Fundamentals of Database Systems
Latest Exam Questions And Correct
Answers.
Database - Answer A collection of related data, that is a collection of related facts that have implicit
meaning. Additionally (not in text) databases require for properties:
• A method to define / construct data.
• A method to update data.
• A method to retrieve data.
• An administration method, that is security (e.g. creating new users who can access the data).
Remark: Without the additional properties, you could say a textbook is a database, since it is a collection
of data.
Traditional Database Systems - Answer A database that stores text or alphanumeric characters as
opposed to a multimedia database, which stores videos and pictures.
Database Management System (DBMS) - Answer A software that creates, reads, updates, and deletes
data in a database while controlling access and security.
Example: MySQL, hypersonic SQL.
Datatype - Answer The kind of information a field contains—whether text, number, date/time, or some
other type.
File Processing vs Database Approach - Answer Traditionally speaking, information was stored using
that filing approach. That is, an entity, say a student who has various data, like grades and university
balance, were compartmentalize into different containers: a department for academic records or a
department for university bills. However, with the database approach, we take that one entity and the
user can view different aspects of that one entity.
,Database Snapshot - Answer A snapshot of a database is the log of the database at a particular
moment in time. This can be used as a background. It is may also be used as a recovery method. It is also
known as an occurrence or instance.
Catalog and Meta-Data - Answer Stores the description of a particular database. The contents that go
inside the catalog is called the meta-data. Meta meaning that it is the metaphysical description of the
data.
Example: For example, think of a photo. The photo itself is the data, however the meta-data for the
photo might be the author of the photo (owner), date-taken, or etc. Example from Wikipedia.
Example: Every prescription is a data that is stored in a database system. If you used CVS RxConnect
system, it requires that every new prescription be generated with an NPI code, a sig (direction) field, and
a quantity field. This is the meta-data of each prescription (source: was a pharmacy technician).
Data Model - Answer Logical data structures that detail the relationships among data elements using
graphics or pictures.
Integrity Constraints - Answer Rules that help ensure the quality of information. For example, requiring
the user for the field in the ID section of a student to have the data-type of an integer. However, it
doesn't have to be specific to programming, it can be something like ensuring a password has a certain
set of characters or requirements.
Example: Relationship constraints
Example: Suppose we have a database that captures parent-child relationships. One integrity constraint
would be to ensure that every new entity who enters the database and is a child, must be paired with a
parent.
End-Users - Answer End users are persons throughout the organization who add, delete, and modify
data in the database and who request or receive information from it.
Example: A medical scribe accessing Epic Cadence System to update medical notes or to use the NPI to
send medical information to another doctor.
, Example: A receptionist looking through Griffon's Texas Emergency Care Database to pull up medical
records for a patient trying to enlist in the Navy (source: going into military).
Database Administrator (DBA) - Answer The person responsible for coordinating, controlling, and
managing the database.
Remark: IBM Provides a certification for database administrators. The roles of a database administrator
could be looked at more in depth here:
https://www.ibm.com/training/certification/C0005400
Remark: Equivalently, if you are going into IT and Networking, you should take the Cisco CNAA exam
(source: worked at 3i-International).
Database Designers - Answer Responsible to define the content, the structure, the constraints, and
functions or transactions against the database. They must communicate with the end-users and
understand their needs.
Software Engineer - Answer A software engineer is a system analyst and an application programmer. A
system analyst is someone who determines the requirements of an end-user and develop specifications
for those requirements. An application programmer is someone who can implement those specifications
as programs. Consequently, a system analyst would probably do more verbal communication, emails and
conferences, and schematic drawings as opposed to actual programming.
Object-Oriented Databases - Answer An object oriented database can store an object in the
rudimentary programming sense. That is, it can store the object and it's private variables and public
functions to be accessed later, perhaps by a different program.
Data Manipulation Languages (DML) - Answer A data manipulation language is a language to
manipulate the data of a database. This is usually a subset of a larger language, such as SQL. For
example, in SQL there is UPDATE (a data manipulation key-word). But there are also CREATE TABLE,
SELECT, etc, which don't necessarily manipulate or update the data.
