FAQs Introduction to Database Systems and Design Module 1: Introduction Data, Database, DBMS, DBA Q2. What is a catalogue? Explain the use of it in DBMS. Q3. Differentiate File System approach and Database approach. Q4. What are data model? Explain the different data model with examples. Q5. Explain ER data model in brief with an example. Q6. What is representation data model? Explain. Q7. Explain the three schema architecture of DBMS. Q8. Differentiate physical and logical data independence data models. Q9. Explain briefly the steps involved in the development process of the database system. Q10. With a neat block diagram, explain the architecture of the RDBMS. Module 2: Entity Relationship Model Entity, Entity Set, Attribute, Relationship, Degree of a Relationship Q2. What are the different types of Attributes? Explain with examples. Q3. Give the diagrammatic notations for ER diagrams. Q4. What is the difference between weak entity and strong entity? Q5. What are Key Attributes? Explain the use of it in database system. Q6. Explain the different cardinality ratios possible in a binary relationship. Q7. Give example of an ER-diagram to show different cardinality ratios. Q8. What is a participation constraint? Differentiate between partial and total participation constraint with examples. Q9. Write a note on structural constraint in ER model. Q10. With an example, explain the attributes for a relationship type. Page 1 of 5
Q11. What are recursive relationships and what is use of role names in a recursive relationship. Q12. Discuss the design choices: Attributes Vs Relationships; Weak entity types Vs Composite multi valued attributes with an example. Q13. Write a note on ternary relationships. Module 3: Relational Data Model Relation, Relation scheme, Relational Instance, Super Key Q2. Differentiate between primary key and foreign key with an example. Q3. What are integrity constraints? Explain the different integrity constraints with examples. Q4. What are foreign keys and explain with an example, how are they useful in relating tables. Q5. What are the basic relational algebra operations? Explain. Q6. Give examples for different relational algebra operators. Q7. Write a note on Set operations on Relations. Q8. Give an example query to demonstrate cross product operation on relations. Q9. What are Join Operations? Explain the different types of join operations on relations. Q10. Show the usage of division operation on relations with an example. Q11. Discuss the different outer join operations on relations. Q12. Discuss the different steps to be performed to convert a given ER schema to relational schema. Module 3.1: Tuple Relational Calculus Q1. Differentiate between procedural query language and declarative query language. Q2. Explain the general form of a Tuple Relational Calculus expression and give its interpretation. Q3. Give some example TRC queries. Q4. What is the expressive power of TRC and Relational Algebra? Module 4: SQL standard Q1. What are the various components of SQL standard? Explain. Q2. How is Data defined in SQl? Explain with examples. Page 2 of 5
Q3. Discuss the different domain types in SQL-92 standard. Q4. Show with an example, how to specify the integrity constraints in SQL. Q5. Explain how to specify the referential integrity constraints in SQL. Q6. Show how to define a table in SQL with an example. Q7. Explain how to modify the defined table in SQL. Q8. What are the two possibilities that can be specified for DELETE operation in SQL? Explain. Q9. Explain with an example, how data manipulation is done using SQL. Q10. Explain how to write nested queries in SQL. Q11. What re the various set comparison operators used in SQL? Q12. What are correlated nested queries? Explain. Q13. What are uncorrelated nested queries? Explain. Q14. Explain the use of the following operators in SQL. EXISTS, NOT EXISTS Q15. What happens if a where clause is not there in a SQL query? Explain with an example. Q16. Explain the following operations: UNION, INTERSECTION, DIFFERENCE Q17. Mention the different aggregate functions used in SQL. Give examples. Q18. How data aggregation and grouping is done in SQL? Explain with an example. Q19. What is the use of HAVING clause in SQL queries? Give an example. Q20. Give some examples to show string operations in SQL. Q21. What are views? How to define Views in SQl? Q22. What are the operations allowed on Views? Give some examples to demonstrate it. Q23. Discuss the different restrictions on updating of views. Q24. How are data values inserted into tables? Give examples. Q25. Write a note on Embedded SQL. Page 3 of 5
Q26. What is Dynamic SQL? Explain. Module 5: Dependencies and Normal Forms Q1. How are Normal Forms related to database design? Explain in brief. Q2. Discuss the problems associated with the bad schema design. Q3. What are the different update anomalies? Explain with the help of examples. Q4. What are normal Forms? Explain. Q5. Give the definition of the following normal forms: 1NF, 2NF, 3NF Q6. What is Functional Dependency? Explain with help of an example. Q7. State the Armstrong s inference rules. Q8. What is fully functional dependency? Explain 2NF. Q9. What is transitive dependency? Explain 3NF. Q10. What is BCNF? How it is different from 3NF? Explain. Q11. Explain the desirable properties of Decomposition. Q12. Give the algorithm for testing the lossless property of decomposition. Q13. What is a minimal cover? Give the algorithm for computing the minimal cover. Q14. What is Multi-valued dependency? Explain 4NF. Module 6: Data Storage and Indexes Q1. Explain the structure of a disk. Q2. What are records? Discuss the different types of record usage in File system. Q3. How are data records packed into blocks? Explain. Q4. Explain the mapping of File Blocks onto the Disk Blocks. Q5. What are the different operations on Files? Explain. Q6. What is a Primary File organization? Explain. Q7. What are sequential files? Explain. Page 4 of 5
Q8. Write a short note on Hashing. Q9. What is Indexing? Differentiate between primary indexing and secondary indexing. Q10. Write a short note on B+ trees. Module 7: Transaction processing and Error recovery Transaction, Read operation, Write operation, DBMS Buffer Q2. What is concurrency control? Why it is needed? Q3. Explain the Lost update problem with an example. Q4. Explain the Temporary update problem with an example. Q5. Explain the incorrect summary problem with an example. Q6. Explain the different types of failures wrt transaction system. Q7. What is Recovery? Why is it required? Q8. Write the state transition diagram for transaction execution. Q9. What is System Log? Explain the use of it. Q10. Explain the meaning of commit point of a transaction. Q11. Discuss the desirable properties of a Transaction. Q12. What are the different types of Locks used in the concurrency control? Explain. Q13. Write a note on Two-phase Locking. Q14. Explain the following terms: REDO, UNDO, check points, rollbacks Q15. Discuss the different error recovery techniques. Page 5 of 5