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Ameen Abozaid
Englishالعربية
BEG-048

Data fundamentals

  • 5 Lessons
  • 58 min of reading
  • 1 h practice (estimate)
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On this page 8 topics

Overview

Topics

  • Structured data
  • relational vs nonrelational databases
  • DBMS
  • schemas

Learn first

58 min of reading · 1 h of practice (estimate)

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain why applications store data in a database rather than in files.
  2. Distinguish relational and nonrelational databases at a high level.
  3. Explain what a DBMS and a schema are.

Lessons

  1. 01Why databases12 min read
  2. 02Structured vs unstructured data12 min read
  3. 03Relational vs nonrelational12 min read
  4. 04DBMS and schemas11 min read
  5. 05Demo: why the contacts CSV breaks at scale11 min read

Lab and exercises

Lab

BEG-048-LAB1 · Files vs database

Outcomes: 1–3 · Time: ~1 h List the problems the Contacts CSV file would have with 1 million contacts and 100 simultaneous users. Acceptance: at least five distinct problems.

Exercises (assessment: quiz)

IDOutcomeTask
BEG-048-EX011Give three reasons a shop should use a database rather than one text file.
BEG-048-EX022Classify as structured, semi-structured, or unstructured: a spreadsheet, a JSON response, a voice recording.
BEG-048-EX032Write one sentence on when you might choose a nonrelational database and why "faster" alone is not a reason.
BEG-048-EX043Explain in your own words the difference between a DBMS, a database, and a schema.
BEG-048-EX053Sketch a schema (table name, columns, types) for contacts.
Show solutions
  • EX01 Fast search, safe simultaneous use, rules (uniqueness, required fields), crash safety.
  • EX02 Structured; semi-structured; unstructured.
  • EX03 For example flexible document shapes or very large simple key lookups; speed depends on the workload, so measure.
  • EX04 DBMS is the software (PostgreSQL); the database is the stored data it manages; the schema is the structure and rules.
  • EX05 contacts(id integer, name text, email text, phone text).
  • Outcome coverage: all outcomes are also covered by the quiz and the lab.

Quiz

Outcomes: O1 why databases · O2 relational vs nonrelational · O3 DBMS and schema.

A self-check for you: nothing is graded, saved or sent anywhere. Choose an answer, then check it. You can try again as often as you like.

  1. 1A main benefit of a database over a plain file is:O1
  2. 2What happens if two programs save the same CSV file at once?O1
  3. 3Searching a huge file means:O1
  4. 4Relational databases store data in:O2
  5. 5Which is a nonrelational style?O2
  6. 6"NoSQL is always faster." This is:O2
  7. 7A JSON response is usually:O2
  8. 8PostgreSQL is a:O3
  9. 9A schema describes:O3
  10. 10Which is the blueprint and which the contents?O3

Practical part

The assessment is this quiz; the lab (BEG-048-LAB1) lists at least five file problems. Pass: at least 8 of 10 quiz questions.

Common mistakes

"NoSQL is faster" as a blanket belief.

Assessment

Quiz.

Career relevance

Data selection (MID-044) revisits this with depth.

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