA monitoring, escalations, agent performance reports.

21. School Timetable Generator (Data Side)

Objective: Store teachers, classrooms, subjects, and scheduled slots.
Suggested tables: Teachers, Classrooms, Subjects, TimetableSlots.
Sample queries: Teacher timetable:

sqlCopy codeSELECT t.name, ts.day, ts.start_time, ts.end_time, s.subject_name
FROM TimetableSlots ts
JOIN Teachers t ON ts.teacher_id = t.teacher_id
JOIN Subjects s ON ts.subject_id = s.subject_id
WHERE t.teacher_id = 3 ORDER BY ts.day, ts.start_time;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Conflict detection queries (same teacher or room double-booked).

22. Real Estate Listings Database

Objective: Manage property listings, agents, locations, and viewings.
Suggested tables: Properties, Agents, Locations, Viewings.
Sample queries: Properties within budget and city:

sqlCopy codeSELECT * FROM Properties WHERE city = 'Kurukshetra' AND price <= 5000000;

Difficulty: Easy–Medium
Extensions: Add geolocation coordinates and range queries using bounding boxes.

23. Voting / Polling System

Objective: Allow users to create polls, vote, and see results.
Suggested tables: Polls, Options, Votes, Users.
Sample queries: Poll result percentages:

sqlCopy codeSELECT o.option_text, COUNT(v.vote_id) AS votes,
  (COUNT(v.vote_id) * 100.0 / (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Votes WHERE poll_id = 2)) AS percent
FROM Options o
LEFT JOIN Votes v ON o.option_id = v.option_id
WHERE o.poll_id = 2
GROUP BY o.option_id;

Difficulty: Easy
Extensions: One-person-one-vote enforcement, anonymous or authenticated voting.

24. Recipe & Cooking Database

Objective: Store recipes, ingredients, steps, cuisine types, and user ratings.
Suggested tables: Recipes, Ingredients, RecipeIngredients, Ratings.
Sample queries: Find recipes using a given ingredient:

sqlCopy codeSELECT r.title FROM Recipes r
JOIN RecipeIngredients ri ON r.recipe_id = ri.recipe_id
JOIN Ingredients i ON ri.ingredient_id = i.ingredient_id
WHERE i.name = 'chicken';

Difficulty: Easy
Extensions: Ingredient substitution suggestions or shopping list generation.

25. Weather Data Collector (Historical)

Objective: Record daily weather readings and enable analysis.
Suggested tables: Locations, WeatherReadings (date, temp, humidity, wind).
Sample queries: Average monthly temperature:

sqlCopy codeSELECT MONTH(date) AS month, AVG(temp_c) AS avg_temp FROM WeatherReadings
WHERE location_id = 1 AND YEAR(date) = 2025
GROUP BY MONTH(date);

Difficulty: Easy–Medium
Extensions: Moving averages, anomaly detection using SQL window functions.

26. Online Course Platform (Catalog)

Objective: Manage courses, instructors, enrollments, course progress.
Suggested tables: Courses, Instructors, Students, Enrollments, Progress.
Sample queries: Course completion rates:

sqlCopy codeSELECT c.title, SUM(CASE WHEN p.completed = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)*100.0/COUNT(p.student_id) AS completion_percent
FROM Courses c
JOIN Progress p ON c.course_id = p.course_id
GROUP BY c.course_id;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Certificate generation and trait analysis of high-performing students.

27. Parking Management System

Objective: Track parking spots, vehicles, bookings, and charges.
Suggested tables: Spots, Vehicles, ParkingSessions, Rates.
Sample queries: Current occupied spots:

sqlCopy codeSELECT COUNT(*) FROM ParkingSessions WHERE end_time IS NULL;

Difficulty: Easy
Extensions: Dynamic pricing by demand, history queries for analytics.

28. Expense Reimbursement System

Objective: Employees submit expenses, managers approve, and payments are tracked.
Suggested tables: Employees, Expenses, Approvals, Payments.
Sample queries: Pending approvals for manager:

sqlCopy codeSELECT e.employee_name, ex.amount, ex.submitted_date
FROM Expenses ex JOIN Employees e ON ex.employee_id = e.employee_id
WHERE ex.status = 'Pending' AND e.manager_id = 5;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Attach receipts as file references, automation of reminders.

29. Library Analytics Dashboard (Read-Only)

Objective: Use queries and views to produce analytics: borrow trends, popular authors, peak hours.
Suggested tables: reuse Loans, Books, Members.
Sample queries: Most active members:

sqlCopy codeSELECT m.member_id, m.name, COUNT(l.loan_id) AS loans_count
FROM Members m
JOIN Loans l ON m.member_id = l.member_id
GROUP BY m.member_id
ORDER BY loans_count DESC LIMIT 10;

Difficulty: Medium
Extensions: Create materialized views or summary tables for faster dashboard performance.

30. Simple Banking Ledger

Objective: Track accounts, transactions, balances, transfers, and statements.
Suggested tables: Accounts, Transactions (debit/credit), Customers.
Sample queries: Account balance (computed):

sqlCopy codeSELECT a.account_id, SUM(CASE WHEN t.type='credit' THEN t.amount ELSE -t.amount END) AS balance
FROM Accounts a
LEFT JOIN Transactions t ON a.account_id = t.account_id
WHERE a.account_id = 101
GROUP BY a.account_id;

Difficulty: Medium–Hard (careful with concurrency)
Extensions: Add transaction rollback simulations, use transactions (BEGIN, COMMIT, ROLLBACK) to ensure consistency.

Must Read: 99+ Lab Project Ideas for BSc Students 2025-26

Implementation Plan & Learning Path (for students)

If you’re wondering where to begin, follow this path:

1. Start with a small project (To-Do Manager, Personal Finance, or Student Management). Implement core tables and CRUD (Create/Read/Update/Delete) operations.
2. Practice JOINs and aggregation by building reports (e.g., monthly totals, average marks).
3. Add constraints and keys to understand relational integrity.
4. Move to a medium project (Library, Inventory, E-commerce) and implement more complex joins and subqueries.
5. Learn transactions and concurrency with the banking or booking projects.
6. Optimize and index tables and compare query performance with and without indexes using larger datasets.
7. Document each project: schema diagram, sample queries, screenshots of results. Put them into your GitHub or portfolio.

Common SQL Concepts to Practice with These Projects

• Data modeling: Normalization (1NF, 2NF, 3NF), foreign keys.
• Joins: INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL (if supported).
• Aggregations: SUM, AVG, COUNT, MIN, MAX, GROUP BY, HAVING.
• Subqueries and CTEs: Use nested queries and WITH clauses.
• Window functions: ROW_NUMBER(), RANK(), OVER().
• Indexes and performance: Create indexes and measure query time.
• Transactions: BEGIN, COMMIT, ROLLBACK for consistency.
• Views and materialized views: Useful for reports.
• Stored procedures & triggers: Automate checks or history logging.

How to Present Your Projects (for assignments and interviews)

• Schema diagram: Show entities and relationships (use draw.io or an ERD tool).
• Readme: Explain the project goal, tables, and how to run setup scripts.
• Sample data: Provide INSERT scripts with realistic sample rows.
• Key queries: List the most important SQL queries and their outputs.
• Screenshots: Show query results or a simple UI if you created one.
• Extensions: Describe further improvements you could make.

Conclusion

These 30 SQL project ideas for beginners are crafted for students who want practical, hands-on experience with relational databases. Start with a simple project to build foundational skills, then gradually take on more complex problems that require joins, aggregation, transactions, and optimization.

Each project in this list is designed so you can implement it step-by-step: design schema, insert sample data, run queries, and extend functionality.

Pick a project that interests you, finish it completely, and add it to your portfolio.

Employers and teachers value real projects more than theoretical knowledge — a working SQL project shows you can design data models, write efficient queries, and produce meaningful reports. Good luck, and enjoy building!