UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2013/2014
ORDINARY EXAMINATION FOR THE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT 1207A PRINCIPLES OF DATABASE DESIGN
DATE: APRIL, 2014 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question ONE and any other TWO
QUESTION ONE
a) With respect to information management, compare the following concepts;
i) File system and DBMS (2 Marks)
ii) Tuple and attribute (2 Marks)
iii) Instance and schema (2 Marks)
b) Discuss the Normalization as used in database showing reasons why we do it. (6 Marks)
c) Describe the ways in which information in a database can be manipulated (3 Marks)
d) Describe any four disadvantages of the hierarchical data model (4 Marks)
e) Discuss the functions of a database management system (5 Marks)
f) Identify the roles of the following people
i) Database designer (2 Marks)
ii) Database administrator (2 Marks)
iii) Database user (2 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
a) i) Describe the term “cardinality” (2 Marks)
ii) With appropriate illustration, describe three ways of mapping cardinality (6 Marks)
b) Discuss the following levels of the database architecture;
i) Internal level (2 Marks)
ii) Conceptual level (2 Marks)
c) Identify and explain any four components of the DBMS kernel (8 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
a) i) Define the term “Lock-based protocol” (2 Marks)
ii) Explain the two basic methods of locking a data item (4 Marks)
b) Explain the meaning of the following terms;
i) Database recovery (2 Marks)
ii) Database security (2 Marks)
iii) Database failure (2 Marks)
c) Design an ERD depicting the following entities. Assign appropriate primary and foreign keys;
STUDENT (name, date of birth, address, telephone number)
COURSE (name, capacity, fees, duration)
LECTURER (surname,address,units,salary) (8Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
a) i) Define the term „SQL‟ with reference to database systems (2 Marks)
ii) Distinguish between data definition and data manipulation (2 Marks)
b) Use the table (STUDENT) below to answer the questions that follow;
i. Write SQL statement to create the above table: STUDENT (4 Marks)
ii. Write SQL statement to insert data in that table. (4 Marks)
iii. Write SQL statement to list Stu-Id, Surname and fees (4 Marks)
iv. Write SQL statement to list all details for those doing BSC-IT (4 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
a) Discuss the components that can be found in the overall DBMS environment
b) Explain the functions of the database manager
c) Describe any three types of data models
(10 Marks)
(4 Marks)
(6 Marks)
