Probably five questions.

1 or 2 exercise

• E.g., What would this linear hash look like after the addition of a record with key 27 is added?

1 or 2 short answer

• What operations can hash indexes speed up?

1 or 2 analysis

• E.g., Consider a buffer pool that accommodates variable size pages... What would be the performance issues?

Basically Chapters 13, 14 (§1–3,8), & 15 §6.1 (clustering) from the textbook. We have covered the first third of the course, the physical database.

In general, the questions will be drawn from the intersection of the readings and lectures in class. However, general concept questions drawn from the readings are also fair game. Review also the introductory slides and architectural overview.

• the name of the game & database system architecture. (introductory materials [pdf], architecture slide [pdf])
• memory management [Ch.13]
  1. memory & storage (pdf)
     1. the memory hierarchy [Ch.13 §1]
     2. storage
        • secondary memory / disks [Ch.13 §2]
        • the I/O model & how to speed up access [Ch.13 §3]
        • coping with disk failures [Ch.13 §4]
  2. paging: disk organization & records (pdf)
     1. pagification: arranging data on disk [Ch.13 §5]
     2. the buffer pool: representing block & record addresses [Ch.13 §6]
     3. variable-length data & records [Ch.13 §7]
  3. issues with modifying records [Ch.13 §8]
• index structures [Ch.14 §1–3,7,8] (indexing.pdf, hashing.pdf)
  1. index structure basics [Ch.14 §1]
  2. B-trees [Ch.14 §2]
  3. hash-table indexes [Ch.14 §3]

The test will be closed-note, closed-book. You may bring a calculator, but the test will be designed so that any math shouldn't need one.

There will be space on the text packet for writing answers. I will bring extra paper, in case anyone needs it, to attach.

The test will be for the class lecture time, so 75 minutes.