Multiple choice technology enterprise content management

Which of the following data structures typically contain normalized data?

  1. Cube

  2. Flat file

  3. Operational

  4. Star schema
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Operational databases (OLTP systems) normalize data to eliminate redundancy and maintain integrity during transaction processing. In contrast, star schemas and cubes deliberately denormalize data for faster analytical queries in data warehouses.

AI explanation

Operational (OLTP) databases typically hold normalized data. Normalization minimizes redundancy and enforces data integrity for transactional systems that do frequent inserts/updates/deletes — e.g., a customer's address is stored once and referenced, not repeated. A 'Cube' and 'Star schema' are OLAP/data-warehouse structures that are deliberately denormalized (dimension tables often flattened, fact tables linked to denormalized dimensions) to optimize read-heavy analytical queries, trading redundancy for query speed. A 'Flat file' is inherently denormalized/unstructured — it stores all data in one table-like structure with no relational decomposition, maximizing redundancy. So among the choices, only 'Operational' systems are built around normalization principles (commonly 3NF), making it the correct answer.

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