Gain insights into fundamental database concepts, relational databases, and entity-relationship diagrams. Learn about normalization techniques and basics of SQL to enhance database efficiency.

Databases are universal - they underlie the technology you use every day. They're a crucial component of everything from telecommunications systems, banking systems, and video games to just about any other software system that maintains some amount of persistent data.

In this course, you'll learn about the fundamental concepts of databases, why and when they're used, what relational databases are, and entity-relationship diagrams. You will also be exposed to techniques like normalization that help to increase the efficiency of databases. You'll wrap up with a look at the basics of Structured Query Language (SQL). 

After completing this course, you will be able to move onto more advanced courses involving database systems and SQL.

Database Design Fundamentals for Software Engineers

# Solution

The ER diagram derived from our requirements is shown below. The diagram uses some advanced features, including relationships that have attributes and weak entity types.



# Explanation

In our design:

* STUDENT is a strong entity, with an identifier, `Student_Id`, created to be the primary key used to distinguish between students (remember, we could have several students with the same name).

* PROGRAM is a strong entity, with the identifier `Program_Id` as the primary key used to distinguish between programs.

* Each student must be enrolled in a program, so the STUDENT entity participates totally in the many-to-one ENROLLS_IN relationship with PROGRAM. A program can exist without having any enrolled students, so it participates partially in this relationship.

* A COURSE has meaning only in the context of a PROGRAM, so it’s a weak entity, with `Course_Id` as a weak key. This means that a COURSE entity is uniquely identified using its `Course_Id` and the `Program_Id` of its owning program.

* As a weak entity, COURSE participates totally in the many-to-one identifying relationship with its owning PROGRAM.

* STUDENT and COURSE are related through the many-to-many, ATTEMPTS relationships; a course can exist without a student, and a student can be enrolled without attempting any courses, so the participation is not total.

* When a student attempts a course, there are attributes needed to capture the `Year`, `Semester`, `Mark` and `Grade` of that course.

Introduction

Fundamental Concepts

Data Modeling

Entity-Relationship Data Model

The Relational Data Model

Functional Dependencies

Normalization

Structured Query Language

Conclusion

Solution to Exercise 1