I agree. Using advanced SQL as a hiring signal would be silly in that it just discards a lot of programming candidates for little benefit. I'd be happy if they

I agree. Using advanced SQL as a hiring signal would be silly in that it just discards a lot of programming candidates for little benefit. I'd be happy if they knew what EXPLAIN was, since that impacts production on a daily basis. Also, the OP is basically "fighting the last battle" again. Most interviews don't filter out candidates based on SQL. Source: DBA.