If you stuck to the confusion “Can i use top and distinct togather in single query?”
Yes….!! you can do for which you have to trick, i will explain it with both code non working and working.
Non working :
select top(10) distinct can_id from tblCandidate
Working :
select distinct top(10) can_id from tblCandidate
After all its a simple game of changing the sequence of words.
Happy coding.