Question Bank

Module 1
1. Describe the three levels of database architecture. How does mapping between these
levels work? What are the advantages of having a three-tier architecture in a database
system?
2. What are the different ways in which the class hierarchy of a relation can be viewed?
Explain each method using the example of a Company Schema.
3. Based on the requirements of a VIT Bhopal University database, draw an ER diagram
that includes the entity's Students, Courses, and Instructors. Ensure that relationships
between the entities are depicted.
4. Which model is used for conceptual database design? Proof your claim. Draw the ER-
diagram for Company Schema with all possible relationship.
5. Explain all possible types of cardinalities with proper examples. How many tables are
required to represent each type of cardinalities. Explain in details.
6. Explain the purpose of a database system and how it differs from traditional file-based
systems.
 Discuss the three views of data in a database system: external, conceptual, and
internal.
 How do these views help in achieving data independence?
7. List and explain the different types of database users in a database system.
 What is the role of a Database Administrator (DBA), and what responsibilities
does the DBA have in managing the database system?
 How does the DBA ensure data security, integrity, and backup?
8. Explain the importance of data models in a database system.
 Discuss the basic building blocks of a data model, such as entities, attributes, and
relationships.
 How do these building blocks help in representing the real-world data in a
database?

Module 2
1. Explain the concepts of set-based operators and tuple-based operators in relational
algebra Analyze how these operators differ in terms of their operation and impact on
data.
2. “A DBMS enforces Integrity Constraints that permits only legal instances to be stored in
the database.” Is this statement correct? If yes, then elaborate all types of ICs.
3. Describe the different types of anomalies that are eliminated through normalization.
4. Elaborate functional dependencies and types with clear examples. Do you find any
relationship between mathematical function and functional dependencies? If yes then
prove it using proper example.
5. Define the structure of a relational database. What are domains in a relational database,
and how do they contribute to data integrity and consistency? Illustrate with an example
of a domain in the context of a Student table.
6. Write relational algebra expressions for the following:
 Selection: Find all employees from the Employee table whose salary is greater
than 20,000.
 Projection: Retrieve only the EmpID and EmpName from the Employee table.
 7. Consider two tables: Orders (OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate) and Customers
(CustomerID, CustomerName).
 Write a relational algebra query to perform an inner join on these two tables to
retrieve all orders with customer names.
 Also, use set operations (e.g., UNION, INTERSECT) to find customers who have
placed orders and those who have not.
8. Define tuple relational calculus. Write a tuple relational calculus query to find the names
of students who are enrolled in both CourseID = 'CSE3001' and CourseID = 'CSA1002'.
Also, explain the division operator in relational algebra and provide an example of how it
can be used to retrieve students who have taken all courses in a specific department.

Module 3
1. How do views promote data independence in a database system? Compare tables and
views with respect to storage, data manipulation, and performance.
2. Explain the key functions of SQL in a relational database. Differentiate between DDL
(Data Definition Language), DML (Data Manipulation Language), and DCL (Data
Control Language) by providing examples of each.
3. Explain the various basic and derived operators in relational algebra. Illustrate each
operator with examples and provide the corresponding SQL queries for each.
4. Explain different functions of SQL. Elaborate ten main commands used in SQL Queries.
List down them according to their order of execution.
5. Define a relational database and explain the concept of an atomic domain. Why is it
important for a database to have atomicity in its domains? Discuss how this property
contributes to the consistency and integrity of the database.
6. Write SQL statements to:
 Create a table Employee with fields: EmpID (int), EmpName (varchar), Salary
(decimal), and Department (varchar).
 Add a unique constraint to the EmpID column.
 Write an SQL query to find the average salary (AVG) and the highest salary (MAX)
for employees in each department.
7. Consider a database with two tables: Orders (OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate,
TotalAmount) and Customers (CustomerID, CustomerName).
Write an SQL query to find the CustomerName of the customer who has placed the
highest total order (use nested subquery).
8. Given the tables Students (StudentID, Name, Age) and Enrollments (StudentID,
CourseID, Grade), write an SQL query to retrieve the names of students who are enrolled
in the course with CourseID = 'CSE3001', along with their grades. Use an appropriate
INNER JOIN for the query.

Module 4
1. Describe the concept of ordered indices, with a particular emphasis on the B+ Tree, in
database management systems.
2. Discuss an example scenario where a B+ Tree index significantly enhances the
performance of database queries.
3. Analyze the significance of PL/SQL and discuss how it offers advantages over SQL in
terms of functionality and performance.
4. Write a PL/SQL block to divide two numbers, with exception handling to catch division
by zero and display an appropriate error message. What are the benefits of exception
handling in PL/SQL, and how does it improve program reliability?
 5. Define a PL/SQL block that declares variables to store a student's name, age, and marks.
Initialize these variables with sample data and write executable statements to display
these values using DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE. Explain how PL/SQL handles the
declaration and initialization of variables.
6. Write a PL/SQL block that performs the following tasks:
Declares a variable to store an employee’s salary.
Retrieves the salary from an employees table using an SQL SELECT query.
If the salary is greater than 15000, it updates the salary field in the employees table,
increasing it by 15%.
Explain the interaction between SQL and PL/SQL in this block.
7. Write a stored procedure in PL/SQL that accepts an employee ID as input and returns the
employee's department name. Also, write a function that calculates and returns the bonus
of an employee based on their salary. Explain the difference between a stored procedure
and a function in PL/SQL.
8. Define an explicit cursor in PL/SQL to retrieve the names and salaries of employees from
an employees table where the salary is greater than 40000.
Write a PL/SQL block that opens the cursor, fetches the results, and displays them.
Explain the steps involved in using explicit cursors.

Module 5
1. Discuss the significance of ACID properties in a Transaction Management System. Also,
specify the units responsible for ensuring each of these properties.
2. Define a database transaction. Describe the ACID properties of a transaction and explain
how each of the following properties contributes to the reliability and correctness of a
transaction.
3. What are the different isolation levels in transaction management (e.g., Read
Uncommitted, Read Committed, Repeatable Read, and Serializable)?
Explain the potential problems that can arise at each isolation level (such as dirty reads,
non-repeatable reads, and phantom reads), and how they affect transaction consistency.
4. Explain the concept of serializability in transaction management. What is the significance
of serializability in ensuring the correctness of concurrent transactions?
Describe a method for testing whether a given schedule of transactions is serializable,
such as using a precedence graph.
5. Explain the purpose of lock-based protocols in database concurrency control.
What are the differences between shared locks and exclusive locks?
Describe how a Two-Phase Locking (2PL) protocol ensures serializability and the issues
it addresses in concurrent transaction execution.
6. Discuss the conflicts that occur in concurrent schedule execution and analyze the
solutions to prevent them, with a focus on serializability and recoverability.
7. Explain the role of log-based recovery in ensuring database consistency. How do write-
ahead logging and checkpointing help in the recovery process?
8. Explain the testing procedure for the Conflict Serializability Schedule with at least two
examples. Explain the use of Topological sorting in this procedure.

All the Best!