Engine-neutral Database Foundations
Start with the concepts you need to learn databases
Understand tables, rows, keys, and valid writes before moving into SQL results and transactions.
Start Foundation 01Learning sequence
Six lessons connect the database foundations
Foundation 01 is available now. Foundations 02–06 show the sequence that will follow.
- FOUNDATION 01 Start Foundation 01
Tables, rows, and keys
AvailableHow do a schema and its current rows differ, and which rows do keys protect?
Compare customers and orders, then predict whether three proposed rows satisfy the primary- and foreign-key rules.
- FOUNDATION 02 Planned
Constraints and relationships
Which writes do NOT NULL, UNIQUE, CHECK, and relationship cardinality allow?
Connect constraints and referential actions to entity relationships.
- FOUNDATION 03 Planned
How a query builds a result
In what logical order do rows move from FROM to the final result?
Follow the meaning of JOIN, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, SELECT, ORDER BY, and LIMIT.
- FOUNDATION 04 Planned
Joins, groups, and subqueries
Why does the result-row count change when a match is absent or repeated?
Compare INNER and LEFT joins, aggregates, EXISTS, CTEs, and window results.
- FOUNDATION 05 Planned
Schema design and normalization
Which dependencies create update anomalies and call for decomposing a table?
Connect functional dependencies, 1NF–3NF/BCNF, and denormalization trade-offs.
- FOUNDATION 06 Planned
Transactions and anomalies
When can concurrent reads and writes produce an unsafe result?
Connect COMMIT, ROLLBACK, isolation anomalies, serializability, deadlocks, and retry.
MySQL Execution & Concurrency
If you already know basic SQL
If you already understand basic SELECT, JOIN, WHERE, ORDER BY, and LIMIT semantics, you can start with real MySQL execution.