Community Spotlight: Slava Rozhnev and SQLtest.online
Open source runs on people. Not only the engineers who commit code, but everyone who builds tools, answers questions, writes tutorials and shows up when help is needed. Slava Rozhnev, creator of SQLtest.online, is one of those people for MariaDB. He has been creating SQL quizzes with the MariaDB Foundation for a while now, and this post is our way of saying thank you.
A collaboration that keeps growing
Slava’s work with the Foundation goes back further than this year’s conference season: he had already created quizzes with us before. So when we started planning our presence at events this autumn, we knew who to turn to.
That is how good community collaborations grow: someone who knows their craft helps once, then again, and becomes part of how things get done.
Percona Live Amsterdam
In September, the MariaDB Foundation had a booth at Percona Live in Amsterdam (September 9 to 11), and Slava prepared a MariaDB quiz for it on SQLtest.online.
A quiz changes what happens at a booth. Instead of a quick hello and a sticker, people stop, think about queries, and test themselves against a real database. It turns a passing visit into a conversation: how they use MariaDB, what they find tricky, and what they would like to learn next. Those conversations are the reason we go to conferences in the first place.
It also works at every level. Experienced DBAs can check themselves on the details, while people newer to MariaDB get a friendly, no-pressure first look.
Open Source India
In October, the quiz travelled with us to Bengaluru for Open Source India (October 7 and 8). For a Foundation building connections with the developer community in India, a hands-on quiz was a natural way to start the conversation.
And unlike a booth, SQLtest.online does not pack up when the event ends. Two conferences, two continents, and the tasks stay online for anyone who wants to keep going.
About SQLtest.online
SQLtest.online is a free platform for learning SQL by writing real queries against real databases, with instant feedback from automated tests. Slava has built and run it independently since 2023. Today it holds 460 practical tasks, lessons, an open SQL playground and a skill test, in six interface languages.
No account is needed to start. The code is open source on GitHub, and the servers are kept running by donations. It is also listed on the MariaDB Ecosystem Hub.
Why community matters
An open source project is only as strong as the people around it. Code gets written by contributors, but adoption, learning and trust are built by a much wider circle: the people who teach, test, translate, answer questions and build the tools that make a database easier to pick up.
What makes a community valuable is not its size. It is knowing there are skilled professionals you can rely on. When we needed something hands-on for our booths, we did not have to start from zero. We could ask someone who already knew the craft, and he said yes.
That is the kind of community we want the MariaDB Foundation to grow: people who bring their expertise, get recognized for it, and help each other reach more users.
Thank you, Slava
Slava, thank you. For the quizzes, for the time, and for being someone the Foundation can count on.
If you want to say thanks too, the best way is to use what he built:
- Keep practising on SQLtest.online, and if it helps you, support the project so it stays free for everyone.
- Building something for MariaDB yourself? Add it to the MariaDB Ecosystem Hub and let us know. We would love to work with you too.
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