Short Type Questions and Answers
1. What is DBMS?
Answer: DBMS (Database Management System) is software that manages and organizes data in a
structured way, allowing access, retrieval, and manipulation of data efficiently.
2. Mention two advantages of using a DBMS.
Answer: - Data redundancy is minimized.
- Ensures data consistency and integrity.
3. What is a database model?
Answer: A database model defines the logical structure of a database, including the relationships
and constraints among data.
4. Define database administrator.
Answer: A database administrator (DBA) is responsible for managing, maintaining, and securing the
database system.
5. What is data abstraction?
Answer: Data abstraction is the process of hiding the details of data storage and showing only the
essential information to users.
6. What is an entity in ER modeling?
Answer: An entity is a real-world object or concept that can be identified and stored in a database.
7. Define relationship with example.
Answer: A relationship is an association among entities.
Example: A "Works_For" relationship between Employee and Department entities.
8. What is a weak entity set?
Answer: A weak entity set is an entity that cannot be uniquely identified by its own attributes alone
and depends on a strong entity.
9. Define generalization and specialization.
Answer: - Generalization: Combining two or more entities into a higher-level entity.
- Specialization: Creating sub-entities from a higher-level entity based on some distinguishing
characteristics.
10. What is aggregation in an ER model?
Answer: Aggregation is an abstraction that treats a relationship set as an entity set for further
relationships.
11. Define primary key.
Answer: A primary key is a unique identifier for a tuple in a table.
12. What is a foreign key?
Answer: A foreign key is an attribute in one table that references the primary key in another table.
13. Define functional dependency.
Answer: A functional dependency exists when one attribute uniquely determines another attribute.
14. What is 3NF?
Answer: Third Normal Form (3NF) is a relation where every non-prime attribute is non-transitively
dependent on the primary key.
15. Write the full form of 4NF and explain it briefly.
Answer: Fourth Normal Form - It ensures that there are no multi-valued dependencies in a relation.
16. What is SQL?
Answer: SQL (Structured Query Language) is a language used to manage and manipulate relational
databases.
17. Write a query to display all records from a table named STUDENT.
Answer: SELECT * FROM STUDENT;
18. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE?
Answer: DELETE removes rows one by one and can be rolled back; TRUNCATE removes all rows
quickly and cannot be rolled back.
19. What does the GROUP BY clause do?
Answer: It groups rows sharing a property so aggregate functions can be applied to each group.
20. What is a stored procedure?
Answer: A stored procedure is a precompiled SQL code that can be executed repeatedly.
21. What is a transaction?
Answer: A transaction is a sequence of operations that performs a logical unit of work.
22. What is ACID property?
Answer: ACID stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability - the properties ensuring
reliable database transactions.
23. Define commit and rollback.
Answer: - Commit: Saves all changes made in the transaction.
- Rollback: Reverts the database to the last committed state.
24. What is a log-based recovery?
Answer: It is a recovery mechanism using logs to track changes made to the database for recovery
after failure.
25. Define concurrency control.
Answer: It is a technique to ensure that multiple transactions execute simultaneously without
interfering with each other.
26. What is primary indexing?
Answer: Primary indexing uses the primary key to build an index, allowing faster search and
retrieval.
27. Define NoSQL.
Answer: NoSQL is a non-relational database that stores data in formats like key-value, document,
column, or graph.
28. Mention one advantage of NoSQL over RDBMS.
Answer: NoSQL handles unstructured and semi-structured data more efficiently and offers better
scalability.
29. What is a document-based NoSQL database?
Answer: It stores data as documents, usually in JSON or BSON format.
30. Give one example of a NoSQL database.
Answer: MongoDB.
