Very Important DBMS Viva Questions
with Simple Answers
Unit I: Introduction to DBMS and ER Model
Q: What is a database?
A: A database is an organized collection of data that can be accessed and managed easily.
Q: What is the purpose of a DBMS?
A: To store, manage, and retrieve data efficiently while ensuring data integrity and security.
Q: What are different data models in DBMS?
A: Hierarchical, Network, Relational, Object-oriented models.
Q: What is an ER diagram?
A: A diagram that shows entities, their attributes, and relationships.
Q: What are keys in DBMS?
A: Keys like Primary Key, Foreign Key, Candidate Key are used to uniquely identify records.
Q: What is the difference between strong and weak entity?
A: Strong entity has a primary key; weak entity depends on another entity.
Q: How do you convert an ER diagram into tables?
A: Each entity becomes a table; relationships are shown using keys.
Unit II: SQL and PL/SQL
Q: What are the different types of SQL commands?
A: DDL (create), DML (insert), DCL (grant), TCL (commit).
Q: What is the use of SELECT query?
A: To fetch data from a table.
Q: What is a view in SQL?
A: A virtual table based on a query result.
Q: What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE?
A: DELETE can be rolled back; TRUNCATE cannot.
Q: What is PL/SQL?
A: It is Oracle's procedural extension of SQL, used for writing procedures and triggers.
Q: What is a cursor?
A: A pointer to fetch rows one at a time.
Q: What is a trigger?
A: A trigger is a block that runs automatically on a table event like insert or update.
Unit III: Relational Database Design
Q: What is normalization?
A: It is a process to reduce data redundancy and improve data integrity.
Q: What are 1NF, 2NF, 3NF?
A: Forms of normalization:
- 1NF: Atomic values
- 2NF: No partial dependency
- 3NF: No transitive dependency
Q: What is BCNF?
A: A stronger version of 3NF with strict functional dependency rules.
Q: What is a functional dependency?
A: If one attribute determines another, it is a functional dependency.
Q: What are Codd’s rules?
A: 12 rules proposed by E.F. Codd to define what a full-fledged RDBMS should support.
Unit IV: Concurrency Control and Advanced Databases
Q: What is concurrency control?
A: It ensures that multiple users can access the database at the same time without conflict.
Q: What is a deadlock?
A: When two or more processes are waiting for each other’s resources, causing a block.
Q: What is shadow paging?
A: A recovery method where changes are made to a copy of the page, not the original.
Q: What is query optimization?
A: Improving SQL queries to run faster.
Q: What are 2-tier and 3-tier architectures?
A: 2-tier: Client and server
3-tier: Client, Application Server, and Database Server
Q: What is distributed database?
A: A database spread across multiple physical locations.
Unit V: Large Scale Data Management
Q: What is NoSQL?
A: A non-relational database used for large-scale and unstructured data.
Q: What is MongoDB?
A: A document-based NoSQL database.
Q: What is Hadoop?
A: A framework for processing big data using distributed storage and MapReduce.
Q: What is HDFS?
A: Hadoop Distributed File System used to store large data sets across multiple machines.
Q: What is JSON?
A: JavaScript Object Notation, a lightweight format for data exchange.
Q: What is XML?
A: Extensible Markup Language used to store and transport data.
Unit VI: Data Warehousing and Data Mining
Q: What is a data warehouse?
A: A system used to store historical data for analysis and reporting.
Q: What is OLAP?
A: Online Analytical Processing used for complex queries and analysis.
Q: What is a data mart?
A: A smaller version of a data warehouse focused on a specific business area.
Q: What is data mining?
A: The process of discovering patterns and knowledge from large data sets.
Q: What are data mining tasks?
A: Classification, Clustering, Association rule mining.
Q: What is knowledge discovery?
A: Extracting useful knowledge from data.
