Learning Journal Week 5 --- CST363

 This week I read the “Slow Indexes” section from Use the Index, Luke! by Markus Winand. I learned that even when a query uses an index, it can still be slow if the database has to check too many matching entries or jump around to get table data. I always thought indexes automatically made everything faster, but now I understand that performance also depends on how the data is stored and accessed.

In Lab 15, I worked with transactions and learned how commits and rollbacks help keep the database consistent. It was interesting, but I still find it a little confusing when to commit or roll back changes, so I’ll probably review that again. Lab 18 was about database design, and even though setting up the relationships between tables took time, it helped me see how structure really matters.

Homework 3 connected everything we’ve been learning about SQL queries and constraints, and it gave me more practice writing statements that actually work. Quiz 5 went okay overall, but I want to study joins and subqueries more since those still trip me up sometimes. This week helped me understand how both design and indexing affect database performance, and I feel like I’m getting better at putting all the pieces together.