Problem

Write a SQL query to find the top 5 most expensive items in the database.
Example input:
| item_id | item_name | price |
|---------|-----------|-------|
| 1       | Item A    | 100   |
| 2       | Item B    | 200   |
| 3       | Item C    | 300   |
| 4       | Item D    | 400   |
| 5       | Item E    | 500   |
Example output:
| item_id | item_name | price |
|---------|-----------|-------|
| 5       | Item E    | 500   |
| 4       | Item D    | 400   |
| 3       | Item C    | 300   |
| 2       | Item B    | 200   |
| 1       | Item A    | 100   |

Solution

SELECT * FROM items ORDER BY price DESC LIMIT 5;

/*

The solution above is optimal because it uses the ORDER BY and LIMIT clauses to sort the items by price in descending order and then limit the results to the top 5 items.

*/