Week 4 - Halfway Through CST363 Reflection

 This week is halfway through the course. 

Briefly summarize 5 things what you have learned in the course so far.  

List at least 3 questions you still have about databases.


Summary of standout learning moments:

I have been grateful to learn how databases are structured to store, organize, retrieve, and filter data efficiently. Realizing the extent of database necessity and prevalence in a hands-on and versatile way has revealed how databases are the backbone of software, and--by transitive property--information in a world that persists to move away from any form of physical database. Learning about the relational model and schemas has been eye opening in visualizing how data is manipulated and impacted by structural design. Defining schema and using keys to ensure data integrity in both Java and MySQL have provided different perspectives on the same landscape, providing a well-rounded approach to building further knowledge. Writing a range of simple and complex queries in MySQL has provided a fun and versatile learning experience in the same way that building a database from scratch in Java has. 

Questions:

The more you learn about a subject, the more questions you tend to have and databases have been no different. To whittle down my list of database questions to a list of three:

1. How is modern concurrent database management handled when it comes to massive databases with a massive headcount of users while boasting a swarm of modern features? I shudder to think of the fiascos, debacles, and git merge conflicts that can arise without sturdy planning.

2. How often does carving down performance time as optimally as possible factor into real world projects? Is there a cost-reward ratio that justifies expending worker resources into shaving down query runtime? Is this a typical aspect of database design in a modern landscape that will almost always guarantee large amounts of data?

3. Do databases have a failsafe for running out of memory in the case of datasets or data entry that overruns memory capacity? Work files to video games can quickly stack up to terabytes of information for a single user, it is not hard to imagine data capacity issues soon become a question for a service or software that has many moving pieces of data as well as a large user base.



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