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SQL • LESSON 144

DENSE_RANK

How can we rank employees contiguously without skipping numbers after ties?

Advanced3 Minutes1570 XP
🤔 THE QUESTION

How can we rank employees contiguously without skipping numbers after ties?

💡 WHAT IS IT?

DENSE_RANK() assigns identical ranks to ties and continues sequentially without gaps (e.g. 1, 2, 2, 3).

🎯 WHAT IS IT USED FOR?

Salary grade bands, top 3 unique compensation levels, leaderboard tiers.

💻 EXAMPLE
SELECT
name,
salary,
DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) AS salary_rank
FROM employees;

🎯 Mission Objectives

Practice typing production-grade SQL code for DENSE_RANK.

  • DENSE_RANK()
  • Contiguous ranking
  • No gap tie handling
  • Salary tiering