Pandas tail to TOP of a reversed order

The last 5 orders by date is TOP 5 ORDER BY order_date DESC — then sort again if you need them ascending.

SELECT TOP 5 * FROM Orders ORDER BY order_date DESC;

OFFSET (COUNT(*)-5) needs a second query or a window. TOP of a DESC is enough for a peek.

Canonical translation

SELECT TOP 5 * FROM Orders ORDER BY order_date DESC;