Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PCDE Practice Question: Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions
An engineer is designing a Cloud SQL database for an e-commerce platform. They need to store product inventory and order history. Which schema normalization level is recommended for OLTP to avoid data anomalies?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Third Normal Form (3NF)
Third Normal Form (3NF) eliminates transitive dependencies, reducing update anomalies in OLTP systems.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Second Normal Form (2NF)
Why it's wrong here
2NF removes partial dependencies but not transitive dependencies.
- ✗
First Normal Form (1NF)
Why it's wrong here
1NF eliminates repeating groups but still allows partial dependencies.
- ✓
Third Normal Form (3NF)
Why this is correct
3NF removes transitive dependencies, reducing anomalies for OLTP.
- ✗
Denormalized schema
Why it's wrong here
Denormalization increases redundancy and anomaly risk; not recommended for OLTP.
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Same concept, more angles
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Variation 1. You are designing a database schema for Cloud SQL (MySQL) for an OLTP application. Which normal form is typically recommended to avoid update anomalies?
easy- A.Denormalized form
- B.Second Normal Form (2NF)
- ✓ C.Third Normal Form (3NF)
- D.First Normal Form (1NF)
Why C: Third Normal Form (3NF) is the standard for OLTP databases to reduce redundancy and avoid update, insert, and delete anomalies.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCDE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PCDE exam.