Intro to Relational Databases

via Udacity

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Details

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Provider

Udacity
Pricing

Free Online Course
Languages

English
Duration & workload

4 weeks
Sessions

On-Demand
Level

Intermediate

Found in

Overview

This course is a quick, fun introduction to using a relational database from your code, using examples in Python. You'll learn the basics of SQL (the Structured Query Language) and database design, as well as the Python API for connecting Python code to a database. You'll also learn a bit about protecting your database-backed web apps from common security problems.

After taking this course, you'll be able to write code using a database as a backend to store application data reliably and safely.

Syllabus

Data and Tables

Learn about how relational databases let you structure data into tables.,Learn about the importance of unique keys and relationships between tables.

Elements of SQL

Begin learning SQL, the Structured Query Language used by most relational databases.,Learn about the select and insert statements, the basic operations for reading and writing data.,Learn about the operators and syntax available to get the database to scan and join tables for you.

Python DB-API

Learn how to access a relational database from Python code.,Use a virtual machine (VM) to run a Python web application with a database.,Common security pitfalls of database applications, including the famous Bobby Tables.

Deeper Into SQL

Learn how to design and create new databases.,Learn about normalized design, which makes it easier to write effective code using a database.,Learn how to use the SQL join operators to rapidly connect data from different tables.

Taught by

Karl Krueger

Reviews

2.1 rating, based on 7 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Intro to Relational Databases

Gregory J Hamel ( Life Is Study) @greg

Intro to Relational Databases is a short 4 lesson course offered by Udacity that covers the basics of SQL databases. Lessons 1 and 2 cover basic SQL querying, including grouping, ordering and inner joins, lesson 3 addresses inserts and concerns when…

Intro to Relational Databases is a short 4 lesson course offered by Udacity that covers the basics of SQL databases. Lessons 1 and 2 cover basic SQL querying, including grouping, ordering and inner joins, lesson 3 addresses inserts and concerns when using a database backend for a webapp and lesson 4 covers database design principles and a few more advanced features like outer joins and subqueries. I won't get into the final project as Udacity's projects tend to be geared toward students with subscriptions.

Each lesson consist of several short videos with quizzes that involve multiple choice questions and coding exercises that revolve around altering and submitting SQL queries. The instructor is easy to understand and explains things well. The content is polished and I didn't notice any bugs, which is rare for a brand new course. On the other hand, the course is a bit too short and doesn't give beginners enough practice with newly introduced syntax before moving on. It would be helpful to give students a few short drills writing queries related to each newly introduced keyword from scratch. Also, to follow along with lesson 3, you have to download, install and interact with a virtual machine. The time necessary to download, install and figure out how to use the VM is probably more than is warranted with such a short course, although the VM may be used for other Udacity courses.

Intro to relational databases is a succinct overview of SQL basics that serves as a nice refresher for someone who has seen SQL before, but making it a little longer and providing more simple drills would probably be helpful for beginners.

I give Intro to relational databases 3.5 out of 5 stars: Good.
Anonymous

Taking this course now. Having considerable trouble with getting the required tools (the vagrant environment) in place so that I can just move on to the 3rd lesson. I have spent countless hours trying to get it stood up. Apparently, they do have…

Taking this course now. Having considerable trouble with getting the required tools (the vagrant environment) in place so that I can just move on to the 3rd lesson. I have spent countless hours trying to get it stood up. Apparently, they do have answers to the problem on the discussion boards but you have to pay to see it - I find that extraordinary given the fact that the focus of the course is supposed to be DBMS and Python, NOT setting up vagrant environments! Absolutely no troubleshooting guidance other than an EXTREMELY SLOPPY, poor quality video that literally mentioned critically important issues as an afterthought,(like needing to modify the base python DB server code IN ADDITION TO the Vagrantfile configuration !). The virtualbox/vagrant "installation instructions" make reference to screen shots that aren't even present. They don't even provide the logins for the Ubuntu VM that gets installed so that I could at least try to troubleshoot the problem from that perspective. finally, the course itself seems to struggle when trying to describe even basic concepts like SQL - they try to oversimplify it to the point where it actually becomes confusing! Again, *very* sloppy work!
Anonymous

I took and finished this course a while ago, it improved my skillset with Relational DB. Learned things like HAVING and subqueries, etc. And enjoyed the zoo example. I just feel like the current 2 stars for this class is definitely a bit harsh. Though I do agree yah getting Vagrant to work to do the assignments may have been a bit out of the scope of Relational DB, but also, my experience working as a software engineer for 7 years has been that in a work environment, you do find many times you have to overcome setup issues, environment/tool configuration issues, etc. I think this course could be a good fit for many learners.
Anonymous

Not enough information is given in the lectures to complete the programming assignments, especially lesson 3. Very frustrating. I give it one star, because it's free. However, I think you'd be better off with just google, stack exchange, and reddit.com/r/learnpython.
Anonymous

Instructions for installing VM and vagrant do not work. The URL to access the virtual machine is no longer valid...

Overall, the first 2 lessons were decent. But spent hours trying to get software installed to start lesson 3 and hit a wall.
Anonymous

well, instructions are not enough to complete the project. I find it very poor, and compared to other courses database lectures are not sufficient.
William Nguyen