WGU C175 DATA MANAGEMENT
FOUNDATIONS PRACTICE EXAM 2026
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
CERTIFICATION EVALUATION SET
●● Define: Referential Integrity
Answer: Requires that ALL foreign key values must either be fully
NULL or match some primary key value.
●● 4 Ways Referential Integrity can be violated
Answer: 1. Primary key is updated 2. Foreign key is updated 3. Row
containing primary key is DELETED 4. Row containing foreign key is
INSERTED.
●● Actions to Correct Referential Integrity Violation
Answer: 1. RESTRICT - rejects an insert, update, or delete 2. SET
NULL - sets invalid foreign keys to null 3. SET DEFAULT - sets invalid
foreign keys to a default primary value 4. CASCADE - propagates
primary key changes to foreign keys.
●● What is an Important aspect of Referential Integrity
Answer: Reference to data in one relation is based on values in another
relation.
,●● What is Broad definition of data
Answer: Raw facts captured on printed or digital media.
●● What Data
Answer: Facts that are collected and stored in a database system.
●● Determining characteristic of unstructured data
Answer: It does not follow a data model.
●● Flat files
Answer: They contain no internal hierarchical organization.
●● Data retrieval before database management systems
Answer: Sequentially from simple files.
●● Primary Key
Answer: An attribute or group of attributes that uniquely identify a tuple
in a relation.
●● Foreign Key matching
,Answer: A domain of values is necessary for a primary key in one
relation of a database to match with its corresponding foreign key in
another relation of the same database.
●● Alternate Key
Answer: What uniquely identifies each entity in a collection of entities
but is not the primary key.
●● Candidate Key
Answer: A set of columns in a table that can uniquely identify any record
in that table without referring to other data.
●● Database indexing
Answer: The original data is copied to the index.
●● Indexes in physical database design
Answer: To retrieve data DIRECTLY using a pointer.
●● Index creation on a database column
Answer: To optimize data retrievals.
●● Functional Dependency
, Answer: Each value of a column relates to at MOST one value of
another column.
●● Rules/Appearance of First Normal Form
Answer: - All non-key columns depend on primary key - Each table cell
contains one value - A table with no duplicate rows.
●● Rules/Appearance of Second Normal Form
Answer: - When all non-key columns depend on the WHOLE primary
key - Must be in 1NF - Non-key column can not depend on just one part
of a composite key - a single primary key is automatically in 2NF.
●● Rules/Appearance of Third Normal Form
Answer: - All non-key columns depend ONLY on the primary key -
Tables are totally free of data redundancy.
●● Differences between operational and analytical databases
Answer: - Volatility - Detail - Scope - History.
●● Volatility
Answer: Database updates in real time. Operational Data is Volatile.
Analytical Data is NOT Volatile.
●● Detail in databases
FOUNDATIONS PRACTICE EXAM 2026
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
CERTIFICATION EVALUATION SET
●● Define: Referential Integrity
Answer: Requires that ALL foreign key values must either be fully
NULL or match some primary key value.
●● 4 Ways Referential Integrity can be violated
Answer: 1. Primary key is updated 2. Foreign key is updated 3. Row
containing primary key is DELETED 4. Row containing foreign key is
INSERTED.
●● Actions to Correct Referential Integrity Violation
Answer: 1. RESTRICT - rejects an insert, update, or delete 2. SET
NULL - sets invalid foreign keys to null 3. SET DEFAULT - sets invalid
foreign keys to a default primary value 4. CASCADE - propagates
primary key changes to foreign keys.
●● What is an Important aspect of Referential Integrity
Answer: Reference to data in one relation is based on values in another
relation.
,●● What is Broad definition of data
Answer: Raw facts captured on printed or digital media.
●● What Data
Answer: Facts that are collected and stored in a database system.
●● Determining characteristic of unstructured data
Answer: It does not follow a data model.
●● Flat files
Answer: They contain no internal hierarchical organization.
●● Data retrieval before database management systems
Answer: Sequentially from simple files.
●● Primary Key
Answer: An attribute or group of attributes that uniquely identify a tuple
in a relation.
●● Foreign Key matching
,Answer: A domain of values is necessary for a primary key in one
relation of a database to match with its corresponding foreign key in
another relation of the same database.
●● Alternate Key
Answer: What uniquely identifies each entity in a collection of entities
but is not the primary key.
●● Candidate Key
Answer: A set of columns in a table that can uniquely identify any record
in that table without referring to other data.
●● Database indexing
Answer: The original data is copied to the index.
●● Indexes in physical database design
Answer: To retrieve data DIRECTLY using a pointer.
●● Index creation on a database column
Answer: To optimize data retrievals.
●● Functional Dependency
, Answer: Each value of a column relates to at MOST one value of
another column.
●● Rules/Appearance of First Normal Form
Answer: - All non-key columns depend on primary key - Each table cell
contains one value - A table with no duplicate rows.
●● Rules/Appearance of Second Normal Form
Answer: - When all non-key columns depend on the WHOLE primary
key - Must be in 1NF - Non-key column can not depend on just one part
of a composite key - a single primary key is automatically in 2NF.
●● Rules/Appearance of Third Normal Form
Answer: - All non-key columns depend ONLY on the primary key -
Tables are totally free of data redundancy.
●● Differences between operational and analytical databases
Answer: - Volatility - Detail - Scope - History.
●● Volatility
Answer: Database updates in real time. Operational Data is Volatile.
Analytical Data is NOT Volatile.
●● Detail in databases
