1. What is a DBMS?

o A Database Management System (DBMS) is software that interacts with users,

applications, and databases to store, modify, and retrieve data efficiently.

2. What are the types of DBMS?

o Hierarchical DBMS

o Network DBMS

o Relational DBMS (RDBMS)

o Object-oriented DBMS

3. What is RDBMS? How is it different from DBMS?

o RDBMS (Relational DBMS) stores data in tables with relationships, while DBMS
manages data without enforcing relationships strictly.

4. What is a database schema?

o A database schema defines the structure of the database, including tables, columns,
data types, and constraints.

5. What is normalization?

o Normalization is a process to minimize redundancy and dependency in a database

by dividing large tables into smaller ones.

SQL and Queries

6. What are the types of SQL commands?

o DDL (Data Definition Language) – CREATE, ALTER, DROP

o DML (Data Manipulation Language) – INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE

o DQL (Data Query Language) – SELECT

o DCL (Data Control Language) – GRANT, REVOKE

o TCL (Transaction Control Language) – COMMIT, ROLLBACK

7. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE?

o DELETE removes rows with a condition and can be rolled back.

o TRUNCATE removes all rows without a condition and cannot be rolled back.

8. What is the difference between WHERE and HAVING?

o WHERE is used to filter rows before aggregation.

o HAVING is used after aggregation to filter grouped data.

9. What is the difference between UNION and UNION ALL?

 o UNION removes duplicate rows.

o UNION ALL includes all rows, including duplicates.

10. What are JOINS in SQL?

 INNER JOIN – Returns matching records.

 LEFT JOIN – Returns all from the left table and matching from the right.

 RIGHT JOIN – Returns all from the right table and matching from the left.

 FULL JOIN – Returns all records when there is a match in either table.

Indexes and Constraints

11. What is an index in DBMS?

 An index speeds up data retrieval in a database. It can be Clustered (physically reorders) or

Non-clustered (creates a logical order).

12. What are constraints in SQL?

 NOT NULL – Ensures column cannot have NULL values.

 UNIQUE – Ensures all values in a column are unique.

 PRIMARY KEY – A unique identifier for a table.

 FOREIGN KEY – Links two tables.

 CHECK – Restricts values in a column.

13. What is the difference between a primary key and a unique key?

 A primary key cannot have NULL values and uniquely identifies a row.

 A unique key allows NULL values and ensures unique values.

14. What is a foreign key?

 A foreign key is a column in one table that refers to the primary key in another table to
enforce referential integrity.

15. What is the difference between a clustered and a non-clustered index?

 A clustered index determines the physical order of rows.

 A non-clustered index creates a separate structure to store index data.

Advanced DBMS Concepts

16. What is a view in SQL?

 A view is a virtual table based on a SELECT query.

17. What is ACID in DBMS?

  Atomicity – Ensures all operations in a transaction complete successfully.

 Consistency – Ensures data integrity before and after a transaction.

 Isolation – Ensures transactions do not interfere with each other.

 Durability – Ensures changes persist after a successful transaction.

18. What is a stored procedure?

 A stored procedure is a precompiled set of SQL statements stored in the database to

improve performance.

19. What is a trigger in SQL?

 A trigger is an automatic action executed in response to database events (INSERT, UPDATE,

DELETE).

20. What is the difference between a function and a procedure?

 A function returns a single value, while a procedure can return multiple values and execute
complex logic.

Transactions and Concurrency Control

21. What is a transaction in DBMS?

 A transaction is a sequence of operations that follow ACID properties.

22. What is the difference between COMMIT and ROLLBACK?

 COMMIT saves all changes.

 ROLLBACK undoes all uncommitted changes.

23. What is deadlock in DBMS?

 A deadlock occurs when two transactions wait for each other’s resources indefinitely.

24. How can deadlocks be prevented?

 Using locks in a consistent order

 Timeouts for transactions

 Using deadlock detection mechanisms

25. What are isolation levels in DBMS?

 Read Uncommitted

 Read Committed

 Repeatable Read

 Serializable
Database Design and Normalization

26. What are the types of normal forms?

 1NF (First Normal Form) – No duplicate columns.

 2NF (Second Normal Form) – 1NF + No partial dependencies.

 3NF (Third Normal Form) – 2NF + No transitive dependencies.

 BCNF (Boyce-Codd Normal Form) – Stronger 3NF.

27. What is denormalization?

 Denormalization increases redundancy to improve performance.

28. What is an ER model?

 Entity-Relationship (ER) model represents entities and relationships between them.

29. What is the difference between OLTP and OLAP?

 OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) handles transactional data.

 OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) supports complex queries for analysis.

30. What is a surrogate key?

 A surrogate key is an artificial primary key generated by the system.

Miscellaneous

31. What is a materialized view?

 A materialized view stores query results for better performance.

32. What is a cursor in SQL?

 A cursor is used to fetch rows one by one from a result set.

33. What is an ORM?

 Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) converts data between relational databases and object-
oriented programming.

34. What is NoSQL?

 NoSQL is a non-relational database designed for scalability and flexibility (e.g., MongoDB,
Cassandra).

35. What is the difference between SQL and NoSQL?

 SQL is structured, uses tables, and follows ACID.

 NoSQL is unstructured, scalable, and schema-less.

1. What is denormalization?

o Denormalization increases redundancy to improve performance.

 2. What is an entity?

 An entity is an object with attributes stored in a database (e.g., Student, Employee).

SQL & Queries

11. What are the types of SQL commands?

 DDL (CREATE, ALTER, DROP, TRUNCATE)

 DML (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE)

 DQL (SELECT)

 DCL (GRANT, REVOKE)

 TCL (COMMIT, ROLLBACK, SAVEPOINT)

12. What is the difference between DELETE, TRUNCATE, and DROP?

 DELETE removes rows but keeps structure.

 TRUNCATE removes all rows and resets identity.

 DROP removes the table completely.

13. What is the difference between WHERE and HAVING?

 WHERE filters before aggregation; HAVING filters after aggregation.

14. What is the difference between UNION and UNION ALL?

 UNION removes duplicates; UNION ALL keeps all records.

15. What are JOINS in SQL?

 INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, FULL JOIN, CROSS JOIN, SELF JOIN.

16. What is a subquery?

 A subquery is a query inside another query.

17. What is a stored procedure?

 A stored procedure is a precompiled SQL script stored in the database.

18. What is a trigger in SQL?

 A trigger is an automatic action executed in response to an event.

19. What is a cursor in SQL?

 A cursor is a database object used to retrieve row-by-row results.

20. What are aggregate functions in SQL?

 COUNT(), SUM(), AVG(), MIN(), MAX().

Indexes & Constraints

21. What is an index in DBMS?

 An index speeds up data retrieval.

22. What are the types of indexes?

 Clustered Index – Reorders rows physically.

 Non-clustered Index – Creates a separate structure for quick lookup.

23. What is the difference between a primary key and a unique key?

 Primary Key: Unique + Not Null.

 Unique Key: Unique but allows NULL.

24. What is a foreign key?

 A foreign key links a column to another table’s primary key.

25. What are constraints in SQL?

 NOT NULL, UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, CHECK, DEFAULT.

Transactions & Concurrency

26. What is a transaction in DBMS?

 A transaction is a sequence of database operations that follow ACID properties.

27. What is ACID in DBMS?

 Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability.

28. What is the difference between COMMIT and ROLLBACK?

 COMMIT saves changes.

 ROLLBACK undoes changes.

29. What is deadlock?

 Deadlock occurs when two transactions wait for each other’s resources.

30. How to prevent deadlocks?

 Lock ordering, timeout mechanisms, deadlock detection.

31. What are isolation levels in DBMS?

 Read Uncommitted, Read Committed, Repeatable Read, Serializable.

Database Design & Normalization

32. What is an ER model?

  Entity-Relationship Model represents entities, attributes, and relationships.

33. What is BCNF?

 Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF) is a stronger form of 3NF.

34. What is functional dependency?

 A functional dependency (FD) exists when one attribute uniquely determines another.

35. What is a surrogate key?

 A surrogate key is a system-generated unique identifier.

36. What is a materialized view?

 A materialized view stores query results for fast retrieval.

NoSQL & Big Data

37. What is NoSQL?

 NoSQL databases store unstructured or semi-structured data without a fixed schema.

38. What are the types of NoSQL databases?

 Key-Value Store, Document Store, Column-Family Store, Graph Database.

39. What is the difference between SQL and NoSQL?

 SQL follows a structured schema; NoSQL is flexible.

40. What is MongoDB?

 A document-oriented NoSQL database storing JSON-like data.

Miscellaneous

41. What is indexing?

 Indexing improves query performance by creating quick lookup tables.

42. What is partitioning in DBMS?

 Partitioning splits large tables into smaller, manageable parts.

43. What is sharding?

 Sharding distributes data across multiple servers to improve performance.

44. What is a hash join?

 Hash join uses a hash table for efficient joining of large tables.

45. What is a B-tree index?

 B-tree index is a balanced tree structure used for indexing in databases.

46. What is a log file in DBMS?

 A log file records all changes for recovery in case of failure.

47. What is replication in DBMS?

 Replication creates copies of a database for backup and high availability.

48. What is data warehousing?

 A data warehouse is a central repository for analytical reporting.

49. What is an ORM?

 Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) connects databases to programming languages.

50. What is an API in DBMS?

 API (Application Programming Interface) allows communication between databases and

applications.