Interview Questions/SQL/Highest Paid Employee Per Department

Highest Paid Employee Per Department

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Highest Paid Employee Per Department

You are given a table of employees. Each employee has a name, a department, a salary, and a hire date. Write a SQL query to find the highest-paid employee(s) in each department. If multiple employees share the same maximum salary in a department, return all of them. Return the result ordered by department, then name. Table: Employees

Column Name	Type	Description
id	INT	Primary key
name	VARCHAR	Employee name
department	VARCHAR	Department name
salary	INT	Annual salary
hire_date	DATE	Date employee was hired

Examples

Example 1

For each department, find the employee(s) whose salary equals the maximum salary in that department.

Approach hint

Start with a simple approach, explain the trade-off, then move toward a cleaner or more scalable solution.

Common mistake

Skipping assumptions, edge cases, or trade-offs can make an otherwise good answer feel incomplete.

query.sql