Project Brief

Design and implement a complete relational database system for a university course management scenario. Your submission must include entity-relationship diagrams showing conceptual design with at least 6 entities, normalized relational schema (3NF minimum) with justification, SQL scripts for database creation, table definitions, and sample data insertion (minimum 50 records across tables), complex SQL queries demonstrating joins, aggregations, subqueries, and views (minimum 10 queries), security implementation including user roles and access control, and documentation (2000 words) explaining design decisions, normalization process, concurrency control strategies, and security measures.

My Work

Reflection

This database design project significantly deepened my understanding of relational database principles and data modeling. The university course management scenario involved designing a comprehensive database with students, instructors, courses, departments, enrollments, and prerequisites, requiring careful analysis of complex relationships and business rules. The ER modeling phase was more challenging than anticipated. Identifying entities versus attributes required critical thinking about the domain. For example, determining whether 'department' should be an entity or just an attribute of 'instructor' involved understanding cardinality and real-world requirements. I learned that effective ER modeling requires iterative refinement and stakeholder consultation. Normalization proved to be both technical and strategic. Achieving third normal form eliminated redundancy, but I had to carefully consider functional dependencies. Understanding why certain decompositions preserve data integrity while others cause anomalies was crucial. I discovered that normalization is not just about following rules mechanically but understanding the underlying data semantics. Writing complex SQL queries transformed my thinking from procedural to declarative programming. Mastering joins, particularly outer joins and self-joins for the prerequisite relationships, required visualizing set operations. Implementing views and stored procedures taught me about abstraction and security in database systems. The security and concurrency aspects opened my eyes to real-world database challenges beyond basic design. Implementing role-based access control and understanding transaction isolation levels showed me that database systems must balance performance, consistency, and security. This project demonstrated that database design requires both theoretical knowledge and practical judgment.