QUESTION BANK

Very Short Questions (2 marks)

1. What is the main difference between a database system and a file system?
2. Name three types of data models used in database systems.
3. What does DDL stand for, and what is its purpose?
4. What is the purpose of DML (Data Manipulation Language)?
5. Name two types of database users.
6. What is the role of a database administrator (DBA)?
7. Define the concept of transaction management in a database.
8. Define an Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram.
9. What is an entity set in an ER diagram?
10. What is an attribute in the context of ER diagrams?
11. What is a relationship set in an ER diagram?
12. Name one additional feature of the ER model.
13. How is a weak entity represented in an ER diagram?
14. Define a relationship in an ER diagram.
15. What is functional dependency in database design?
16. What is decomposition in database design?
17. What does normalization mean in database design?
18. What is the primary goal of normalization?
19. What is the First Normal Form (1NF)?
20. What is Second Normal Form (2NF)?
21. What is Third Normal Form (3NF)?
22. What is Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)?
23. Define Fourth Normal Form (4NF).
24. What is Fifth Normal Form (5NF)?
25. Why is normalization important in database design?
26. What is a partial dependency in relation to 2NF?
27. What is a transitive dependency, and how does it affect 3NF?
28. What is a candidate key in a database schema?
29. What is a multivalued dependency, and how does it relate to 4NF?
30. What is a join dependency, and how does it relate to 5NF?
31. What is a superkey in database design?
32. What is database recovery?
33. Name the three types of database failures.
34. What is a transaction failure in database systems?
35. What are the different types of recovery techniques used in databases?
36. What is the role of buffer management in database recovery?
37. What is a checkpoint in database recovery?
38. How does a transaction log help in recovery?
39. What are the goals of database security?
40. Define the concept of transaction atomicity in ACID properties.
41. What is database durability in the context of ACID properties?
42. What is the consistency property in the ACID model?
43. What does isolation mean in the ACID properties of transactions?
44. What are the advantages of using database backups for recovery?
45. What is a roll-back recovery technique?
 Short Questions /Long Questions

1. What are the main types of data models used in database systems? Explain each
briefly.
2. What are database languages? Differentiate between DDL, DML, and DCL.
3. Describe the operations of DML and their significance in data manipulation.
4. List and explain the different types of database users.
5. What is the role of a Database Administrator (DBA)? Discuss the responsibilities of a
DBA.
6. Explain the concept of transaction management and its importance in databases.
7. Give a brief history of database systems. How have they evolved from file systems to
relational systems?
8. What is an Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram? Explain its components and their
significance.
9. Define attributes and entity sets in the context of ER diagrams. How are they
represented?
10. Describe the additional features of the ER model such as weak entities, aggregation,
and generalization.
11. Differentiate between weak and strong entities in ER diagrams.
12. What is the purpose of a primary key in an ER diagram? How is it represented?
13. Discuss the process of transforming an ER diagram into a relational schema.
14. Explain the concept of functional dependency in relational databases with examples.
15. Define normalization. Why is it important in database design?
16. What is First Normal Form (1NF)? Explain the rules for converting a relation to 1NF.
17. What is Second Normal Form (2NF)? Describe how a relation can be converted from
1NF to 2NF.
18. What is Third Normal Form (3NF)? Discuss the conditions for a relation to be in 3NF.
19. What is Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)? How does it improve upon 3NF?
20. Describe Fourth Normal Form (4NF) and explain when a relation violates 4NF.
21. What is Fifth Normal Form (5NF)? Explain the significance of 5NF in database
normalization.
22. Explain the concept of a candidate key and how it differs from a primary key.
23. What is a multivalued dependency, and how does it lead to a violation of 4NF?
24. Describe a lossless join in the context of relational decomposition.
25. What is a superkey? How is it different from a candidate key in database design?
26. What are the advantages of normalization in database design? What are the trade-
offs?
27. Explain the process of decomposing a relation into 2NF, 3NF, and BCNF with
examples.
28. What is database recovery, and why is it crucial for database management systems?
29. List and explain the different types of failures that can occur in a database system.
30. What are the types of recovery techniques used to handle database failures?
31. Explain the role of buffer management in database recovery. How does it affect
transaction management?
32. What is the purpose of a transaction log in database recovery? How is it used for crash
recovery?
33. Define a checkpoint in database recovery and explain its role in the recovery process.
34. What is the difference between physical and logical recovery techniques?
35. What are firewalls, and how do they contribute to the security of a database system?
36. Describe data encryption and its significance in ensuring database security.
37. What are the goals of database security? Discuss the methods used to achieve these
goals.
38. What are the different approaches to database backup and recovery? Discuss their
advantages and limitations.
39. Explain the concept of roll-forward and roll-back recovery techniques.
40. How can a transaction log be used to perform crash recovery in a database?
41. What is an undo/redo operation in database recovery? How is it used?
42. What are ACID properties? Explain each of the ACID properties in detail.
43. are scheduled in a database system. How is a transaction schedule executed?
44. What is the importance of concurrent transaction execution in database systems?
45. Discuss the concept of lock-based concurrency control. How does it help in managing
concurrent transactions?
46. Define concurrency control in the context of transaction management. What are the
challenges in controlling concurrency?
47. What is serializability in transaction management? How does it ensure correctness in
concurrent transactions?
48. What is deadlock in database systems? How can deadlocks be detected and resolved?
49. Explain the concept of specialized locking techniques, such as shared locks and
exclusive locks.
50. What is a two-phase locking protocol? Explain its significance in transaction
management.