Hugo, very good question.
Reading my question now, many weeks after submitting it, I am wondering if I even should have written it like this - QotD should test SQL understanding, not reading ability
In my opinion, the QOD should be able to serve multiple venues. Those of making one think, providing a learning ability as well as honing day to day skills. Unfortunately, the reading ability seems to be of the least importance, based upn the number of QOD's which are provided with typo's. Typo's have become the norm rather than a part of the test, and thus when the typo is intentional it becomes lost.
Many times, as a DBA, one is tasked to review code from multiple developers who work at multiple levels. I am sure that it can be agreed to that if provided with the same task, 50 developers will submit at least 25 different ways to accomplish the goal based upon their skill set. Thus, one must be able to read at each of these levels in order to interpret as well as guide them in the appropriate direction, and thus the learning continues;-)
Thanks for the question.
Steve Jimmo
Sr DBA
“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under." - Ronald Reagan