Practice A3.2 Database design 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 library management system tracks books, authors, members, loans, and reservations.
Create an Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram analysis for the library system by completing the missing components in the table below:
| Entity | Primary Key | Attributes | Relationships | Cardinality | Business Rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | BookID | — | — | — | — |
| Author | — | AuthorName, Biography | — | Many-to-Many | — |
| Member | MemberID | — | Borrows books | — | Max 5 books per member |
| Loan | — | — | — | — | — |
| Reservation | — | ReservationDate | — | One-to-Many | Max 3 reservations |
Analyze how normalization to Third Normal Form () would improve this library database design and identify potential denormalization decisions for performance optimization.
A healthcare analytics platform processes patient data from multiple hospitals for population health studies.
Design stored procedures for anonymizing patient data while preserving statistical validity for research purposes.
A manufacturing company tracks products, suppliers, purchase orders, and inventory levels.
Compare different approaches to handling hierarchical data structures such as product categories and organizational departments, including adjacency lists, nested sets, and materialized paths.
Explain how database views can simplify complex queries and provide data security in a manufacturing environment.
A smart city initiative integrates multiple systems including traffic management, utility monitoring, and citizen services.
[A3.2] Design a flexible database schema that can accommodate new sensor types without requiring schema modifications.
A financial trading platform processes millions of transactions daily and requires high-performance database operations. The platform's engineers are evaluating various strategies to ensure low-latency access to financial data.
Analyze different SQL optimization techniques for improving query performance by completing the following table:
| Optimization Technique | Implementation Method | Performance Impact | Use Case | Potential Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index Optimization | — | High | — | Storage overhead |
| Query Rewriting | Complex joins | — | — | — |
| Partitioning | Horizontal/Vertical split | — | Large tables | — |
| Materialized Views | — | Medium | — | Data consistency |
Explain how database connection pooling and prepared statements improve application performance in high-transaction environments.
A gaming platform tracks player statistics, achievements, and leaderboards with real-time updates.
Compare different approaches to handling concurrent updates to player scores and rankings, including optimistic vs pessimistic locking strategies.
Explain how batch processing techniques can efficiently update aggregated statistics and leaderboards.
An online learning platform manages courses, instructors, students, enrollments, and assessments. Evaluate the process of converting a conceptual ER model to a logical relational schema, discussing how different relationship types are handled: [8] Relationship Type Implementation Strategy Example Scenario Foreign Key Placement Additional Considerations One-to-One
Instructor-Profile
One-to-Many Foreign key in child
Student table
Many-to-Many
Student-Course enrollment
Junction table attributes Recursive
Course prerequisites
Self-referencing
(b) Analyze the challenges of designing databases for flexible course structures where courses may have varying assessment types and grading schemes. [4]
IMAGE:
[8]
[4]
A real estate management system handles properties, agents, clients, transactions, and market valuations. Design a flexible database schema that can accommodate different property types (residential, commercial, industrial) with varying attributes: [8] Design Approach Implementation Method Advantages Disadvantages Suitability Single Table Inheritance
Simple queries
Similar property types Class Table Inheritance Separate tables per type
Complex joins
Concrete Table Inheritance
Data duplication Distinct property types JSON/NoSQL Hybrid
Evolving requirements
(b) Analyze how geographic information systems (GIS) integration affects database design decisions for property location data. [4] Image:
A real estate management system handles properties, agents, clients, transactions, and market valuations. Design a flexible database schema that can accommodate different property types (residential, commercial, industrial) with varying attributes: [8] Design Approach Implementation Method Advantages Disadvantages Suitability Single Table Inheritance
Simple queries
Similar property types Class Table Inheritance Separate tables per type
Complex joins
Concrete Table Inheritance
Data duplication Distinct property types JSON/NoSQL Hybrid
Evolving requirements
Analyze how geographic information systems (GIS) integration affects database design decisions for property location data. [4] Image:
A healthcare clinic designs a database for patient records, appointments, treatments, and medical history.
Outline six features of a database design for a healthcare clinic that address privacy requirements, audit trails, and regulatory compliance.
Explain how temporal databases can track changes in patient medical conditions over time and support historical reporting requirements.
A content management system handles articles, user comments, and search functionality across multiple languages.
Design a database solution for full-text search capabilities that supports multiple languages and relevance ranking:
Analyze how database cursors and pagination techniques handle large result sets efficiently in web applications.
Practice A3.2 Database design 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 library management system tracks books, authors, members, loans, and reservations.
Create an Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram analysis for the library system by completing the missing components in the table below:
| Entity | Primary Key | Attributes | Relationships | Cardinality | Business Rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | BookID | — | — | — | — |
| Author | — | AuthorName, Biography | — | Many-to-Many | — |
| Member | MemberID | — | Borrows books | — | Max 5 books per member |
| Loan | — | — | — | — | — |
| Reservation | — | ReservationDate | — | One-to-Many | Max 3 reservations |
Analyze how normalization to Third Normal Form () would improve this library database design and identify potential denormalization decisions for performance optimization.
A healthcare analytics platform processes patient data from multiple hospitals for population health studies.
Design stored procedures for anonymizing patient data while preserving statistical validity for research purposes.
A manufacturing company tracks products, suppliers, purchase orders, and inventory levels.
Compare different approaches to handling hierarchical data structures such as product categories and organizational departments, including adjacency lists, nested sets, and materialized paths.
Explain how database views can simplify complex queries and provide data security in a manufacturing environment.
A smart city initiative integrates multiple systems including traffic management, utility monitoring, and citizen services.
[A3.2] Design a flexible database schema that can accommodate new sensor types without requiring schema modifications.
A financial trading platform processes millions of transactions daily and requires high-performance database operations. The platform's engineers are evaluating various strategies to ensure low-latency access to financial data.
Analyze different SQL optimization techniques for improving query performance by completing the following table:
| Optimization Technique | Implementation Method | Performance Impact | Use Case | Potential Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index Optimization | — | High | — | Storage overhead |
| Query Rewriting | Complex joins | — | — | — |
| Partitioning | Horizontal/Vertical split | — | Large tables | — |
| Materialized Views | — | Medium | — | Data consistency |
Explain how database connection pooling and prepared statements improve application performance in high-transaction environments.
A gaming platform tracks player statistics, achievements, and leaderboards with real-time updates.
Compare different approaches to handling concurrent updates to player scores and rankings, including optimistic vs pessimistic locking strategies.
Explain how batch processing techniques can efficiently update aggregated statistics and leaderboards.
An online learning platform manages courses, instructors, students, enrollments, and assessments. Evaluate the process of converting a conceptual ER model to a logical relational schema, discussing how different relationship types are handled: [8] Relationship Type Implementation Strategy Example Scenario Foreign Key Placement Additional Considerations One-to-One
Instructor-Profile
One-to-Many Foreign key in child
Student table
Many-to-Many
Student-Course enrollment
Junction table attributes Recursive
Course prerequisites
Self-referencing
(b) Analyze the challenges of designing databases for flexible course structures where courses may have varying assessment types and grading schemes. [4]
IMAGE:
[8]
[4]
A real estate management system handles properties, agents, clients, transactions, and market valuations. Design a flexible database schema that can accommodate different property types (residential, commercial, industrial) with varying attributes: [8] Design Approach Implementation Method Advantages Disadvantages Suitability Single Table Inheritance
Simple queries
Similar property types Class Table Inheritance Separate tables per type
Complex joins
Concrete Table Inheritance
Data duplication Distinct property types JSON/NoSQL Hybrid
Evolving requirements
(b) Analyze how geographic information systems (GIS) integration affects database design decisions for property location data. [4] Image:
A real estate management system handles properties, agents, clients, transactions, and market valuations. Design a flexible database schema that can accommodate different property types (residential, commercial, industrial) with varying attributes: [8] Design Approach Implementation Method Advantages Disadvantages Suitability Single Table Inheritance
Simple queries
Similar property types Class Table Inheritance Separate tables per type
Complex joins
Concrete Table Inheritance
Data duplication Distinct property types JSON/NoSQL Hybrid
Evolving requirements
Analyze how geographic information systems (GIS) integration affects database design decisions for property location data. [4] Image:
A healthcare clinic designs a database for patient records, appointments, treatments, and medical history.
Outline six features of a database design for a healthcare clinic that address privacy requirements, audit trails, and regulatory compliance.
Explain how temporal databases can track changes in patient medical conditions over time and support historical reporting requirements.
A content management system handles articles, user comments, and search functionality across multiple languages.
Design a database solution for full-text search capabilities that supports multiple languages and relevance ranking:
Analyze how database cursors and pagination techniques handle large result sets efficiently in web applications.