1. What is database?

A database is a set of related data. By data, we mean known facts that can be
recorded and have an implicit meaning. For example, an address book of a person
contains the details of his friends and relatives which have an implicit meaning.
Now organizations are increasingly aware of the importance of information in the
solution of their problems. Because of decreasing cost of data storage,
organizations store increasing quantities of data and this data must be managed in
the most efficient and effective manner.

2. What is DBMS?

A database management system (DBMS) is a collection of programs that enables

users to create and maintain a database. The DBMS is hence a general purpose
software system that facilitates the process of defining, constructing, manipulating
and sharing databases among various users and applications.
 Defining a database involves specifying the datatypes, structures and
constraints for the data to be stored in the database.
 Constructing the database is the process of storing the data itself on some
storage medium that is controlled by the DBMS.
 Manipulating a database includes such functions a querying the database to
retrieve specific data, updating the database to reflect changes in the
miniworld and generating reports from the data.
 Sharing a database allows multiple users and programs to access the
database concurrently.

3. What is a Database system?

A database system consists of :

• The database (data)
• A DBMS (software)
• A DDL and a DML (Part of the DBMS)
• Application programs

Features of Database Systems

 Self-describing nature of a database system: A DBMS catalog stores the

description of the database. The description is called meta-data). This allows
the DBMS software to work with different databases.
  Insulation between programs and data: Called program-data independence.
Allows changing data storage structures and operations without having to
change the DBMS access programs.
 Data Abstraction: A data model is used to hide storage details and present
the users with a conceptual view of the database.
 Support of multiple views of the data: Each user may see a different view of
the database, which describes only the data of interest to that user.
 Sharing of data and multiuser transaction processing : allowing a set of
concurrent users to retrieve and to update the database. Concurrency control
within the DBMS guarantees that each transaction is correctly executed or
completely aborted. OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) is a major part
of database applications.

4. What are the advantages of DBMS?

1. Redundancy is controlled.
2. Unauthorised access is restricted.
3. Providing multiple user interfaces.
4. Enforcing integrity constraints.
5. Providing backup and recovery.

5. What are the disadvantage in File Processing System?

1. Data redundancy and inconsistency.

2. Difficult in accessing data.
3. Data isolation.
4. Data integrity.
5. Concurrent access is not possible.
6. Security Problems.

6. What’s the difference between file and database? Can files qualify as a
database?

Database provides a systematic and organized way of storing, managing and

retrieving from collection of logically related information. Secondly the
information has to be persistent, that means even after the application is closed the
information should be persisted. Finally it should provide an independent way of
accessing data and should not be dependent on the application to access the
information. Main difference between a simple file and database that database has
independent way (SQL) of accessing information while simple files do not File
meets the storing, managing and retrieving part of a database but not the
independent way of accessing data. Many experienced programmers think that the
main difference is that file cannot provide multi-user capabilities which a DBMS
provides. But if we look at some old COBOL and C programs where file where the
only means of storing data, we can see functionalities like locking, multi-user etc
provided very efficiently. So it’s a matter of debate if some interviewers think this
as a main difference between files and database accept it... going in to debate is
probably losing a job.

What are the types of database users?

Database users are the one who really use and take the benefits of database. There will be
different types of users depending on their need and way of accessing the database.

1. Application Programmers - They are the developers who interact with the database
by means of DML queries. These DML queries are written in the application programs
like C, C++, JAVA, Pascal etc. These queries are converted into object code to
communicate with the database. For example, writing a C program to generate the
report of employees who are working in particular department will involve a query to
fetch the data from database. It will include a embedded SQL query in the C Program.
2. Specialized Users - These are also sophisticated users, but they write special database
application programs. They are the developers who develop the complex programs to
the requirement.
3. Database Designer - These users design the structure of Database.
4. Naive Users - these are the users who use the existing application to interact with the
database. For example, online library system, ticket booking systems, ATMs etc which
has existing application and users use them to interact with the database to fulfill their
requests.

10. Define DBA and its activity.

The life cycle of database starts from designing, implementing to administration of it. A database
for any kind of requirement needs to be designed perfectly so that it should work without any
issues. Once all the design is complete, it needs to be installed. Once this step is complete, users
start using the database. The database grows as the data grows in the database. When the
database becomes huge, its performance comes down. Also accessing the data from the database
becomes challenge. There will be unused memory in database, making the memory inevitably
huge. These administration and maintenance of database is taken care by database Administrator
–DBA.

A DBA has many responsibilities. A good performing database is in the hands of DBA.

 Installingand upgrading the DBMS Servers: - DBA is responsible for installing a new
DBMS server for the new projects. He is also responsible for upgrading these servers
as there are new versions comes in the market or requirement. If there is any failure in
upgradation of the existing servers, he should be able revert the new changes back to
the older version, thus maintaining the DBMS working. He is also responsible for
updating the service packs/ hot fixes/ patches to the DBMS servers.
 Designand implementation: - Designing the database and implementing is also DBA’s
responsibility. He should be able to decide proper memory management, file
organizations, error handling, log maintenance etc for the database.
 Performance tuning: - Since database is huge and it will have lots of tables, data,
constraints and indices, there will be variations in the performance from time to time.
Also, because of some designing issues or data growth, the database will not work as
expected. It is responsibility of the DBA to tune the database performance. He is
responsible to make sure all the queries and programs works in fraction of seconds.
 Migrate database servers: - Sometimes, users using oracle would like to shift to SQL
server or Netezza. It is the responsibility of DBA to make sure that migration happens
without any failure, and there is no data loss.
 Backup and Recovery: - Proper backup and recovery programs needs to be developed
by DBA and has to be maintained him. This is one of the main responsibilities of
DBA. Data/objects should be backed up regularly so that if there is any crash, it should
be recovered without much effort and data loss.
 Security:- DBA is responsible for creating various database users and roles, and giving
them different levels of access rights.
 Documentation: - DBA should be properly documenting all his activities so that if he
quits or any new DBA comes in, he should be able to understand the database without
any effort. He should basically maintain all his installation, backup, recovery, security
methods. He should keep various reports about database performance.