ACID Properties

A transaction is a very small unit of a program and it may contain several lowlevel tasks. A
transaction in a database system must maintain Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation,
and Durability − commonly known as ACID properties − in order to ensure accuracy,
completeness, and data integrity.
 Atomicity − This property states that a transaction must be treated as an atomic unit,
that is, either all of its operations are executed or none. There must be no state in a
database where a transaction is left partially completed. States should be defined either
before the execution of the transaction or after the execution/abortion/failure of the
transaction.
 Consistency − The database must remain in a consistent state after any
transaction. No transaction should have any adverse effect on the data residing
in the database. If the database was in a consistent state before the execution
of a transaction, it must remain consistent after the execution of the transaction
as well.
 Durability − The database should be durable enough to hold all its latest
updates even if the system fails or restarts. If a transaction updates a chunk of
data in a database and commits, then the database will hold the modified data.
If a transaction commits but the system fails before the data could be written on
to the disk, then that data will be updated once the system springs back into
action.
 Isolation − In a database system where more than one transaction are being
executed simultaneously and in parallel, the property of isolation states that all
the transactions will be carried out and executed as if it is the only transaction in
the system. No transaction will affect the existence of any other transaction.
1. Collections of operations that form a single logical unit of work are called __________
a) Views
b) Networks
c) Units
d) Transactions
View Answer
Answer: d
Explanation: Collections of operations that form a single logical unit of work are called transactions. A
database system must ensure proper execution of transactions.
2. The “all-or-none” property is commonly referred to as _________
a) Isolation
b) Durability
c) Atomicity
d) None of the mentioned
View Answer
Answer: c
Explanation: The all or none policy is commonly referred to as atomicity. It ensures that a work is either
completed or not completed and there are no intermediate stages.
3. Which of the following is a property of transactions?
a) Atomicity
b) Durability
c) Isolation
d) All of the mentioned
View Answer
Answer: d
Explanation: Atomicity, Durability and Isolation are all properties of transactions.
4. Execution of translation in isolation preserves the _________ of a database
a) Atomicity
b) Consistency
c) Durability
d) All of the mentioned
View Answer
Answer: b
Explanation: Execution of translation in isolation preserves the consistency of a database. It ensures that
no other transaction is running concurrently.
5. Which of the following is not a property of a transaction?
a) Atomicity
b) Simplicity
c) Isolation
d) Durability
View Answer
6. Which of the following systems is responsible for ensuring durability?
a) Recovery system
b) Atomic system
c) Concurrency control system
d) Compiler system
View Answer
Answer: a
Explanation: The recovery system is responsible for the maintenance of durability. In addition, it also
ensures atomicity.
7. Which of the following systems is responsible for ensuring isolation?
a) Recovery system
b) Atomic system
c) Concurrency control system
d) Compiler system
View Answer
Answer: c
Explanation: The concurrency control system is responsible for ensuring isolation in a database system.
8. State true or false: Information residing in the volatile storage does not usually survive system crashes
a) True
b) False
View Answer
9. A transaction that has not been completed successfully is called as _______
a) Compensating transaction
b) Aborted transaction
c) Active transaction
d) Partially committed transaction
View Answer
Answer: b
Explanation: Aborted transaction is a state after the transaction has been rolled back and the database
has been restored to the state prior to the transaction.
10. Which of the following is not a transaction state?
a) Active
b) Partially committed
c) Failed
d) Compensated
View Answer
Answer: d
Explanation: Compensated is not a transaction state. But active, partially committed and failed are
different states of a transaction.
11. The execution sequences in concurrency control are termed as ________
a) Serials
b) Schedules
c) Organizations
d) Time tables
View Answer
Answer: b
Explanation: The execution sequences in concurrency control are known as schedules.
12. The scheme that controls the interaction between executing transactions is called as _____
a) Concurrency control scheme
b) Multiprogramming scheme
c) Serialization scheme
d) Schedule scheme
View Answer
Answer: a
Explanation: The scheme that controls the interaction between executing transactions is called as
concurrency control scheme.

10. Which of the following is not a state in transaction?

a) Active
b) Terminated
c) Aborted
d) Partially committed
View Answer
Answer: b
Explanation: The transaction states are abort, active, committed, partially committed, Failed.

8. _______ means that data used during the execution of a transaction cannot be used by a
second transaction until the first one is completed.
a) Serializability
b) Atomicity
c) Isolation
d) Time stamping
View Answer
Answer: c
Explanation: Isolation means that data used during the execution of a transaction can’t be
used by a second transaction until the first one is completed.

. Which of the following is an atomic sequence of database actions?

a) Transaction
b) Concurrency
c) Relations
d) All of the mentioned
View Answer
Answer: a
Explanation: Transaction is a collection of operations that provides single logical function in
database.
4. When the transaction finishes the final statement the transaction enters into
a) Active state
b) Committed state
c) Partially committed state
d) Abort state
View Answer
Answer: c
Explanation: The commit statement has to be issued to enter into committed state.

Each modification done in database transaction are first recorded into the
a) Harddrive
b) Log
c) Disk
d) Datamart
View Answer
Answer: b
Explanation: After commit is issued the data are stored in a database and stored in drive.

2. If an transaction is performed in a database and committed, the changes are taken to the
previous state of transaction by
a) Flashback
b) Rollback
c) Both Flashback and Rollback
d) Cannot be done
View Answer
Answer: d
Explanation: Once committed the changes cannot be rolled back.

1. A transaction may not always complete its execution successfully. Such a transaction is
termed
a) Aborted
b) Terminated
c) Closed
d) All of the mentioned
View Answer
Answer: a
Explanation: If we are to ensure the atomicity property, an aborted transaction must have no
effect on the state of the database.