UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2016/2017
EXAMINATION FOR DEGREE OF BACHELOR SCIENCE INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY/BACHELOR OF BUSINESS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT1207A BBIT 107 PRINCIPLES OF DATABASE DESIGN
MODE: DISTANCE LEARNING
ORDINARY EXAMINATIONS
JULY.2017 DURATION: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer question ONE and any other TWO questions
QUESTION ONE [30 MARKS]
a) Discuss the activities involved during user training at the implementation stage of the
database.
[3 Marks]
b) Describe the THREE weaknesses of file based approach.
[3 Marks]
c) Describe the THREE strengths of database approach.
[3 Marks]
d) Define the concept of database anomaly
[2 Marks]
e) Discuss the database architecture according to ANSI PARC.
[6 Marks]
f) State and explain any FIVE database security threats.
[5 Marks]
g) There are two approaches are used to store a relation in a distributed database systemreplication and fragment. Differentiate between these two approaches.
[4 Marks]
h) Describe the activities involved in conceptual database design.
[4 Marks]
QUESTION TWO [20 MARKS]
a) Describe the motivation behind data independence
[3 Marks]
a) Discuss the following problems associated with concurrently executing transactions in a
database.
i. Buried update problem
ii. Uncommitted dependency problem
iii. Non-repeatable read
iv. Phantom read.
[8 Marks]
b) Differentiate between DDL statements and DML statements in SQL
[4 Marks]
c) Describe the FIVE software components of a DBMS
[5 Marks]
QUESTION THREE [20 MARKS]
a) Describe the stages of database development life cycle (DBDLC).
[7 Marks]
b) Differentiate between the following types of attributes
i. Non-key attribute and key attribute
ii. Multivalued attribute and single-valued attribute
iii. Surrogate key and primary key
[6 Marks]
c) Normalize the following database to third normal form and draw the logical data model.
[7 Marks]
QUESTION FOUR [20 MARKS]
b) In a hospital management system, each doctor must treat one or more patients. Each patient
must be treated by a doctor. A patient may take one or more medications but each medication
is given to one patient. Construct a logical data model for this case using crow’s foot
notation, complete with cardinalities and optionalities.
[5 Marks]
c) Discuss any FIVE components of a database manager.
[5 Marks]
d) Define the concept of database integrity.
[3 Marks]
e) Discuss THREE applications of a distributed database.
[3 Marks]
f) Discuss the FOUR key properties of a database transaction.
[4 Marks]
QUESTION FIVE [20 MARKS]
a) Study the database table named EMPLOYEE below and answer the questions that follow:
Write appropriate SQL statements for each of the cases below:
i. Display the mean age of all the male guests
ii. Remove all guests from the EMPLOYEE table if their surnames end with letter ‘O’.
[6 Marks]
b) Discuss the following database models, citing circumstances under which each may be used.
i. Network model
ii. Hierarchical model
iii. Relational model
[6 Marks]
c) Describe TWO advantages and TWO disadvantages of a hierarchical database model.
[4 Marks]
d) Discuss any FOUR database maintenance activities performed on an existing database. [4 Marks]
