AdvancedAdvanced PostgreSQL

Find the Nth highest salary (multiple methods)

The query

SQL

-- Method 1: LIMIT OFFSET (simple but slow for large N)
SELECT DISTINCT salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC
LIMIT 1 OFFSET 2; -- 3rd highest (0-indexed)

-- Method 2: DENSE_RANK (recommended)
SELECT salary FROM (
  SELECT salary, DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rnk
  FROM employees
) t WHERE rnk = 3; -- Nth = 3

-- Method 3: Subquery
SELECT MIN(salary) FROM (
  SELECT DISTINCT salary FROM employees
  ORDER BY salary DESC LIMIT 3
) top3;

Tested against PostgreSQL 16

Note

“DENSE_RANK method handles ties correctly. LIMIT OFFSET is simple but becomes slow for large N.

Tables referenced

employees10 cols