DBMS UNIT TEST-1 IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

2 MARKS QUESTIONS
1. Explain Instances and Schemas with Example.

2. What are the Characteristics if Data Base Systems?

3. Compare the Data Base systems with Conventional File Systems.

3 MARKS QUESTIONS
4. Define DBMS and Explain Applications of Data Base Systems.

5. What is Data Independence?

6. Define Entity’s and Attributes.

5 MARKS QUESTIONS
7. Explain three levels of Abstractions.

8. Explain the Architecture and Structure of a DBMS.

9. Explain Briefly about ER Model with Examples.

10. Explain the conceptual design with the E-R Diagram.

2 MARKS QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS

1. Explain Instances and Schemas with Example.

Instances are defined as the data stored in a database at a particular moment of

time.

Schemas are the overall design of a database. The instances are actually
copies of the instant data and information. But, on the other hand, schemas
don’t contain any data or any information.

2. What are the Characteristics if Data Base Systems?

There are so many characteristics of a database management system, which are as
follows −
 A database management system is able to store any kind of data in a database.
 The database management system has to support ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation,
durability) properties.
 The Database management system allows so many users to access databases at the same time.
  Backup and recovery are the two main methods which allow users to protect the data from
damage or loss.
 It also provides multiple views for different users in a single organization.
 It follows the concept of normalization which is helpful to minimize the redundancy of a
relation.
 It also provides users query language, helpful to insert, retrieve, update, and delete the data in
a database.
3. Compare the Data Base systems with Conventional File Systems.

Drawbacks in File System

There are so many drawbacks in using the file system. These are mentioned below −
Data redundancy and inconsistency: Different file formats, duplication of information in
different files.
 Difficulty in accessing data: To carry out new task we need to write a new program.
 Data Isolation − Different files and formats.
 Integrity problems.
 Concurrent access by multiple users.
 Security problems.
Database system offer so many solutions to all these problems
Uses of DBMS
The main uses of DBMS are as follows −
Data independence and efficient access of data.
Application Development time reduces.
Security and data integrity.
Uniform data administration.
Concurrent access and recovery from crashes.

3 MARKS QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS

1. Define DBMS and Explain Applications of Data Base Systems.

Database Management System (DBMS): It is defined as a software system that allows the user to
define, create and maintain the database and provide control access to the data.
It is a collection of programs used for managing data and simultaneously it supports different types
of users to create, manage, retrieve, update and store information.
Applications:

 Railway Reservation System − The railway reservation system database plays a very important role
by keeping record of ticket booking, train’s departure time and arrival status and also gives
information regarding train late to people through the database.
  Library Management System − Now-a-days it’s become easy in the Library to track each book and
maintain it because of the database. This happens because there are thousands of books in the library.
It is very difficult to keep a record of all books in a copy or register. Now DBMS used to maintain all
the information related to book issue dates, name of the book, author and availability of the book.
 Banking − Banking is one of the main applications of databases. We all know there will be a thousand
transactions through banks daily and we are doing this without going to the bank. This is all possible
just because of DBMS that manages all the bank transactions.
 Universities and colleges − Now-a-days examinations are done online. So, the universities and
colleges are maintaining DBMS to store Student’s registrations details, results, courses and grade all
the information in the database. For example, telecommunications. Without DBMS there is no
telecommunication company. DBMS is most useful to these companies to store the call details and
monthly postpaid bills.
 Credit card transactions − The purchase of items and transactions of credit cards are made possible
only by DBMS. A credit card holder has to know the importance of their information that all are
secured through DBMS.
 Social Media Sites − By filling the required details we are able to access social media platforms.
Many users sign up daily on social websites such as Facebook, Pintrest and Instagram. All the
information related to the users are stored and maintained with the help of DBMS.
 Finance − Now-a-days there are lots of things to do with finance like storing sales, holding
information and finance statement management etc. these all can be done with database systems.
 Military − In military areas the DBMS is playing a vital role. Military keeps records of soldiers and it
has so many files that should be kept secure and safe. DBMS provides a high security to military
information.
 Online Shopping − Now-a-days we all do Online shopping without wasting the time by going
shopping with the help of DBMS. The products are added and sold only with the help of DBMS like
Purchase information, invoice bills and payment.
 Human Resource Management − The management keeps records of each employee’s salary, tax and
work through DBMS.
 Manufacturing − Manufacturing companies make products and sell them on a daily basis. To keep
records of all those details DBMS is used.
 Airline Reservation system − Just like the railway reservation system, airlines also need DBMS to
keep records of flights arrival, departure and delay status.

So finally, we can clearly conclude that the DBMS is playing a very important role in
each and every field.

5. What is Data Independence?

o Data independence can be explained using the three-schema architecture.

 o Data independence refers characteristic of being able to modify the schema at one level
of the database system without altering the schema at the next higher level.

There are two types of data independence:

1. Logical Data Independence:

o Logical data independence refers characteristic of being able to change the conceptual
schema without having to change the external schema.
o Logical data independence is used to separate the external level from the conceptual
view.
o If we do any changes in the conceptual view of the data, then the user view of the data
would not be affected.
o Logical data independence occurs at the user interface level.

2. Physical Data Independence:

o Physical data independence can be defined as the capacity to change the internal schema
without having to change the conceptual schema.
o If we do any changes in the storage size of the database system server, then the
Conceptual structure of the database will not be affected.
o Physical data independence is used to separate conceptual levels from the internal levels.
o Physical data independence occurs at the logical interface level.
 Fig: Data Independence

6. Define Entity-Relationship model components and Attributes.

Entity-Relationship Model Components:

ER diagram basically having three components:

1. Entities − It is a real-world thing which can be a person, place, or even a concept. For Example:
Department, Admin, Courses, Teachers, Students, Building, etc are some of the entities of a School
Management System.
2. Attributes − An entity which contains a real-world property called an attribute. For Example: The
entity employee has the property like employee id, salary, age, etc.
3. Relationship − Relationship tells how two attributes are related. For Example: Employee works for a
department.
An entity has a real-world property called attribute and these attributes are defined by a set of values called
domain.

5 MARKS QUESTIONS
7. Explain three levels of Abstractions.
Data Abstraction is a process of hiding unwanted or irrelevant details from the end user. It provides a
different view and helps in achieving data independence which is used to enhance the security of data.
The database systems consist of complicated data structures and relations. For users to access the data
easily, these complications are kept hidden, and only the relevant part of the database is made accessible to
the users through data abstraction.
Mainly there are three levels of abstraction for DBMS

1. Physical or Internal Level

2. Logical or Conceptual Level

3. View or External Level

1. Physical or Internal Level

The internal level has an internal schema which describes the physical storage structure of the database.
The internal schema is also known as a physical schema.
It uses the physical data model. It is used to define that how the data will be stored in a block.
The physical level is used to describe complex low-level data structures in detail.

Facts about Internal schema

 The internal schema is the lowest level of data abstraction

 It helps you to keeps information about the actual representation of the entire database. Like the
actual storage of the data on the disk in the form of records
 The internal view tells us what data is stored in the database and how.
2. Logical or Conceptual Level

The conceptual schema describes the design of a database at the conceptual level. Conceptual level is also
known as logical level.
The conceptual schema describes the structure of the whole database.
The conceptual level describes what data are to be stored in the database and also describes what
relationship exists among those data.
In the conceptual level, internal details such as an implementation of the data structure are hidden.
Programmers and database administrators work at this level.

3. View or External Level

It hides the unrelated details of the database from the user. There may be “n” number
of external views for each database.
Each external view is defined using an external schema, which consists of definitions of
various types of external record of that specific view.
View level can be used by all users (all levels' users). This level is the least complex
and easy to understand.

Facts about External schema

 An external level is only related to the data which is viewed by specific

end users.
  This level includes some external schemas.

 External schema level is nearest to the user

 An external schema is also known as view schema.

 Each view schema describes the database part that a particular user
group is interested and hides the remaining database from that user group.

 The view schema describes the end user interaction with database
systems.
8. Explain the Architecture and Structure of a DBMS.

The typical structure of DBMS is based on Relational data model.

The top part of the architecture shows application interfaces used by naive users,
application programs created by application programmers, query tools used by
sophisticated users and administration tools used by database administrator.
The lowest part of the architecture is for disk storage.
The Middle two parts (Query processor and storage manager) are important
components of database architecture.

Query processor:

The interactive query processor helps the database system to simplify and facilitate
access to data. It consists of DDL (Data Definition Language) interpreter, DML
(Data Manipulation Language) compiler and query evaluation engine.
The following are various functionalities and components of query processor

 DDL interpreter: This is basically a translator which interprets the DDL

statements in data dictionaries.

 DML compiler: It translates DML statements query language into an

evaluation plan. This plan consists of the instructions which query
evaluation engine understands.

 Query evaluation engine: It executes the low-level instructions generated

by the DML compiler.
When a user issues a query, the parsed query is presented to a query optimizer, which
uses information about how the data is stored to produce an efficient execution plan
for evaluating the query. An execution plan is a blueprint for evaluating a query. It is
evaluated by query evaluation engine.
Storage manager:

Storage manager is the component of database system that provides interface

between the low level data stored in the database and the application programs and
queries submitted to the system.
The storage manager is responsible for storing, retrieving, and updating data in the
database. The storage manager components include

 Authorization and integrity manager: Validates the users who want to

access the data and tests for integrity constraints.

 Transaction manager: Ensures that the database remains in consistent

despite of system failures and concurrent transaction execution proceeds
without conflicting.
  File manager: Manages allocation of space on disk storage and
representation of the information on disk.

 Buffer manager: Manages the fetching of data from disk storage into main
memory. The buffer manager also decides what data to cache in main
memory. Buffer manager is a crucial part of database system.
Storage manager implements several data structures such as

 Data files: Used for storing database itself.

 Data dictionary: Used for storing metadata, particularly schema of

database.

 Indices: Indices are used to provide fast access to data items present in
the database

9. Explain Briefly about ER Model with Examples.

ER (Entity Relationship) Diagram in DBMS:

o ER model stands for an Entity-Relationship model. It is a high-level data model. This
model is used to define the data elements and relationship for a specified system.
o It develops a conceptual design for the database. It also develops a very simple and easy
to design view of data.
o In ER modeling, the database structure is portrayed as a diagram called an entity-
relationship diagram.

For example, suppose we design a school database. In this database, the student will be an
entity with attributes like address, name, id, age, etc. The address can be another entity with
attributes like city, street name, pin code, etc and there will be a relationship between them.
Component of ER Diagram:

1. Entity:
An entity may be any object, class, person or place. In the ER diagram, an entity can be
represented as rectangles.

Consider an organization as an example- manager, product, employee, department etc. can be

taken as an entity.

a. Weak Entity

An entity that depends on another entity called a weak entity. The weak entity doesn't contain
any key attribute of its own. The weak entity is represented by a double rectangle.
2. Attribute

a. Key Attribute

The key attribute is used to represent the main characteristics of an entity. It represents a
primary key. The key attribute is represented by an ellipse with the text underlined.
An attribute that composed of many other attributes is known as a composite attribute. The
composite attribute is represented by an ellipse, and those ellipses are connected with an
ellipse.

c. Multivalued Attribute

An attribute can have more than one value. These attributes are known as a multivalued
attribute. The double oval is used to represent multivalued attribute.

For example, a student can have more than one phone number.

d. Derived Attribute

An attribute that can be derived from other attribute is known as a derived attribute. It can be
represented by a dashed ellipse.

For example, A person's age changes over time and can be derived from another attribute like
Date of birth.
3. Relationship
A relationship is used to describe the relation between entities. Diamond or rhombus is used to
represent the relationship.

Types of relationship are as follows:

a. One-to-One Relationship

When only one instance of an entity is associated with the relationship, then it is
known as one to one relationship.

For example, A female can marry to one male, and a male can marry to one female.

b. One-to-many relationship

When only one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one instance of an entity on the
right associates with the relationship then this is known as a one-to-many relationship.

For example, Scientist can invent many inventions, but the invention is done by the only
specific scientist.
c. Many-to-one relationship

When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and only one instance of an entity on the
right associates with the relationship then it is known as a many-to-one relationship.

For example, Student enrolls for only one course, but a course can have many students.

d. Many-to-many relationship

When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one instance of an entity
on the right associates with the relationship then it is known as a many-to-many relationship.

For example, Employee can assign by many projects and project can have many employees.

10. Explain the conceptual design with the E-R Diagram.