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Module 4 - Review

Module Overview

Review key concepts from this sprint and prepare for the sprint challenge, focusing on graphs, service design, and relational databases.

Sprint Review Summary

This sprint covered three main topic areas: Graphs, Service Design, and Relational Databases. Let's review the key concepts from each area to help you prepare for the sprint challenge.

Graphs

Graphs are versatile data structures consisting of nodes (vertices) connected by edges. They're ideal for representing relationships and connections in data.

Key concepts:

  • Nodes (vertices) and edges (connections between nodes)
  • Directed vs. undirected graphs
  • Weighted vs. unweighted edges
  • Cycles in graphs
  • Graph traversal algorithms: Breadth-First Search (BFS) and Depth-First Search (DFS)
  • Graph representations: adjacency matrix and adjacency list

For the sprint challenge, be prepared to design a graph-based solution to a business problem, implement graph traversal algorithms, and analyze graphs for properties like connectivity and cycles.

Service Design

Service design focuses on creating scalable, maintainable systems that solve business problems through the optimal organization of components and technologies.

Key concepts:

  • Service design principles: don't reinvent the wheel, simplicity over complexity
  • Component-based architecture
  • Design patterns: adapter, facade, proxy, notifier, and aggregator
  • Trade-off analysis between different design options
  • AWS compute options: Lambda, ECS, EC2
  • Lambda limitations and appropriate use cases

The sprint challenge may ask you to analyze a business scenario, recommend an appropriate service design, and justify your choice with a trade-off analysis.

Relational Databases

Relational databases organize data into tables with fixed schemas, using keys to establish relationships between tables.

Key concepts:

  • Tables, records, columns, and schemas
  • Primary keys and foreign keys
  • Data types: numeric, date, varchar, boolean
  • Normalization to reduce data redundancy
  • Referential integrity constraints
  • Database associations: one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many
  • SQL queries: SELECT, JOIN, WHERE clauses

For the sprint challenge, expect to write SQL queries, design normalized database schemas, and interpret entity relationship diagrams.

Remember to review the code-alongs and exercise solutions from each module. These practical examples will help solidify your understanding of the concepts and prepare you for the hands-on aspects of the sprint challenge.

Learning Objectives Review

Graphs

Service Design

Relational Databases

Resources