Database Management Systems

1. Distinguish between TRUNCATE and DELETE

2. Explain with examples :
a. Domain Integrity
b. Entity Integrity
c. Referential Integrity
3. Explain how security is implemented in RDBMS ?
4. Explain some of the best practices that should be followed while
writing SQL Queries
5. Distinguish between Horizontal View and Vertical View
6. What is the difference between a candidate key and primary
key ?
7. What are the disadvantages of the traditional file approach ?
8. Suppose we have an employee table and a department table. Let
us say that we delete a department from the department table.
All the employee records that have the department will be
having entries of department that no longer exists in the
department table. How can we handle this ?
For e.g., we may want to prevent deleting the department from
the department table when there are employees working for that
department.
There are also other approaches to this problem. Can you explain
?
9. Distinguish between an independent sub-query and correlated
sub-query ?
10. How can we speed up the execution of a query ? Explain
the mechanism used in the process to speed up execution of a
query ?
11. Explain what is a phantom record ?
12. Explain the differences between a Batch Transaction
Processing (BTP) system and an On-line Transaction Processing
(OLTP) System
13. What is a lock ? Explain the difference between a Shared
Lock and an
Exclusive Lock ?
14. What are the steps involved in the design of a database ?
15. What is check-pointing ? How is it different from deferred
updates or immediate updates ?
16. Distinguish between On-line Transaction Processing (OLTP)
and On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) ?
17. What is a Data Warehouse ? Why do we need it ? What
makes it different from a Data Mart ?
18. Explain the properties of a transaction based system
19. What are the issues with allowing multiple transactions to
occur at the same time ?
20. Explain the difference between UNION Vs UNION ALL when
used in a query ?
21. Explain the difference between count(*) and count(column
name)
22. Distinguish between column constraint and table constraint
? Explain table constraint with an example ?
23. There are the char and varchar2 datatypes in most Oracle.
Explain the difference between these 2 types
24. What is normalization ? Why do we need to normalize tables ?
25. Explain the steps in converting an un-normalized database to 3rd
normal form ?
26. Explain with an example of how normalization eliminates
redundancy ?
27. What is BCNF ? How do we convert a database that is in
3NF to BCNF ?
28. What are the problems faced by a database that is in 2NF ?
29. What are the problems faced by a database that is in 1NF ?
30. Explain with a example what is meant by functional
dependency ?
31. Explain with a example what is meant by transitive
dependency ?
32. Explain the merits and de-merits of normalization
33. What is de-normalization ? Why do we need to de-
normalize a database ?
34. Explain the differences between full functional dependency
and partial dependency with an example
35. What is a self-referencing table ? Can you provide an
example of such a table ?
36. Explain the hierarchy of data models ?
37. Distinguish between Relational Model, Hierarchical Model
and Network Model. Can you name some commercial packages
for the models ?
38. What is a super key ? Given an example of a super key
39. What are the guidelines that we should follow when we
select a primary key ?
40. Explain the types of relationships with examples : One to
One, One to Many, Many to One, Many to Many
41. What is a derived attribute ? Give an example.
42. What are the main building blocks of the Entity
Relationship (ER) model ?
43. Explain the difference between a database and a table
44. Illustrate the difference ( with an example ) between
natural JOIN, equi JOIN and outer JOIN
45. Explain what is a data dictionary ?
46. Explain DDL, DML and DCL statements. Provide examples
of each category.
47. What is the difference between the following terms :
ON DELETE RESTRICT and ON DELETE CASCADE
48. What is a composite entity ? Give an example ? How do we
represent composite entities in a E-R diagram ?
49. What is a weak entity ? Give an example ? How do we represent
weak entities in a E-R diagram ?
50. What is a recursive entity ? Give an example ? How do we
represent recursive entities in a E-R diagram ?
51. What are the factors that influence the selection of a good
DBMS package?
52. What is concurrency control and why is it important for a
database ?
53. Distinguish between data and information
54. Distinguish between top-down and bottom-up in database
design strategies
55. What are business rules ? Explain with an example why
they are important for a database designer
56. Explain the salient features of an Object Oriented DBMS ?
57. Explain some of the merits and de-merits of OODBMS ?
58. What are the chief responsibilities of a Database
Administrator (DBA) ?
59. Distinguish between a composite attribute and a multi-
valued attribute
60. Explain unary, binary and ternary relationships with
examples