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Acsc 352 Exam

This document outlines the instructions and questions for the third year second semester examinations for a Bachelor of Applied Computer Science degree. Section A contains one compulsory question covering topics such as RAID 6 disk storage, recoverable schedules, hardware storage issues, database operations, and distinguishing failed and aborted transactions. Section B contains four additional questions, two of which must be answered. These questions cover topics such as serial scheduling, disk storage techniques, database indexing strategies, transaction properties, database security, system failures, parallel and distributed databases, query optimization, deadlock prevention, database design pitfalls, and modern database types. Students are instructed to answer legibly on both sides of the question paper within the allotted exam time.

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46 views2 pages

Acsc 352 Exam

This document outlines the instructions and questions for the third year second semester examinations for a Bachelor of Applied Computer Science degree. Section A contains one compulsory question covering topics such as RAID 6 disk storage, recoverable schedules, hardware storage issues, database operations, and distinguishing failed and aborted transactions. Section B contains four additional questions, two of which must be answered. These questions cover topics such as serial scheduling, disk storage techniques, database indexing strategies, transaction properties, database security, system failures, parallel and distributed databases, query optimization, deadlock prevention, database design pitfalls, and modern database types. Students are instructed to answer legibly on both sides of the question paper within the allotted exam time.

Uploaded by

Nancy Juma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHUKA UNIVERSITY

THIRD YEAR SECOND SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS FOR BACHELOR OF


APPLIED COMPUTER SCIENCE

ACSC 352: FILE STRUCTURES AND DATABASE SYSTEMS

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Answer all questions in section A and any other two questions from section B.
2. No Reference Material is allowed in the exam Room.
3. All Mobile phones should be switched off in the exam room.
4. Write legibly on both sides of the question paper

SECTION A (COMPULSORY)
QUESTION 1 (COMPULSORY) [30 MARKS]
a) Using a diagram, explain RAID 6 disk storage (4marks)

b) Using an example of a schedule, explain the concept of recoverable schedule.


(5marks)
c) Explain the following hardware storage devices issues
i) Latent failures (2 marks)
ii) Data scrubbing (2 marks)
iii) Hot swapping (2 marks)

d) Using an SQL extract, explain the following database operations: -


i) Union operations (2marks)
ii) Intersect operations (2marks)
iii) Except operations (2marks)

e) Using an example, distinguish between failed and aborted transaction (4marks)

f) Using a sketch diagram, explain THREE data types that are usable in spatial databases
(5marks)

SECTION B (Answer two question from this section)


QUESTION 2 [20 MARKS]
a) Assume in a certain schedule, transaction T1 transfer $50 from account A to account B,
and T2 transfer 10% of the balance from A to B. Develop a serial schedule in which T1 is
followed by T2. (4marks)

b) Explain FOUR techniques that have been used to improve speed of access to disk storage
blocks. (8marks)

c) Distinguish between optical disk and cache storage (2marks)

d) Using an illustration, explain the following Performance measures of a disk storage


i) MTTF (2marks)
ii) Latency time (2marks)
iii) Transfer rate (2marks)

1
QUESTION 3 [20 MARKS]
a) Using a database extract. Discuss the following indexing strategies in databases: -
i) Dense indexing (4marks)
ii) Sparse indexing (4marks)

b) Explain FOUR properties of database transactions (4marks)

c) With regard to database security.


i) Explain the term database security. (2marks)
ii) Outline FOUR mechanisms of securing SQL databases (6marks)

QUESTION 4 [20 MARKS]


a) Explain THREE types of failures that would lead to system crash (6marks)

b) Distinguish between parallel databases and distributed databases (4marks)

c) Explain FOUR causes of parallelism in databases (4marks)

d) During query optimization process, there are a number of transformational relational


equivalent expressions. Using sketches outline THREE of these transformational
relational equivalent expressions (6marks)

QUESTION 5 [20 MARKS]


a) Using an example in each case, discuss THREE deadlock prevention mechanisms
(6marks)

b) Discuss TWO major pitfalls in designing databases during database design (4marks)

c) Other than spatial databases, explain the concept, advantages, disadvantages and data
types of TWO modern databases. (10marks)

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