UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2013/2014
ORDINARY EXAMINATION FOR THE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT 1207A DATABASE SYSTEMS PRINCIPLES
DATE: AUGUST, 2014 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question ONE and any other TWO
QUESTION ONE (COMPULSORY)
(a) Identify the roles of the following people
(i) Database designer (2 Marks)
(ii) Database administrator (2 Marks)
(b) 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)
(c) Describe any four disadvantages of the file-based systems (4 Marks)
(d) Discuss any four functions of a database management system (4 Marks)
(e) There are three default database schemas that found in SQL namely informationschema, mysql and test. Discuss each showing its role in DBMS. (6 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
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 insert the fifth row. Select values of your own
(4 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
(a) Discuss normalization. Show why its is important in database design and demonstrate
how it is done. Include UNF, 1NF, 2NF and 3NF. (10 Marks)
(b) Discuss the database life cycle. (10 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
(a) Below is a list of potential entities for a hotel database;
– Customer
– Meal
– Service
Draw an ERD diagram showing all possible attributes together with PK and FK.
(10 Marks)
(b) (i) What is data integrity (2 Marks)
(ii) Discuss four important database security features (4 Marks)
(iii) What are constraints? Discuss three benefits of constraints (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)
