UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT 1207A DATABASE SYSTEMS PRINCIPLES
FULLTIME/PART TIME/ DISTANCE LEARNING
AUGUST 2017 TIME: 2 HOURS
Instructions
o Answer question ONE and any other TWO.
o Question One carry 30 marks, others 20 marks each.
QUESTION ONE. (COMPULSORY)
(a) Describe RELATIONAL databases (4 Marks)
(b) Discuss the five advantages of DBMS (5 Marks)
(c) With respect to information management, compare the following concepts;
(i) Instance and schema (4 Marks)
(ii) Tuple and attribute (4 Marks)
(iii) File system and DBMS (4 Marks)
(d) There are three default database schemas that found in SQL namely informationschema, mysql and test. Discuss each showing its role in DBMS. (6 Marks)
(e) Discuss three important database security features. (3 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
(a) Discuss normalization. Show why it is important in database design and demonstrate
how it is done. Include UNF, 1NF, 2NF and 3NF (10 Marks)
(b) Discuss, with the help of a diagrams, the database life cycle. (10 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
a) i) Define the term ‘SQL’ with reference to database systems (3 Marks)
ii) Distinguish between data definition and data manipulation (2 Marks)
b) Draw a table (e.g STUDENT) with six fields AND Five records. (3 Marks)
Use the above table to demonstrate AND explain the following command:
i. CREATE TABLE (3 Marks)
ii. INSERT (3 Marks)
iii. SELECT (3 Marks)
iv. UPDATE (3 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
(a) Below is a list of potential entities for a School database;
– Employee
– Pupil
– Class
Draw an ERD diagram showing all possible attributes together with PK and FK.
(10 Marks)
(b) (i) What is data integrity (2 Marks)
(ii) What are constraints? Discuss three benefits of constraints (4 Marks)
(c) What is an OODBMS? Give factors that contribute to this. (4 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
(a) Discuss three levels of database design. (6 Marks )
(b) Write short notes on the following topics: (8 Marks)
(i) Data warehouse
(ii) Data mining
(iii) Client/Server database
(iv) Web database
(c) Discuss three dependencies’ used during normalization (6 Marks)
