I've studied for the 5.0 Developer cert, and the 5.6 Developer cert, and I've also mentored about 100 students through these exams. Most/all of the students were new to database development, so I had to teach them from zero to Oracle Certified in the space of about 10 weeks.

To echo what /u/justintxdave said, the 5.6 Developer exam is tough. A lot of the questions are deliberately obtuse in my opinion and seem designed to catch you out. Plus they have questions on Java talking to MySQL, PHP talking to MySQL and Microsoft .NET talking to MySQL. This seems a little unfair to me - if you're a PHP developer, you're unlikely to know .NET and vice-versa.

The 5.0 Certification Study Guide is still a good resource, but you need to be careful to identify those things that have changed from 5.0 to 5.6 - e.g. DATETIME, TIMESTAMP, SQL MODES, and there are topics in the new Developer exam that were in the old DBA exam - transactions, foreign key constraints etc. The sample questions on the DVD of 5.0 book are a good practice tool.

Here's the list of topics I studied for the 5.6 exam, and what books/resources I used.

Study Guide refers to the 5.0 Certification Study Guide , and the relevant chapter numbers.

Head First SQL is a very basic beginners guide to SQL that you probably don't need.

I also used Paul du Bois's MySQL Developer's Library to fill in some blanks.

There is was a real need for an official 5.6 Certification book, but at this stage an 8.0 cert is probably just around the corner. I always had a notion I might write a 5.6 book, but life got in the way :)

Best of luck with the exam!

u/power_walker · 2 points r/SQL

I really enjoyed and was able to build a strong foundation with Head First SQL

http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-SQL-Brain-Learners/dp/0596526849/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1416913925&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=head+first+sql&amp;pebp=1416913929647

Orielly used to publish the first chapter online but I can't find t on their site right now.

u/MrWise1234 · 2 points r/cscareerquestions

Here are some books to get started (they are available online for free)

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https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-SQL-Brain-Learners/dp/0596526849/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=head+first+sql&qid=1563487682&s=gateway&sr=8-1

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https://www.amazon.com/Automate-Boring-Stuff-Python-Programming/dp/1593275994/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1P184JBOKVQAL&keywords=automate+the+boring+stuff+with+python&qid=1563487721&s=gateway&sprefix=automate+the+%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-2

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These books will put you in a position to create some interest in the subjects and then you can read the standard textbooks to go deeper and gain mastery

for sql Advanced

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https://www.amazon.com/SQL-Cookbook-Solutions-Techniques-Developers/dp/0596009763/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3GKVQHG48HTXT&keywords=sql+cookbook&qid=1563487850&s=gateway&sprefix=sql+cook%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-3

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https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-5th-Mark-Lutz/dp/1449355730/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Learning+python&qid=1563487873&s=gateway&sr=8-3

u/jackmaney · 2 points r/datascience

Besides Python, I'd also recommend getting proficient in SQL. It's often quicker to perform aggregations and other calculations in the database. If you're already familiar with a programming language (especially C++), then SQL should be no trouble. While there's plenty of stuff online, I've found Head First SQL to be a good introductory book for folks who have never seen SQL or touched a database before (it may or may not be too elementary for someone that can already program, however...).

Data scientists don't have to know as much programming as the average software engineer, but you should be comfortable enough to adapt or wrap code around existing libraries. For example:

Clustering a dataset via k-means for several different values of k (using a built-in library such as scikit-learn), and then using the average silhouette coefficient to find the best value of k.
Combining cross-validation with reservoir sampling.
Implementing an algorithm that isn't yet implemented in a third party library.

In general, don't be comfortable with just using software as a "black box" for statistical and scientific computing. Have at least some idea of what's going on "under the hood" when that black box is used. That will put you far ahead of the game.

u/RangerPretzel · 1 point r/csharp

I found the HeadFirst series on SQL helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-SQL-Brain-Learners/dp/0596526849

The stock photo of the person on the cover is silly, but if you can get past the cover, the book itself is quite good.

As a bonus, I found that after I got used to writing SQL queries, my LINQ queries got a lot better, too.

u/[deleted] · 1 point r/SQL

I thought the book Head First SQL was extremely useful. It did a great job of explaining the concepts and getting me comfortable using SQL.

u/jabwork · 1 point r/Python

What is it you actually want to learn?

If you just want to learn how to SELECT and INSERT data the DB API 2 documentation should be sufficient. You'll need a MySQL python driver. I'd suggest either "MySQLdb" (old, lots of old web pages referencing it) or "oursql" (strongly pushed by the people in #python the last time I visited, which was admittedly a while ago)

If you want to learn generic SQL and how to use Python with SQL, and the MySQL part is just because it's free/easy, I'd recommend Head First SQL. It doesn't cover python at all, but the DB API 2 driver is extremely straightforward

If you want to learn something else .... what is it you want to learn?

u/c64guy · 0 points r/learnprogramming

Take a look at Head First SQL. I have not read this book specifically but have completed other Head first books on programming.

The Head First series provides in interactive way to learn with practice exercises and examples. Oh, and it can even be fun.

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