DMC Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield DMC facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Which of the following is a characteristic of a natural key? → It derives its value from business attributes that already exist
2. What does referential integrity enforce in a relational data model? → That a foreign key value must match an existing primary key value in the referenced table
3. What anomaly occurs when inserting new data requires entering dummy or NULL values for unrelated attributes? → Insertion anomaly
4. When a data quality issue is discovered in production data, which document should be updated to capture the root cause, business impact, and remediation steps? → Data quality issue log
5. What does 'data lineage' document? → The origin of data and how it flows and transforms through systems over time
6. Which data modeling artifact is most useful for documenting data quality rules alongside the attributes they govern? → Data dictionary
7. Which of the following are NoSQL database technologies? → Neo4j
8. Which of the following tools are commonly used to integrate data modeling into data pipelines? → Apache NiFi
9. In Data Vault modeling, what is the purpose of a Link? → To capture the relationships and associations between two or more Hubs
10. What is the primary goal of a conceptual data model? → To capture high-level business concepts and their relationships independent of technology
11. Which of the following are common elements of an Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD)? → Entities
12. Which modeling artifact is used to document the meaning and origin of a single data element across an enterprise? → Data element definition record
13. What is a recursive (or self-referencing) relationship in data modeling? → A relationship where an entity is associated with instances of itself
14. What is a subtype in data modeling? → A specialized category of a supertype entity that inherits its attributes
15. In logical data modeling, what is the purpose of a business rule? → To capture constraints and policies that govern data and must be enforced by the model
16. What is data lineage, and why is it important in metadata management? → A record of where data originates, how it transforms, and where it moves
17. Which data quality concept refers to each entity instance being represented only once in a dataset, with no duplicate records? → Uniqueness
18. Which ERD notation style uses rectangles for entities, diamonds for relationships, and ovals for attributes? → Chen notation
19. In an ERD, what does a crow's foot notation symbol at the end of a relationship line represent? → Many (zero or more)
20. Which of the following is a key responsibility of a data steward in maintaining data quality within a data model? → Defining, monitoring, and enforcing data quality rules for assigned data domains
21. In the context of DMC, what does 'domain' mean when applied to an attribute? → The set of all valid values an attribute can hold
22. How does data modeling improve machine learning workflows? → By structuring data for efficient feature extraction
23. Which concept represents a property or characteristic of an entity in a data model? → Attribute
24. What is the purpose of a data catalog in metadata management? → To provide a central repository for metadata
25. Which of the following best describes data accuracy as a data quality dimension? → Data correctly represents the real-world entity or event it models
26. What is the role of a tablespace in physical database design? → A storage container that maps database objects to physical disk files or storage devices
27. What is the primary purpose of a data quality scorecard in enterprise data modeling? → To measure and communicate data quality metrics against defined thresholds
28. In IDEF1X notation, what does a solid line between entities represent versus a dashed line? → Solid = identifying relationship; dashed = non-identifying relationship
29. What is denormalization, and when is it appropriate? → Reversing normalization by intentionally adding redundancy to improve read performance
30. Which of the following database systems is relational? → MySQL