Recently, I had to figure out that if SQL Server 2016 can be used for SharePoint 2013. Now, version compatibility is a must. Initially, I did assumed that since, SharePoint 2013 works pretty well with SQL Server 2012, it should work with the higher version of SQL Server as well. However, that’s not the case.

Explanation

A SharePoint release will always support the following versions of SQL Server:

• current version (n).
• one previous version (n-1)
• and, one new version (n + 1)

So, say, for SharePoint 2013, the following SQL Server versions will be supported:

• SQL Server 2012 (n)
• SQL Server 2008 R2 (n – 1)
• SQL Server 2014 (n + 1)

Similarly, for SharePoint 2016, the following SQL Server versions will be supported:

• SQL Server 2016 (n)
• SQL Server 2014 SP1 (n – 1)
• SQL Server … (n + 1) {next version}

For more details, you can refer to this msdn blog.