Interview Questions/SQL/Nth Highest Distinct Salary

Nth Highest Distinct Salary

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Medium

Nth Highest Distinct Salary

You are given an Employees table with salaries. Write a SQL query to find the 3rd highest distinct salary. If fewer than 3 distinct salary values exist, return an empty result. Return a single column named third_highest_salary. Table: Employees

Column Name	Type	Description
id	INT	Primary key
name	VARCHAR	Employee name
salary	INT	Annual salary

Examples

Example 1

Distinct salaries in descending order: 90000, 85000, 80000, 75000. The 3rd distinct value is 80000. Note that 85000 appears twice but counts once.

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