Query the Murder - Solve murders. Master SQL. One query at a time.

SQL tutorials are boring. 70% of learners quit before finishing. Query the Murder transforms database learning into detective work. Solve Agatha Christie murders by writing SQL queries—connect suspects to crimes with JOINs, find patterns with GROUP BY, reconstruct timelines with window functions. No fake employee tables. Real mysteries. Actual motivation to learn.

Hey Product Hunt! 👋 Launching Query the Murder today—learn SQL by solving Agatha Christie murder mysteries. The problem I'm solving: 71% of people who start learning SQL quit before finishing their first tutorial. Not because SQL is too hard. Because it's unbearably boring. You spend hours querying employee tables, customer databases, sales figures—data that doesn't matter to you. You memorize syntax without understanding when to apply it. You complete exercises that feel disconnected from anything you'd actually build. My insight: Detective work is fundamentally data analysis: - Interrogating witnesses → SELECT queries - Linking suspects to evidence → JOIN operations - Finding patterns → GROUP BY aggregations - Reconstructing timelines → Window functions If we're teaching the same SQL concepts anyway, why not make them interesting? What Query the Murder does differently: Instead of: "Find all employees in the Sales department" You solve: "Which suspects have no alibi between 9-10 PM?" Instead of: "Calculate total revenue by region" You analyze: "How many people heard the gunshot by location?" Same SQL skills. Completely different experience. What's included: ✅ 9 complete cases from beginner to advanced ✅ Agatha Christie mysteries: Orient Express, Death on the Nile, And Then There Were None, etc. ✅ Browser-based SQL editor (no installation) ✅ Instant feedback on queries ✅ Hints and solutions if you get stuck ✅ Realistic, messy databases (like actual detective work) How development evolved: Started with one case prototype → 3 beta testers completed it in one sitting → realized the approach works → built 8 more cases over 4 months. Biggest challenge: Designing databases that feel authentic to each mystery while teaching proper SQL progression. Each case had to work both as a compelling story AND as sound pedagogy. Learned a lot about balancing narrative engagement with educational rigor. What I need from you🙏🏻: 🎯 Feedback on difficulty progression (too easy? too hard? just right?) 🎯 Feature requests (what would make this more useful?) Happy to answer any questions about the project, SQL education or murder mysteries! 🔍 — Jenika

Query the Murder - Solve murders. Master SQL. One query at a time.

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