ITPEC IP April 2021 Question 28

The appropriate decomposition separates employee facts from examination-result facts and links them by Employee_ID. Employee name and date of birth depend only on the employee identifier, while category, date, and result describe each exam attempt. Storing employee details once removes repeated data without losing the relationship.

Answer (a)

Why not others:
- (b) links results by employee name, which is not unique
- (c) mixes examination date into employee data and repeats employee name in results
- (d) omits required attributes and places unrelated facts together

Key rule: Normalize by separating attributes according to what key they depend on, and retain the identifier as a foreign key.

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