UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2017/2018
EXAMINATION FOR DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF
SCIENCE/BUSINESS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT1207A BBIT107 PRINCIPLES OF DATABASE DESIGN
MODE: FULL TIME/PART TIME/DISTANCE LEARNING
ORDINARY EXAMINATIONS
APRIL.2018 DURATION: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question one and any other two questions
QUESTION ONE [30 MARKS]
a) Describe FOUR weaknesses of file based approach.
5 Marks
b) Describe the activities involved in between conceptual database design.
4 Marks
c) Discuss the database architecture according to ANSI PARC
6 Marks
d) Describe the FIVE key software components of a database manager
5 Marks
e) Discuss the following concurrency control problems, giving examples for each:
i. Phantom read
ii. Inconsistency analysis
iii. Lost updates
iv. Dirty read
8 Marks
f) Discuss any TWO database maintenance activities performed on an existing database.
2 Marks
QUESTION TWO [20 MARKS]
a) Describe four important activities undertaken at the database implementation stage.
4 Marks
b) A Country Bus Company owns a number of busses. Each bus is allocated to a route, although
some routes may have several busses. Each route passes through a number of towns. One or
more drivers are allocated to each stage of a route, which corresponds to a journey through
some or all the towns on a route. Some of the towns have a garage where busses are kept and
each of the busses are identified by the registration number and can carry different numbers
of passengers, since the vehicles vary in size and can be single or double-decked. Each route
is identified by a route number and information is available on the average number of
passengers carried per day for each route. Drivers have an employee number, name, address,
and sometimes a telephone number. Design a conceptual data model for this case using
crow’s foot notation.
8 Marks
c) Describe any FOUR disadvantages facing distributed databases.
8 Marks
QUESTION THREE [20 MARKS]
a) Discuss the network database model, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses.
6 Marks
b) Describe the characteristics of a table that violates first normal form (1NF) and then describe
how such a table is converted to 1NF.
4 Marks
c) Differentiate between fan trap and chasm trap problems encountered in conceptual design of
a database.
4 Marks
d) Describe the activities performed in database development life cycle.
6 Marks
QUESTION FOUR [20 MARKS]
a) Describe the following types of attributes encountered in databases.
i. Multivalued attribute
ii. Single valued attribute
iii. Stored attribute
iv. Derived attribute
4 Marks
b) Briefly describe the first, second and third normal forms as used in database normalization.
6 Marks
c) Study the following un-normalized table and normalize this table to third normal form.
10 Marks
QUESTION FIVE [20 MARKS]
a) Describe any THREE database security threats.
6 Marks
b) Describe the FOUR database transaction properties
4 Marks
c) Describe any four responsibilities of a database administrator
8 Marks
d) Describe the role of data dictionary in the process of database design.
2 Marks
