SQL Interview: 34 Restore SQL Server database back to older version
This is a post in the SQL Interview series. These aren’t trick or gotcha questions, they’re just questions designed to scope out a candidate’s knowledge around SQL Server and Azure SQL Database.
Section: Administration Level: Medium
Question:
You have a database attached to a SQL Server 2022 server.
You need a copy of the database on a SQL Server 2017 server.
How can you do that?
Answer:
It’s messy.
You cannot restore a backup from a later version to an earlier version, even if the database compatibility level is at the lower version.
2025-04-08