Describe the characteristics of transactional data processing solutions

Question 1

What is a transactional system?

Answer 1

• A transactional system records transaction that encapsulates specific events that an organization wants to track.
• A transaction is a discrete, unit of work, e.g., movement of funds between accounts in a banking system.
• They are high-volume and data processing must be accessible quickly.
• The work performed by transactional system is Online Transactional Processing (OLTP).

Question 2

What does OLTP relay on?

Answer 2

OLTP rely on database system in which data storage is optimized for both read and write operations to support transactional workloads where data records are created, retrieved, updated, or deleted (CRUD).

Question 3

What does OLTP system enforce?

Answer 3

OLTP systems enforce transactions that support ACID semantics:
* Atomicity - each transaction is treated as a single unit, which succeeds or fails.
* Consistency - transactions only take data in the database from one valid state to another.
* Isolation - concurrent transactions cannot interfere with one another and must result in a consistent database.
* Durability - when a transaction has been committed, it will remain committed.