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Chapter 7: Data Structures, Database and Operating System

Syllabus: AEiE07
Coverage: AEiE0701 through AEiE0706

Status: DRAFT - syllabus and assigned-question pass complete; independent source audit pending

Exam use: Recall, ADT recognition, complexity comparison, normalization, transaction, and OS-memory-management MCQs

Chapter map

Code Area Fast recognition cue
AEiE0701 Data structure and algorithm ADT, stack, queue, lists, linked list, trees
AEiE0702 Sorting, searching, and graphs Complexity, stability, DFS/BFS, Dijkstra
AEiE0703 Data modeling ER model, keys, dependencies, normal forms, SQL classes
AEiE0704 Transaction processing, concurrency control and crash recovery ACID, serializability, locks, deadlocks, logs
AEiE0705 Operating system and process management Process, thread, scheduling, race, mutual exclusion
AEiE0706 Memory management, file systems and system administration Paging, virtual memory, file systems, admin tasks

Chapter rapid-revision sheet

Topic Must-remember cue
ADT Defines operations, not representation
Stack and queue LIFO vs FIFO
Binary search Requires sorted random-access sequence
BFS / DFS Queue vs stack or recursion
Dijkstra Greedy, nonnegative weights only
Sorting comparison Merge stable + extra space; heap in-place + unstable
Schema vs instance Design vs current contents
Normal forms 1NF atomic, 2NF no partial, 3NF no transitive, BCNF determinant is super key
ACID Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability
Locks Shared read, exclusive write
Process vs thread Resource owner vs lightweight execution path
Scheduling Round robin identified by time quantum
Paging Page virtual, frame physical
Demand paging Load on first use
File allocation Contiguous, linked, indexed trade-offs

Assigned-question audit

Target Deciding fact Result
set1-037 a stack follows LIFO Supported by AEiE0701
set1-038 binary search repeatedly halves a sorted random-access search interval Supported by AEiE0702
set1-039 a weak entity lacks a complete key of its own Supported by AEiE0703
set1-040 avoidance grants requests only while the resulting allocation remains safe Supported by AEiE0704
set1-041 many-to-many maps many user threads over a smaller or equal number of kernel threads Supported by AEiE0705
set1-042 demand paging loads a page when referenced Supported by AEiE0706
set1-085 stack and queue are ADTs defined by operations rather than one representation Supported by AEiE0701
set1-086 DFS uses an explicit stack or recursion's call stack Supported by AEiE0702
set1-087 a weak entity depends on an owner and has a partial key Supported by AEiE0703
set1-088 in a conventional local-disk boot, the bootloader loads the kernel from secondary storage into RAM Supported by AEiE0706

Sources and verification note

  • Coverage authority: NEC syllabus in syllab.md for AEiE0701 through AEiE0706.
  • Recommended data-structure verification: Horowitz, Sahni, and Anderson-Freed, Fundamentals of Data Structures in C; Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms.
  • Recommended database verification: Korth, Silberschatz, and Sudarshan, Database System Concepts; Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems.
  • Recommended operating-system verification: Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne, Operating System Concepts; Tanenbaum and Bos, Modern Operating Systems.
  • Verification posture: this is a review-dense first edition aimed at recall, concept discrimination, and light calculations. Conditions that are often dropped in weak model keys, such as binary-search prerequisites and exact normalization meanings, are stated explicitly here.