1.

Define drawbacks of File systems and how DBMS

rectifies these drawbacks
2. Draw and explain Database management System
Architecture.
The main purpose of Database Architecture is to store or
manage data in a proper way. The data or information
stored in such a way that easily accessible and easy
maintain. The design of a DBMS depends on its
architecture. DBMS architecture helps in design,
development, implementation, and maintenance of a
database. The design of DBMS may be in three forms:
centralized (all the data stored at one location),
decentralized (multiple copies of database at di erent
locations) or hierarchical (Tree structure). The architecture
of a DBMS can be seen as either single tier or multi tier.
Database Architecture is:
1. 1-tier DBMS architecture
2. 2-tier DBMS architecture
3. 3-tier DBMS architecture

1-tier architecture
In 1-Tier Architecture, the user works directly with
the database on the same system. The database is directly
available to the user for accessing and storing data. Any
changes will be directly done on the DBMS itself. Generally
such setup is used for local application development,
where programmers directly communicate with the
database for quick response.
The simplest of Database Architecture are 1 tier
where the Client, Server and Database all reside on the
same machine. Anytime you can access database.
Database designers and programmers normally use
single-tier architecture. It is very simple and easy to
use. But such architecture is rarely used in production.
Example: Suppose you want to access the records of
employee from the database and the database is
available on your computer system, so the request will
be done by your computer and the records will be
accessed from the database by your computer. This
type of system is local database system.
2-tier DBMS Architecture
2-tier architecture is developed by using Client-Server
architecture. Application at the client end directly
communicates with the database at the server side. There
is no interface between client and 7 | S H K BCA-II| DBMS
Unit-I server.
 The user interfaces and application programs are run on
the client-side.
 The server side is responsible to provide the
functionalities like: query processing and transaction
management.
 To communicate with the DBMS, client-side application
establishes a connection with the server side.
 An application interface known as ODBC (Open
Database Connectivity) provides an API that allow client
side program to call the DBMS.
 2 tier architecture provides added security to the DBMS
as it is not exposed to the end user directly.
 This architecture provides Direct and faster
communication.
Example: Consider a railway ticket reservation system.
Two persons are reserving the ticket from Delhi to Goa on
particular day at the same time. Now requirement of two
tickets for di erent persons. It takes the request from both
person and queues the requests entered by each person.
Here the request entered to application layer and request
is sent to database layer. Once the request is processed in
database, the result is sent back to application layer for the
user.

3-tier DBMS architecture

It is an extension of the 2-tier architecture. In 3-Tier
Architecture, there is another layer between the client and
the server. The client does not directly communicate with
the server. This intermediate layer acts as a medium for the
exchange of partially processed data between the server
and the client. This type of architecture is used in the case
of large web applications.
 3-Tier architecture is the most complex among all three,
but solves almost all the issues that occur in 2-Tier and 1-
Tier architecture.
 Client can't directly communicate with the server.
 End user has no idea about the existence of the database
beyond the application server vice versa. 3-Tier
architecture is used in case of large web application.
3-Tier DBMS architecture are:
 Database Server (Tier-1): it deals with all the data and
information. Also, it guarantees that all the data is stored in
a secured manner and there might not occur a situation of
data inconsistency or data redundancy.
 Application Layer (Tier-2): The application layer acts as an
intermediate between the User/Client and the actual
database. But it ensures to present abstracted view of the
database and provides a way to respond to the queries
requested by the user and fetching the response from the
database in tier-1.
 User/Client Layer (Tier-3): This is the top most layer where
users/clients can request data. Data is fetched from the
database and passed onto the user/client through the
application layer. It also provides the graphical user
interface(GUI) to the users
3. State di erent users of Databases
[Link] the concepts of cardinalities and participation
In database management, cardinality represents the
number of times an entity of an entity set participates in a
relationship set. Or we can say that the cardinality of a
relationship is the number of tuples (rows) in a relationship.
Mapping Cardinality:
Types of cardinality in between tables are:
 One-to-One
 One-to-Many
 Many-to-One
 Many-to-Many
5. Construct an ER diagram for hospital with set of
patients and set of doctors. Associate with each patient
a log of various tests and examinations.
9. Create an ER diagram for car insurance company
whose customer own one or more cars each. Each car
has associated with it zero to any number of recorded
accidents. Each insurance policy covers one or more
cars and has one or more premium payments
associated with it. Each payment is for a particular
period of time, and has associated due date and the date
when the payment was received.
6. Explain the concept of data abstraction and data
independence.
Data abstraction in DBMS refers to the process of hiding the
complexities of the database from the user and showing
only the necessary information.
It provides di erent levels of abstraction to view the data:
 Physical Level: Describes how the data physically
stored in memory.
 This is the lowest level of abstraction that deals with
how data is physically stored in memory.
 It defines file organization techniques (like hashing or
B+ trees) and access methods (such as sequential or
random access).
 Details such as block size, memory allocation and
storage paths are managed at this level.
 These physical details are hidden from the end users.
 Example: When storing employee details, the user
doesn’t need to know how many memory blocks are
used or where the data is stored on disk.
2. Logical or Conceptual Level: Describes what data is
stored in the database, and the relationships among the
data (middle-level).
 This level describes what data is stored in the
database and the relationships among those data.
 It represents the entire database using simple logical
structures like tables, attributes and relationships.
 The logical level provides physical data independence,
meaning that changes at the physical level do not
a ect this level.
 Database administrators primarily work at this level to
define schemas and relationships.
3. View or External Level: Describes only part of the
entire database, usually tailored to the needs of users
(high-level).
 This is the highest level of abstraction, where users
interact directly with the database.
 It provides di erent views of the same data for
di erent users, ensuring security and simplicity.
 Users access data through Graphical User Interfaces
(GUI) or Command-Line Interfaces (CLI) without
dealing with the underlying complexity.
 Example: A user may view only the Emp_Name and
Department columns, while other details remain
hidden.
Data Independence
Data independence is the capacity to change the schema
at one level of database without having to change the
schema at the next higher level. It helps separate data from
the programs that use it, thereby improving flexibility and
minimizing maintenance e ort.
1. Logical Data Independence: If a change at the
conceptual level without a ecting the user level or external
level, it is known as logical data independence. E.g. the
name field in conceptual view is stored as first name,
middle name and last name but in external view as a single
name field.
2. Physical Data Independence: If the changes are made
at the internal level without a ecting the above layers, it is
known as physical data independence. E.g. The location of
the database, if changed from C drive to D drive will not
a ect the conceptual view or external view as the
commands are independent of the location of the
database.

7. Explain the following terms.

a. Weak entity set
b. Strong entity set
c. Foreign key
d. Candidate key
e. Column Constraints.
Ans.
a. Weak entity set:
Entity is collection of entities with same attributes.
And Entity set is a collection of same type.
The entity set which does not have su icient attributes
to form a primary key is called as Weak entity set.
A weak entity is an entity that cannot be uniquely
identified by its attributes alone
Weak entities are dependent in strong entity for
primary key.
Weak entities are represent by double rectangle.
Example: Employee has "dependents" with name,
birthdate, and relationship to employee and it can be
related to employee with the help of empid, so
"dependents" is a weak entity which depends on
strong entity "Employee".

b. Strong Entity
An entity set that has su icient attributes to form a
primary key is called as strong key.
Example: Employee is a Strong entity with attributes as
empid, name, address, salary, birthdate among which
empid can be considered as primary key.
c. Foreign Key
d. Candidate key
In a relation, there may be a primary or not, but there may
be a key or combination of combination of keys which
uniquely identify the record. Such a key is called as
Candidate key
OR
A candidate key is a column, or set of columns, in a table
that can uniquely identify any database record without
referring
Candidate key is nothing but a super key with minimum
number of attributes,
No subset of candidate key can be key.