Spring 2027

Database Management Systems: Design and Implementation

Covers DBMS design and implementation, including data models, file organization, query processing, concurrency control, recovery, and hands-on experience with relational and network-based systems.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Tianyu Li

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Ahmed Mahmood

Exams were reported as very tough and lengthy for the available time, while projects were considered fine.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Articulate and apply the foundations of relational database management systems (RDBMS).

  • Explain the concepts of data models, including the Entity-Relationship (ER) and Relational models, express application in these models, and translate between models

  • Use SQL to express complex queries over a relational database.

  • Describe how an RDBMS stores, indexes, and accesses data.

  • Explain how an RDBMS optimizes query execution and efficiently implements various operators.

  • Explain the motivations for transactions, concurrency control, and crash recovery.

  • Modify and extend the functionality of RDBMS.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

E C E/​COMP SCI 354 and (COMP SCI 367 or 400) or graduate/professional standing or declared in the Capstone Certificate in Computer Sciences for Professionals

    • take all
    • graduate/professional standing
    • declared in the Capstone Certificate in Computer Sciences for Professionals
    take one
COMPSCI 564 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • All of
    • graduate/professional standing
    • declared in the Capstone Certificate in Computer Sciences for Professionals

Professors

Spring 2027

No course-specific feedback yet.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

AHMED MAHMOOD is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

AMANPREET SINGH SAINI is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ARUN KUMAR is recorded teaching in Fall 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

IOANNIS CHRONIS is recorded teaching in Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JEFFREY NAUGHTON is recorded teaching in Fall 2008, Fall 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JIGNESH PATEL is recorded teaching in Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KEVIN GAFFNEY is recorded teaching in Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PARIS KOUTRIS is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2025, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

THEODOROS REKATSINAS is recorded teaching in Fall 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1500
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 1500

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Paris Koutris

Lectures in the second half of the semester were described as vague and unclear with limited examples, which made the final exam difficult for students.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.18 GPA, 54.5% A/AB (n=321 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.43 GPA, 70.2% A/AB (n=299 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.44 GPA, 67.7% A/AB (n=303 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Ahmed Mahmood

Exams were reported as very tough and lengthy for the available time, while projects were considered fine.

Past student reviews · Ahmed Mahmood

A student found the lectures disorganized with many skipped points on slides and felt the closed-book exam format was unfair compared to other semesters.

Topics

  • Data models (relational, hierarchical, network)
  • Database system implementation techniques
  • File organization, query processing, concurrency, recovery, integrity, and views

Skills

  • Apply RDBMS foundations
  • Translate between ER and Relational models
  • Write complex SQL queries
  • Understand RDBMS storage and indexing
  • Explain query optimization
  • Explain transaction and recovery mechanisms
  • Modify and extend RDBMS functionality

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.14 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
COMPSCI 564 · Spring 2027

Database Management Systems: Design and Implementation

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:266:004287",
    "course_id": "COMPSCI 564",
    "course_uid": "course_d68ae7a2fa68407d62f2519f",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "004287",
    "source_subject_id": "266",
    "title": "Database Management Systems: Design and Implementation",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "5aaca1f485426f10f63da5c7151ebd827e63f1766384e75f823443529e6c57de",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}