Project Brief

Design and implement a database system for a small business scenario. Your submission must include entity-relationship diagrams showing conceptual design, normalized relational schema (at least 3NF), SQL scripts for table creation and sample data insertion, and complex SQL queries demonstrating joins, aggregations, and subqueries. Provide documentation explaining your design decisions and normalization process.

My Work

Reflection

This database design project developed my understanding of data modeling and relational database principles. The scenario involved designing a database for an online course management system with students, instructors, courses, and enrollments. The most significant challenge was achieving proper normalization while maintaining query performance. I learned that theoretical normalization principles must be balanced with practical considerations. Understanding functional dependencies was crucial for eliminating redundancy and anomalies. The ER modeling phase required careful analysis of business requirements. I learned to distinguish between entities, attributes, and relationships through iterative refinement. Converting the conceptual model to a normalized relational schema revealed the importance of choosing appropriate primary and foreign keys. Writing complex SQL queries taught me to think declaratively rather than procedurally. Mastering joins and subqueries enabled me to extract meaningful information from normalized data. I learned that well-designed databases make queries more intuitive and maintainable. This project reinforced that database design is both an art and a science, requiring technical knowledge and practical judgment.