TL;DR We built a daily SQL challenge platform with ELO progression, streaks, and leaderboards. We’re giving lifetime free access to the first 100 beta users. Join, solve one challenge a day, and watch your rating climb!
Why we made this
If you’re paying attention, you probably see a handful of new articles every day claiming that “SQL is dead” or that AI is all you need to work with data. While we like to think we’re quite AI forward at South Shore, it won’t surprise anyone that we still believe SQL knowledge is still a very valuable thing to cultivate (check out our prior article on this topic). At the best organizations we’ve worked with, knowledge of data - and how to work with it - is not hoarded. It’s shared equitably.
With this in mind, we decided to build a platform for SQL practitioners to sharpen their skills through daily challenges, ELO-based progression, and competitive rankings. We’re calling it InnerJoin. For a limited time, the first 100 beta users get lifetime free access!
What it is
- Daily SQL challenges matched to your skill level
- ELO rating that moves with your recent performance (ELO ratings are used to calculate relative skills of players in games like chess, but we’ve applied the concepts to our platform)
- Streaks and points to keep you consistent
- Leaderboards for friendly competition, including team mode
How it works
- Sign up and take a quick tour.
- Get one challenge per day with a title, difficulty badge, and time estimate.
- Review sample tables and the exact output spec.
- Write your query and use the syntax checker to catch minor errors.
- Submit when ready. Note - correct beats fast … but both matter for your ELO!
- Track progress on your dashboard with rating, streak, points, calendar, and attempt history.
Who this helps
- Analysts who want daily reps without a big time commitment
- Engineers and PMs who want to stay sharp on fundamentals
- Students looking for a competitive outlet to practice their class learnings
- Teams that want a lightweight way to practice together
What’s next
There are a lot of directions we can eventually take this platform. The overarching goal is to empower as many people to be data literate as possible - and not just those in traditionally data heavy roles. What this may look like for our platform in the future is:
- 30 to 60 day training programs for SQL beginners
- Ability to work on more than one challenge per day
- Head-to-head challenges
- Expansion to other data skills (e.g. Python, data visualization, data modeling concepts, AI tool usage, etc.)
- Challenges with more relevance where outputs are educational (instead of working on completely fake data, learn something about world countries or NBA teams or NYC Citi bike usage)
In addition to these features that we’re planning to add to the platform, we also plan to use this platform as a way to illustrate how we help our clients use analytics to make better business decisions. We’ll eventually build a full data stack following South Shore Analytics’ Clarity process and will make as much of the set up publicly available as possible so you can get an inside look at how we build systems for our clients.
Join the beta
We’re opening 100 lifetime-free spots for early users. So far, 59 users have signed up! Join here: https://innerjoin.southshoreanalytics.com/landing
P.S. Try it this week and reply with any rough edges you hit. Early feedback will shape the next set of features fast!