Exam Objectives
The exam objectives are broken up into more than seventeen objectives grouped into five different categories.
Understanding Core Database Concepts (23 percent)
- Understand how data is stored in tables.
- Understand relational database concepts.
- Understand data manipulation language (DML).
- Understand data definition language (DDL).
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding what a table is and how it relates to the data that will be stored in the database; columns/fields, rows/records
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding what a relational database is, the need for relational database management systems (RDBMS), and how relations are established
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding what DML is and its role in databases
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding how T-SQL can be used to create database objects such as tables and views
Creating Database Objects (23 percent)
- Choose data types.
- Understand tables and how to create them.
- Create views.
- Create stored procedures and functions.
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding what data types are, why they are important, and how they affect storage requirements
This objective may include but is not limited to: purpose of tables; creating tables in a database by using proper ANSI SQL syntax
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding when to use views and how to create a view by using T-SQL or a graphical designer
This objective may include but is not limited to: selecting, inserting, updating, or deleting data
Manipulating Data (26 percent)
- Select data.
- Insert data.
- Update data.
- Delete data.
This objective may include but is not limited to: utilizing SELECT queries to extract data from one table; extracting data by using joins; combining result sets by using UNION and INTERSECT
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding how data is inserted into a database; how to use INSERT statements
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding how data is updated in a database and how to write the updated data to the database by using the appropriate UPDATE statements; update by using a table
This objective may include but is not limited to: deleting data from single or multiple tables; ensuring data and referential integrity by using transactions
Understanding Data Storage (17 percent)
- Understand normalization.
- Understand primary, foreign, and composite keys.
- Understand indexes.
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding the reasons for normalization, the five most common levels of normalization, how to normalize a database to third normal form
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding the reason for keys in a database, choosing appropriate primary keys, selecting appropriate data type for keys, selecting appropriate fields for composite keys, understanding the relationship between foreign and primary keys
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding clustered and non-clustered indexes and their purpose in a database
Administering a Database (11 percent)
- Understand database security concepts.
- Understand database backups and restore.
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding the need to secure a database, what objects can be secured, what objects should be secured, user accounts, and roles
This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding various backup types, such as full and incremental, importance of backups, how to restore a database