Exam Questions - RDBMS Basics, ER Model, and Normalization Basics

Some RDBMS Exam Questions:

1. Define the three levels of Data Abstraction.

2. Define Data Independence.

3. What is view?

4. Describe Entity and Entity Sets.

5. Differentiate Strong and Weak Entity Sets.

6. What is Conceptual Schema?

7. How many types of SQL statements are there?

8. Define Transaction.

9. Differentiate Super key, Candidate key andPrimary key.

10. Differentiate subset and proper subset.

11. What is Degree of a Table?

12. How do you define Relationship Type?

13. Define DDL, DML, and TCL.

14. Write down the role of DML Compiler.

15. What do you mean by Cardinality Ratio?

16. How would you define the Cardinality of an Attribute (Column)?

17. How do you map a Strong entity set to relation schema?

18. How do you map a Weak entity set to relationschema?

19. Why do we have Weak Entity sets?

20. Why does the conversion of Weak Entity set into Strong Entity set cause redundancy?

21. What would cause a database to have more relation schemas compared to its entity sets in ER diagram?

22. Why Referential Integrity is important?

23. What are the various attribute types?

24. Define Total participation.

25. When do we need a Descriptive Attribute?

26. What is termed as Discriminator in ER model?

27. How do we represent Attribute Inheritance in an ER diagram?

28. How do you define the Cardinality of a relationship set?

29. How a composite attribute can be converted into relation schema?

30. What is Query?

31. How do we use Data Dictionary?

32. List down the different types of Database users.

33. Why DML queries are compiled and DDL queries are interpreted?

34. What is the role of Concurrency control in database transactions?

35. Why Normalization process is considered important in most database designs?

36. What is Normalization?

37. Define Functional Dependency?

38. When do we say a set of functional dependencies F is Minimal?

39. Describe the Closure (F+) of set offunctional dependencies (F).

40. Describe the Canonical Cover (Fc) ofset of functional dependencies (F).

41. Is it useful to know all the candidate keys of a relation? Justify your reasons.

42. What is Prime attribute?

43. What is non-prime attribute?

44. What is Multi-valued dependency?

45. List the properties of 1NF relation.

46. List the properties of 2NF relation.

47. List the properties of 3NF relation.

48. List the properties of BCNF relation.

49. Describe Armstrong’s axioms.

50. How would Armstrong’s axioms useful in database design?

51. Define Lossless Join Decomposition.

52. List the important facts about serializable schedules

53. What are the important properties of 2PL and its variants?

54. Explain strict two phase locking with examle

55. Explain simple two phase locking with example

56. What are the properties of functional dependencies that are part of a minimal cover?

57.