📘 DBMS Interview Questions &
Concepts
1. Basic Concepts
✅ What is DBMS? How is it different from a file system? c
✅ What is the difference between DBMS and RDBMS? c
✅ What are the advantages of using DBMS? c
✅ What are ACID properties? Explain each with examples. c
✅ What is data independence? Explain logical and physical data
independence. c
✅ What is data abstraction in DBMS? C
✅ What is a database schema, instance, and metadata? c
✅ What are integrity constraints? What are the types? C
✅ What are the types of keys in DBMS? (Primary, Candidate, Foreign,
Unique, Super Key) c
✅ What are different types of database users? (DBA, End User,
Application Programmer) C
✅ What is normalization? Explain 1NF, 2NF, 3NF, and BCNF. C
✅ What is denormalization? C
✅ What is the difference between OLTP and OLAP? C
2. SQL Queries
✅ Write a query to find the second highest salary from a table. C
✅ What is the difference between WHERE and HAVING? C
✅ Difference between INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, and FULL
OUTER JOIN. C
✅ What is a subquery? Give an example. C
✅ What is a correlated subquery? C
✅ What is a Common Table Expression (CTE)? When would you use
it? C
✅ What is a window function? Give an example. C
✅ What is the difference between UNION and UNION ALL? C
✅ Explain GROUP BY with an example. C
✅ What is a NULL value? How is it different from 0 or empty string?
C
✅ What is the difference between DELETE, TRUNCATE, and DROP? C
✅ Write a query to get duplicate values from a column. C
3. Relational Model & Relational Algebra
✅ What is a relation in DBMS? C
✅ What are relational algebra operations? C
✅ What is the difference between relational algebra and SQL? C
✅ What is tuple relational calculus? How is it different from
relational algebra? HC
✅ What is domain relational calculus? HC
4. Indexing and Query Optimization
✅ What is indexing in DBMS? What are the types? C
✅ What is the difference between clustered and non-clustered
indexes? C
✅ What is a B+ Tree? Why is it used in indexing? C
✅ What is bitmap indexing? When is it used? C
✅ Explain covering index. C
✅ What is a materialized view? How is it different from a normal
view? C
✅ What is a query optimizer? C
✅ What is the importance of execution plans in SQL? C
5. Transactions & Concurrency
✅ What is a transaction in DBMS? C
✅ What is concurrency control and why is it important? C
✅ What is locking? Explain shared and exclusive locks. C
✅ What is Write-Ahead Logging (WAL)? C
✅ What is two-phase locking protocol? C
✅ What is time-stamp ordering protocol?
✅ What is a deadlock? How can it be prevented? C
✅ What is a phantom read? How is it different from non-repeatable
read? C
✅ What are different isolation levels in transactions? CH
✅ What is the difference between serial and serializable schedules?
C
✅ Explain savepoints in transactions. C
6. Storage & File Organization
✅ What are different types of file organizations in DBMS? C
✅ What is hashing? What are different types of hashing techniques?
C
✅ What is RAID? What are different RAID levels? C
✅ What is slotted page structure? C
✅ What is buffer management in DBMS? C
✅ What is the difference between sequential and random access?C
7. Database Languages
✅ What are DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL? C
✅ Give examples of each type of SQL command. C
✅ What is Embedded SQL? C
✅ What is Dynamic SQL? C
8. ER Model
✅ What is an Entity-Relationship (ER) model? C
✅ How do you convert an ER diagram into tables?
✅ What is the difference between strong and weak entities? C
✅ What is cardinality and participation constraint? C
✅ What is generalization, specialization, and aggregation in ER
diagrams? C
✅ Explain ISA hierarchy. C
9. Views, Triggers, and Stored Procedures
✅ What is a view? How is it different from a table?
✅ Can a view be updated? Explain with reasons.
✅ What is a trigger in SQL? When do you use it?
✅ What are INSTEAD OF triggers?
✅ What is a stored procedure? How is it different from a function?
✅ What are advantages and disadvantages of stored procedures?
10. NoSQL & Modern DBMS
✅ What is NoSQL? How is it different from relational DBMS?
✅ What are the types of NoSQL databases?
✅ What is BASE in NoSQL, and how does it differ from ACID?
✅ What is eventual consistency?
✅ What is sharding?
✅ What is CAP theorem? How does it relate to NoSQL?
✅ What is JSON and how is it used in NoSQL databases?
