Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and SQLMaxx, a sole proprietorship operated by Owen Middleton (“SQLMaxx,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), governing your access to and use of sqlmaxx.com and our learning platform (the “Service”). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Please read Section 6 (Educational Disclaimer) and Section 14 (Dispute Resolution and Arbitration) carefully. They affect your legal rights, including a no-outcome-guarantee disclaimer, a waiver of jury trials and class actions, and an agreement to resolve disputes through binding individual arbitration (with a 30-day opt-out).

1. Eligibility and acceptance

You must be at least the age of majority in your jurisdiction (and at least 16 years old) to use the Service. By using the Service, you represent that you meet these requirements and that the information you provide is accurate. If you use the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. The Service

SQLMaxx is an online educational platform for learning and practicing SQL, including lessons, practice problems, an in-browser SQL editor, adaptive review scheduling, and optional AI-assisted feedback. We may add, change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time. The Service is for your personal, non-commercial educational use.

3. Accounts and security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to provide accurate account information, to keep it current, and not to share your account or transfer it to anyone else. Notify us promptly at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized use of your account.

4. Subscriptions, billing, and cancellation

• Free tier. We offer access to a limited portion of the Service at no charge. We may modify or discontinue the free tier at any time.
• Pro monthly subscription. SQLMaxx Pro is available as a paid subscription billed on a recurring monthly basis through our payment processor, Stripe, at the price shown on our Pricing page at the time you subscribe (plus any applicable taxes).
• 6-Month Pass. Pro is also available as a one-time 6-Month Pass purchased through Stripe, granting Pro access for six (6) months from the date of purchase at the price shown on our Pricing page at the time you purchase (plus any applicable taxes). The 6-Month Pass does not auto-renew: at the end of the six-month period your account reverts to the free tier unless you purchase again or start a monthly subscription.
• Auto-renewal. The monthly subscription automatically renews each billing period and your payment method is charged the then-current fee until you cancel. By subscribing, you authorize these recurring charges. The 6-Month Pass does not renew and is charged only once.
• Cancellation. You may cancel your monthly subscription at any time through your account’s billing portal. Cancellation stops future renewals; your Pro access continues until the end of the billing period you have already paid for, after which your account reverts to the free tier. The 6-Month Pass cannot be canceled (it does not renew) and simply ends after its six-month term.
• Refunds. Except where required by applicable law, payments — including monthly subscription charges and 6-Month Pass purchases — are non-refundable, and we do not provide refunds or credits for partial billing periods or unused access. We may, in our sole discretion, issue a refund as a goodwill gesture in individual cases; doing so does not obligate us to provide refunds in any other case.
• Price changes. We may change subscription prices. Any change will apply to your next billing period after we provide notice (for example, by email or through the Service), and your continued subscription after the change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the new price.

5. License and intellectual property

The Service and all of its content — including lessons, lecture text, practice problems, datasets and schemas, the “Maxx” assistant, software, design, and trademarks — are owned by SQLMaxx or its licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your own educational purposes.

You may not copy, reproduce, republish, scrape, sell, license, distribute, or create derivative works from any part of the Service or its content; remove proprietary notices; or use our content to train, fine-tune, or develop any machine-learning model or competing product, in each case without our prior written permission.

6. Educational disclaimer — no outcome guarantee

SQLMaxx is an educational tool only. It is not a recruiter, employer, staffing or job-placement service, career-counseling service, certification body, or accredited educational institution, and it does not provide professional, career, financial, or legal advice.

We make no guarantee, representation, or warranty that using the Service will result in any particular outcome — including, without limitation, learning any specific skill, employment or a job offer, passing any job interview or technical assessment, obtaining any certification, a promotion, or any particular salary, income, or career result. Any such outcome depends on many factors beyond our control, including your own effort and aptitude, your prior experience, the accuracy of your work, employer decisions, and labor-market conditions.

Any testimonials, examples, or statistics that may appear on the Service are illustrative, are not a promise of results, and should not be understood as typical. Curriculum content is provided for general educational purposes, may contain errors or omissions, and may not reflect the behavior of every database system or version or the requirements of any particular employer or interview. You are responsible for independently verifying anything you rely on. You use the Service, and act on anything you learn from it, at your own risk.

7. Acceptable use

You agree that you will not, and will not attempt to:

• use the Service in violation of any law or to infringe any third party’s rights;
• reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code, models, algorithms, or content of the Service, except to the limited extent that applicable law expressly permits;
• access, scrape, harvest, or copy the Service or its content using automated means (bots, crawlers, scrapers), or resell or redistribute any part of the Service or its content;
• probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of, or breach or circumvent, any security or authentication measure, rate limit, or access control, or interfere with or disrupt the Service or its infrastructure;
• misuse the AI-feedback feature — including attempting to overload it, extract the underlying prompts or answer keys, generate excessive cost, or input personal, confidential, or unlawful content;
• upload or transmit malware, or use the in-browser SQL environment to attempt to harm any system or other users;
• impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation, or create accounts by automated means.

We may investigate suspected violations and may suspend or terminate access for conduct we reasonably believe violates these Terms or harms the Service or others.

8. Your submissions

The Service lets you write and submit SQL and, optionally, request AI feedback. You are responsible for what you submit and represent that you have the right to submit it. By submitting content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, process, and use that content as needed to operate, secure, and improve the Service. Do not submit personal, confidential, or sensitive information into the SQL editor (see our Privacy Policy). If you send us feedback or suggestions, you grant us an unrestricted right to use them without obligation to you.

9. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party providers (including Stripe for payments, and others described in our Privacy Policy) and may link to third-party websites. We are not responsible for third-party services, their content, or their acts or omissions, and your use of them is governed by their own terms and policies.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service and all content are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement, and any warranty that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, error-free, or that any content is accurate, complete, or reliable. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of the above may not apply to you.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event will SQLMaxx or Owen Middleton be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business opportunities — including any loss of, or failure to obtain, employment or income — arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the Service, whether based in contract, tort, strict liability, or any other legal theory, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months before the event giving rise to the liability, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some of the above may not apply to you. These limitations are an essential basis of the agreement between us.

12. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless SQLMaxx and Owen Middleton from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to your use of the Service, your content, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

13. Termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access at any time if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms or to protect the Service or others. Upon termination, your license to use the Service ends. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including Sections 5, 6, and 8 through 16 — will survive.

14. Dispute resolution and binding arbitration

Please read this section carefully — it affects your legal rights.

Informal resolution first. Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us at [email protected] and try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

Binding arbitration. If we cannot resolve a dispute informally, you and SQLMaxx agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court, except as provided below. The arbitration will be seated in New York County, New York, and may be conducted by video or telephone where available. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Jury and class-action waiver. You and SQLMaxx waive any right to a jury trial. Disputes will be arbitrated only on an individual basis, and you and SQLMaxx waive any right to bring or participate in a class, collective, consolidated, or representative action. If this class-action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, then that claim (and only that claim) will be severed and proceed in court; the remainder of this Section will remain in effect.

Exceptions. Either party may (a) bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, and (b) seek injunctive or equitable relief in court to protect intellectual-property rights or stop unauthorized use of the Service.

30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing [email protected] with your account email and the statement “I opt out of arbitration” within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.

15. Governing law and venue

These Terms and any dispute arising from them are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. To the extent any dispute is not subject to arbitration, you and SQLMaxx agree to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in New York County, New York, and waive any objection to that venue.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, notify you by email or through the Service. Changes take effect when posted (or on a later stated effective date). Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

17. Miscellaneous

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and SQLMaxx regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in effect. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact us at [email protected].