Resources

Lecture Notes

Textbook-style notes generated from the slides and class recordings, updated throughout the semester. See the full listing, or jump directly to a chapter:

• Introduction: Motivation, Definitions, and a Brief History
• Introduction: Background — A Review of CMSC 424

Slides

• 1 — Introduction
• 2 — Models and Abstractions
• 3 — Storage
• 4 — Query Processing, Part 2
• 5 — Streams

Background Material

• CMSC 424 lecture notes — the undergraduate database course this one builds on.
• 424 Summary slides and 424 all slides (419-page PDF).
• Database System Concepts; Silberschatz, Korth, Sudarshan. [book website] — good reference for any background not covered in depth in class.

Textbook

• Readings in Database Systems (the “Red Book”), 5th Edition — Bailis, Hellerstein, and Stonebraker, 2015. The overview chapters are excellent and freely available online.

Paper Search

• DBLP — the canonical bibliography for database papers.
• ACM Digital Library
• Google Scholar

Tools and Systems

• PostgreSQL
• MongoDB
• Apache Spark
• DuckDB — a good single-file analytical system for experimenting with columnar execution.

Class Communication

• Slack for discussion.
• Gradescope for assignment and project submissions (enrollment is automatic via Canvas).
• HotCRP for paper reviews — link to follow before the first discussion session.