Concept What It Is Why It Matters
Candidate Key Attributes that can uniquely identify a record Helps in choosing primary keys
Combination of two or more attributes as a Used when single column is not
Composite Key
primary key sufficient
Set of attributes that uniquely identifies a
Super Key Basis for candidate keys
row
Process of organizing data to reduce Improves efficiency and avoids
Normalization
redundancy anomalies
Adding redundancy for performance Speeds up queries in complex
Denormalization
optimization systems
1NF, 2NF, 3NF, Reduces anomalies and improves
Normal forms to structure data logically
BCNF consistency
Guarantees reliable database
ACID Properties Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability
transactions
Ensures data integrity during
Transaction A single logical unit of work in DBMS
operations
Commit &
Commit saves changes, rollback reverts them Provides control in case of errors
Rollback
Concurrency Prevents data conflicts and
Managing simultaneous transactions
Control ensures consistency
Locking Avoids conflicts in multi-user
Shared and exclusive locks for concurrency
Mechanisms environments
Deadlock in Two transactions waiting for each other’s Prevents system halt during
DBMS locks concurrent transactions
Schema Logical structure of the database Blueprint for database design
Represents current state of the
Instance Actual data at a particular moment
database
Entity-Relationship model for database
ER Model Helps visualize data relationships
design
Relational Basis of relational databases like
Represents data as tables (relations)
Model MySQL, PostgreSQL
Structured Query Language for interacting Standard language for database
SQL
with DB operations
DDL, DML, DCL, Categories of SQL commands (CREATE,
Organizes commands by function
TCL SELECT, GRANT, COMMIT)
Indexing Data structure to speed up searches Improves query performance
Page 1 of 2
Concept What It Is Why It Matters
Provides security and
Views Virtual tables based on queries
abstraction
Stored Reduces code repetition and
Precompiled SQL code stored in DB
Procedures improves performance
Maintains consistency
Triggers Automatic actions on specific events
automatically
Joins Combining rows from two or more tables Essential for multi-table queries
Inner, Left, Controls how data is fetched
Different types of join operations
Right Join from related tables
Union vs Union
Combines results with/without duplicates Helps in data aggregation
All
Aggregate
SUM, COUNT, AVG, etc. for calculations Useful for reports and analytics
Functions
Handles complex filtering and
Subquery Query inside another query
conditions
Keys ensure uniqueness, index improves Both impact database design and
Keys vs Index
search speed performance
Database Management System for storing, Foundation of data handling in
DBMS
retrieving, and managing data applications
Database Organized collection of structured data Core of data-driven applications
Table Collection of rows and columns in a database Stores data in a structured way
Tuple (Row) A single record in a table Represents an entity instance
Attribute Defines characteristics of an
A field or property of data in a table
(Column) entity
Ensures data integrity and
Primary Key Unique identifier for each record in a table
uniqueness
Foreign Key A key that links two tables Maintains referential integrity
Page 2 of 2
