MAASAI MARA UNIVERSITY

REGULAR UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS

2017/2018 ACADEMIC YEAR
FIRST YEAR SECOND SEMESTER

SCHOOL OF SCIENCE

COURSE CODE: COM 318

COURSE TITLE: DATABASE SYSTEM

DATE:21ST AUGUST, 2018 TIME: 08:30AM – 10:30AM

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
(b) Answer question ONE (compulsory) and any other TWO questions.
(c) Question one carries 30 marks
(d) All other questions carry 20marks
(e) Mobile Phone is not allowed in the exam room
 SECTION A (COMPULSORY –30 MARKS)

QUESTION ONE
a) Explain the following terms as used in Database development (10 Marks)
(i) SDLC
(ii) Database system
(iii) Information Engineering
(iv) Prototyping
(v) Entity- relationship diagram
b) Explain the Data Models in a database development process (6 Marks)
c) Briefly discuss SIX benefits of a database technology. (6 Marks)
d) Define a View and explain its importance in DBMS (4 Marks)
e) Using illustrations where necessary, explain the elements of a database.
(4 Marks)

SECTION TWO IS 40 MARKS ANSWER ANY TWO QUESTIONS

QUESTION TWO
a) Use an Entity-Relationship diagram to depict the following requirements for a
library. (20 Marks)
• The library employs a number of librarians. A record is kept of each librarian`s
name, address, phone number and salary.
• Each librarian can work in either section in the library. The Name of the section
either shelving or front desk is recorded.
• The front section constitutes of lending in terms of Borrower name, book
author, Date borrowed and return date.
• The shelving section involves arranging books according to their disciplines of
use e.g. information science, BBIT, Health science, Computer science, Business
Administration.
Required
State any assumptions made in the design of the E-R diagram (5 Marks)

QUESTION THREE
a) Using an illustration discuss the stages in the database systems development
cycle (6 Marks)
b) Write SQL codes to design tables for customer, product, price supplier of a
manufacturing company (10 Marks)
c) Explain the components of a data ware house (4 Marks)
 QUESTION FOUR
a) Define a Foreign Key and explain its importance in a database (3 Marks)
b) How does the database management system adopt the concept of data
abstraction? (5 Marks)
c) Describe the importance of normalization. (4 Marks)
d) Explain the different anomalies associated with concurrency (6 Marks)
e) Differentiate between a Data Definition Language and Data Manipulation
Language (2 Marks)