Practice A3.1 Database fundamentals with authentic IB Computer Science (First Exam 2027) exam questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank mirrors Paper 1, 2, 3 structure, covering key topics like programming concepts, algorithms, and data structures. Get instant solutions, detailed explanations, and build exam confidence with questions in the style of IB examiners.
A smart city initiative integrates multiple systems including traffic management, utility monitoring, and citizen services.
Compare the suitability of relational versus NoSQL databases for storing heterogeneous IoT sensor data from traffic lights, water meters, and air quality monitors.
An e-commerce platform manages product catalogs, customer orders, and inventory across multiple warehouses.
Explain the concept of database normalization and why it is important for reducing data redundancy. Provide specific examples of how unnormalized data could cause problems in an e-commerce system.
Describe the key components of the ACID properties and explain why they are critical for e-commerce transaction processing.
A healthcare analytics platform processes patient data from multiple hospitals for population health studies.
Explain how database federation enables querying across multiple hospital databases while maintaining data privacy and regulatory compliance.
A social media platform stores user profiles, posts, comments, and friendship relationships.
Evaluate different approaches to handling concurrent database access in a high-traffic social media environment, including locking mechanisms and transaction isolation levels.
Analyze how database replication and sharding strategies can improve performance and availability for a global user base.
A financial services company implements a database system for managing customer accounts, transactions, and regulatory compliance.
Design a data integrity strategy that includes constraint types, validation rules, and audit trail requirements for financial data:
| Constraint Type | Purpose | Implementation | Financial Example | Compliance Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOT NULL | Column definition | — | — | Data completeness |
| CHECK | Value validation | — | — | — |
| UNIQUE | Index creation | — | Account numbers | — |
| FOREIGN KEY | — | — | — | Referential integrity |
Explain how database backup and recovery strategies ensure business continuity in case of system failures, considering Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) requirements. [
A hospital management system stores patient information, medical appointments, and treatment records across multiple departments.
Complete the following table comparing different database models:
| Database Model | Data Structure | Relationships | Flexibility | Query Language | Best Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relational | — | Foreign keys | — | SQL | — |
| Hierarchical | Tree structure | — | Low | — | — |
| Network | — | Many-to-many | — | — | Complex relationships |
| Object-Oriented | — | Inheritance | High | — | — |
Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using a relational database versus a NoSQL document database for storing patient medical records that vary significantly in structure.
An e-commerce platform experiences rapid growth requiring database scalability and performance optimization.
Analyze different database scaling strategies including vertical scaling, horizontal scaling, and read replicas.
A university student information system tracks enrollments, grades, and course prerequisites.
Compare the roles and characteristics of primary keys, foreign keys, and composite keys in maintaining referential integrity.
Explain how indexing improves database query performance and identify potential drawbacks of having too many indexes.