Chapter 47: PostgreSQL Study Plan

PostgreSQL Study Plan that actually works in 2025–2026.

Not the official documentation table of contents. Not a 7-day crash course that forgets everything in 3 weeks. This is the plan I would personally give to:

• a final-year B.Tech student aiming for good placements
• a fresher/backend developer wanting to become strong in databases
• someone switching from MySQL/MongoDB to PostgreSQL
• a person preparing for interviews at product companies / startups / service companies

Time investment: 3–6 months (realistic pace) Daily commitment: 60–120 minutes Success criteria: you can confidently write medium–hard production queries, read EXPLAIN plans, fix slow queries, and answer 80–90% of PostgreSQL interview questions.

PostgreSQL Study Plan 2026 – Realistic Roadmap (3–6 months)

Phase 0 – Setup & First Touch (Days 1–4)

Goal: Remove all friction — be able to write & run queries comfortably

1. Choose & install one environment (pick one — don’t experiment yet)
   • Recommended 2026: Docker + official postgres image (easiest to reset)
     Bash

     PHP

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     docker run -d --name pg-local \   -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword \   -p 5432:5432 \   -v pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data \   postgres:17

   • Alternative: Neon.tech free tier (serverless, zero install, browser + psql)
   • Last resort: Windows → EDB installer, macOS → Postgres.app / Homebrew
2. Install one GUI (optional but strongly recommended)
   • DBeaver (free, cross-platform, excellent) ← my personal favorite 2026
   • pgAdmin 4 (if you already have it)
   • TablePlus / DataGrip (paid but very nice)
3. Learn psql basics (spend 1–2 hours here — very important)
   • Connect: psql -h localhost -U postgres
   • Meta-commands: \l\dt\d table\dn\du\?\h SELECT
   • Exit: \q
4. Create first playground database
   SQL

   PHP

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   CREATE DATABASE learn_pg; \c learn_pg

Mini-goal by day 4: You can connect, create database, create simple table, insert 5 rows, run SELECT *, feel comfortable typing in psql or GUI.

Phase 1 – Core SQL & CRUD Mastery (Weeks 1–4)

Goal: Write any basic CRUD query without hesitation

Topics & order (do in this sequence)

Week 1

• Data types deep-dive (what to use when)
  • SERIAL vs IDENTITY
  • TEXT vs VARCHAR
  • NUMERIC vs DOUBLE
  • TIMESTAMPTZ everywhere
  • JSONB basics
• CREATE TABLE (constraints, defaults, generated columns)
• INSERT (single, multi-row, RETURNING)
• SELECT + WHERE + ORDER BY + LIMIT / FETCH / OFFSET

Week 2

• UPDATE (with FROM, with CASE, with subquery)
• DELETE (with USING, with subquery)
• TRUNCATE vs DELETE
• ALTER TABLE (ADD/DROP/ALTER COLUMN, RENAME)

Week 3–4

• String functions: ||, CONCAT, SUBSTRING, POSITION, TRIM, regexp_replace
• Date/time mastery: date_trunc, extract, age, interval arithmetic, generate_series
• CASE (simple + searched) in SELECT, ORDER BY, UPDATE
• COALESCE, NULLIF, GREATEST/LEAST

Practice sources (do all of these in order):

1. pgexercises.com → Basics section (free, excellent)
2. w3resource PostgreSQL exercises → first 40–50 questions
3. HackerRank SQL – easy + medium (first 30–40 problems)
4. Create your own mini-project: college / bookstore / hospital schema → write 50–70 CRUD queries

Success checkpoint: You can create a 5-table schema, insert realistic data, write 30 different SELECT/UPDATE queries without looking at notes.

Phase 2 – Joins & Set Operations (Weeks 5–8)

Goal: Master combining tables — the heart of relational databases

Week 5–6

• All JOIN types (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL, CROSS)
• JOIN USING vs JOIN ON
• Multiple JOINs (3–5 tables)
• Self-join (compare rows within same table)
• Anti-join patterns (LEFT JOIN … IS NULL vs NOT EXISTS)

Week 7–8

• UNION / UNION ALL (when to use which)
• INTERSECT / EXCEPT
• JOIN + GROUP BY + HAVING patterns

Practice sources:

1. pgexercises.com → Joins section (do every exercise)
2. LeetCode Database – easy + medium (first 40–50 problems)
3. Mode Analytics SQL Tutorial – Joins & Aggregates modules
4. Write 30–40 join-heavy queries on DVD Rental / Pagila sample database

Success checkpoint: You can solve any medium LeetCode JOIN problem in <15 minutes.

Phase 3 – Grouping, Aggregates & Window Functions (Weeks 9–14)

Goal: Become strong in reporting & analytics queries

Week 9–10

• GROUP BY multiple columns
• All aggregates + STRING_AGG, ARRAY_AGG
• HAVING vs WHERE
• GROUP BY + JOIN + CASE patterns

Week 11–12

• Window functions basics
  • ROW_NUMBER / RANK / DENSE_RANK / NTILE
  • LAG / LEAD / FIRST_VALUE / LAST_VALUE
  • Running totals: SUM/AVG OVER (ORDER BY …)
  • Moving average / cumulative

Week 13–14

• Window + PARTITION BY
• Window + FRAME clause (ROWS / RANGE)
• CTE + window functions

Practice sources:

1. pgexercises.com → Aggregates + Advanced sections
2. LeetCode – medium & hard window function problems (30–50)
3. StrataScratch & DataLemur – analytics-style problems

Success checkpoint: You can write running total, rank-per-group, deduplicate with window functions.

Phase 4 – Subqueries, EXISTS, CTE, LATERAL (Weeks 15–20)

Goal: Master nested logic & per-row computation

• Scalar, correlated, row subqueries
• EXISTS / NOT EXISTS (anti-join)
• IN / ANY / ALL with subqueries
• WITH clause (multiple CTEs)
• Recursive CTE (very important for hierarchies)
• LATERAL & CROSS JOIN LATERAL

Practice: rewrite 20 JOIN queries using EXISTS / CTE / LATERAL

Phase 5 – Production & Advanced Topics (Weeks 21–30)

Indexes & EXPLAIN Transactions & isolation levels JSONB mastery + GIN indexes Full-text search Partitioning Triggers & PL/pgSQL basics Performance patterns & anti-patterns

Daily/Weekly Rhythm Suggestion

• Monday–Friday: 60–90 min
  • 20 min theory (docs / video / article)
  • 40–60 min solving exercises
  • 10 min reviewing mistakes + notes
• Saturday: 2–3 hours → solve 5–8 hard problems + review week
• Sunday: Rest or light revision / mini-project

Your Personalized Starting Point (right now)

Tell me:

A) Give me 10 PostgreSQL quiz questions right now (mixed difficulty) B) Give me 5–7 practical exercises with schema + tasks C) Create a 30-day micro-plan starting tomorrow D) I want to focus on one phase first (tell me which)

Your call — let’s turn theory into real skill! 🚀