Part 1: Full Forms / Abbreviations

• DB: Database

• DBMS: Database Management System

• RDBMS: Relational Database Management System

• DBA: Database Administrator

• ERD: Entity Relationship Diagram

• EER: Enhanced Entity Relationship

• SQL: Structured Query Language

• DDL: Data Definition Language

• DML: Data Manipulation Language

• DCL: Data Control Language

• TCL: Transaction Control Language

• 1NF / 2NF / 3NF: First / Second / Third Normal Form

• BCNF: Boyce-Codd Normal Form

• 4NF: Fourth Normal Form

• ACID: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability

• UML: Unified Modeling Language

• FD: Functional Dependency

• MVD: Multi-Valued Dependency

• PK: Primary Key

• FK: Foreign Key

Section 1: Introduction & Architecture

• What is Data? Raw facts and figures.

• What is a Database? A collection of related data.

• What is a DBMS? Software used to create and manage databases.

• Define Database System. The combination of the database and the

DBMS software.

• Name one advantage of DBMS over File Systems. It reduces data

redundancy (duplication).

• What is Metadata? Data about data (e.g., table definitions).

• What is a Database Schema? The overall design or structure of the

database.

• What is a Database Instance? The data stored in the database at a

specific moment.

• What is Data Independence? The ability to change the schema at

one level without changing it at a higher level.

• Explain Logical Data Independence. Changing the conceptual

schema without affecting external views.

• Explain Physical Data Independence. Changing the physical

storage without affecting the conceptual schema.

• What are the three levels of Three-Schema Architecture?

External, Conceptual, and Internal.
 • Who is a DBA? The person responsible for managing and securing
the entire database.

• What are 'Actors on the Scene'? People who use or manage the
database daily (like DBAs or End Users).

• What are 'Workers behind the Scene'? People who design and
develop the DBMS software itself.

• What is a Centralized DBMS? A system where all data and

software are on a single machine.

• What is Client/Server Architecture? A system where a client

handles the UI and a server handles data storage/processing.

• What is a Data Model? A set of concepts used to describe the

structure of a database.

• What is a Conceptual Data Model? A high-level model that

describes data from a user’s perspective (e.g., ER Model).

• What is a Physical Data Model? A model that describes how data

is stored on disks.

Section 2: Entity Relationship (ER) & EER Modelling

• What is an Entity? An object or "thing" in the real world (e.g.,

Student).

• What is an Entity Set? A collection of similar entities (e.g., all

Students).

• What is an Attribute? A property or characteristic of an entity.

• What is a Key Attribute? An attribute that uniquely identifies an
entity (e.g., Roll Number).

• What is a Composite Attribute? An attribute that can be divided

into smaller parts (e.g., Name into First/Last).

• What is a Multi-valued Attribute? An attribute that can have more

than one value (e.g., Phone Numbers).

• What is a Derived Attribute? An attribute whose value is calculated

from another (e.g., Age from Date of Birth).

• What is a Weak Entity? An entity that does not have its own
primary key and depends on a parent entity.

• What is a Relationship? An association between two or more

entities.

• Define Cardinality Ratio. It defines the number of relationship

instances an entity can participate in (1:1, 1:N, M:N).

• What is a 1:N relationship? One-to-Many (e.g., one Department

has many Employees).

• What is Total Participation? Every entity in a set must be involved

in a relationship (shown by double lines).

• What is Partial Participation? Only some entities in a set are

involved in a relationship.

• What is a Recursive Relationship? When an entity has a

relationship with itself (e.g., Employee manages Employee).

• What is Specialization? The process of breaking a high-level entity

into lower-level subgroups.
 • What is Generalization? The process of combining lower-level
entities into a single high-level entity.

• What is Inheritance in EER? Subclasses inherit attributes and

relationships from their superclass.

• What is an EER Diagram? An Enhanced ER diagram that includes

subclasses and superclasses.

• What is a UML Class Diagram? A graphical way to represent

system design, similar to ER diagrams.

• What is a Ternary Relationship? A relationship involving three

entities.

Section 3: Database Design & Normalization

• What is Normalization? A process to organize data and minimize

redundancy.

• What is a Functional Dependency (FD)? A constraint where one

attribute determines the value of another (A -> B).

• What is 1NF? A table where every cell contains only atomic (single)
values.

• What is 2NF? A table in 1NF where every non-key attribute is fully

dependent on the primary key.

• What is 3NF? A table in 2NF with no transitive dependencies.

• What is a Transitive Dependency? When a non-key attribute

depends on another non-key attribute.
• What is BCNF? A stronger version of 3NF where every determinant
must be a candidate key.

• What is 4NF? A table in BCNF with no multi-valued dependencies.

• What is a Primary Key? A unique identifier for a row in a table.

• What is a Candidate Key? A minimal set of attributes that can

uniquely identify a row.

• What is a Foreign Key? A field in one table that links to the primary
key of another table.

• What is a Composite Key? A primary key made of two or more

columns.

• What is an Update Anomaly? Problems that occur when data is

updated in an un-normalized table.

• What is a Deletion Anomaly? When deleting data unintentionally

removes other important information.

• What is an Insertion Anomaly? When you cannot add data

because some other data is missing.

• What is a Super Key? Any set of attributes that uniquely identifies a

row.

• What is Multi-valued Dependency? When one attribute determines

a set of values for another attribute.

• What is a Trivial FD? An FD where the right side is a subset of the

left side (A,B -> A).

• Why do we use informal design guidelines? To ensure the

database is easy to understand and free of errors.
 • What is Lossless Join? Ensuring that joining tables back together
doesn't create "fake" data.

Section 4: Transaction Processing & Relational Model

• What is a Transaction? A single logical unit of work in a database.

• What are ACID properties? Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and

Durability.

• Explain Atomicity. The "all or nothing" rule—either the whole

transaction succeeds or none of it does.

• Explain Consistency. A transaction must take the database from

one valid state to another.

• Explain Isolation. Transactions running at the same time should not

interfere with each other.

• Explain Durability. Once a transaction is committed, changes are

permanent even if the system fails.

• What is a Transaction Schedule? The order in which operations of

multiple transactions are executed.

• What is a Serial Schedule? A schedule where transactions run one

after another.

• What is Serializability? When a non-serial schedule produces the

same result as a serial one.

• What is a Recoverable Schedule? A schedule where no

transaction commits until all transactions it read from have
committed.
 • What is a Rollback? Canceling the changes made by a transaction.

• What is a Commit? Saving all changes made by a transaction

permanently.

• What is a Savepoint? A point within a transaction to which you can

roll back.

• What is a Domain? The set of allowed values for an attribute.

• What is a Tuple? A single row in a relational table.

• What is a Relation? Another name for a table in a relational

database.

• What is Degree? The number of attributes (columns) in a relation.

• What is Cardinality? The number of tuples (rows) in a relation.

• What is Referential Integrity? A rule ensuring that a foreign key

must match a primary key in the related table.

• What is Entity Integrity? A rule that says the primary key cannot be
NULL.

Section 5: SQL Concepts

• What is SQL? The standard language for interacting with relational

databases.

• What is DDL? Commands to define the structure (e.g., CREATE,

ALTER, DROP).

• What is DML? Commands to manage data (e.g., INSERT, UPDATE,

DELETE).
• What is DCL? Commands for security and access (e.g., GRANT,
REVOKE).

• What is the use of the WHERE clause? To filter rows based on a

condition.

• What is a Primary Key constraint? Ensures a column is unique

and not null.

• What is the UNIQUE constraint? Ensures all values in a column

are different.

• What is the NOT NULL constraint? Ensures a column cannot have

an empty value.

• What is the CHECK constraint? Limits the range of values that can
be placed in a column.

• What are Aggregate Functions? Functions that perform a

calculation on a set of values (SUM, AVG, COUNT, MIN, MAX).

• What is the GROUP BY clause? Used with aggregate functions to

group the result-set by one or more columns.

• What is the HAVING clause? Used to filter groups created by

GROUP BY.

• What is a Sub-query? A query inside another query.

• What is a Correlated Sub-query? A sub-query that uses values

from the outer query.

• What is a Join? Used to combine rows from two or more tables

based on a related column.
• What is an Inner Join? Returns records that have matching values
in both tables.

• What is a Left Join? Returns all records from the left table and
matched records from the right table.

• What is a View? A virtual table based on the result-set of an SQL

statement.

• What is the IN operator? Allows you to specify multiple values in a

WHERE clause.

• What is the ORDER BY clause? Used to sort the result-set in

ascending or descending order.