This is your local database engine. Free. From Microsoft. Takes about 5 minutes to install. When prompted, choose Basic installation. Everything else — default settings.

SQL Server Management Studio. This is the tool you will write every query in. Download the latest version. Installation is straightforward — all defaults are fine.

This is your practice environment. Every ticket in Phase 01 runs against this database. Download the script, open it in SSMS, and run it. It creates everything automatically.

Open SSMS. In the connection dialog, set Server name to .\SQLEXPRESS (SQL Server Express default) or (localdb)\MSSQLLocalDB if you installed the LocalDB option. Authentication: Windows Authentication. Click Connect.

Once connected, open a new query window, select ApexFinancial_Training from the database dropdown, and run this:

If you see 5 rows — you are ready. Go hit DN-0001.