Syllabus

This course is on the design and implementation of database management systems. Topics include data models (relational, document, key/value), storage models (n-ary, decomposition), query languages (SQL, stored procedures), storage architectures (heaps, log-structured), indexing (order preserving trees, hash tables), transaction processing (ACID, concurrency control), recovery (logging, checkpoints), query processing (joins, sorting, aggregation, optimization), and parallel architectures (multi-core, distributed). Case studies on open-source and commercial database systems are used to illustrate these techniques and trade-offs. The course is appropriate for students that are prepared to flex their strong systems programming skills.

This course satisfies the Software Systems Elective requirements for CMU's Computer Science Bachelors Curriculum.

Educational Objectives

This is an upper-level course on the internals of database management systems. This course has a heavy emphasis on programming projects. There are also readings assigned for each class, homeworks, and two exams. Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

  • Use relational algebra to express database queries.
  • Use SQL to interact with database management systems.
  • Design appropriate database tables, using functional dependencies and normal forms.
  • Implement a disk-oriented database storage manager with table heaps and indexes.
  • Understand, compare, and implement the fundamental concurrency control algorithms.
  • Implement database recovery algorithms and verify their correctness.
  • Identify trade-offs among database systems techniques and contrast distributed/parallel alternatives for both on-line transaction processing and on-line analytical workloads.
  • Interpret and comparatively criticize database system architectures.

Wait List

Preferential consideration is given to Computer Science Department students. Students will then be enrolled in the course from wait list based on their position. The instructor will add students will in a rolling basis until the course reaches capacity.

Update 2020-08-31: The course roster is full. We will not be taking any additional students from the waitlist.

Grading Scheme

The final grade for the course will be based on the following weights:

Homeworks

Students will complete multiple homework assignments during the course. These homeworks are designed to reinforce the lectures and reading materials. The homework due dates are the ones that are posted on this website.

Each homework will be graded out of a total of 100 points and are counted equally when computing the homework portion of the final grade.

Programming Projects

Students will complete programming projects during the course. Each assignment is cumulative. That is, you need to successfully complete each assignment in order to complete the next one. We will not release solutions for the programming projects.

Each project will be graded out of a total of 100 points and are counted equally when computing the project portion of the final grade.

Exams

There will be two exams during the course. These exams will cover the mandatory readings and topics discussed in class. The first will be an "in-class" midterm exam. The second will be a final exam at during the University's final examination period at the end of the semester.

Late Policy

The project and homework assignment page provides a list of when these assignments are due. You will lose 10% of a project or homework's total score for every 24 hours it is late. Late days are rounded up to the nearest integer. For example, a submission that is four hours late will count as one day late. In extreme circumstances (e.g., medical emergencies), we will grant no-penalty extensions. Please be prepared to provide written documentation (e.g., doctor's note).

Plagiarism Policy

  • All homeworks and projects are to be done individually. Whatever you turn in must be your own work.
  • Students are allowed to discuss about homework and project problems with others.
  • Students are not allowed to copy the contents of a white-board after a group meeting with other students.
  • Students are not allowed to copy the solutions from another colleague.
  • We will run all project submissions through a plagiarism checker to identify similar solutions.

WARNING: All of the work in this class must be your own. You may not copy source code from other students or other sources that you find on the web. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. See CMU's Policy on Academic Integrity for additional information.