Review of “Intro to database systems” video series
Andy Pavlov’s CMU 15–445/645 course posted on YouTube
Andy Pavlo’s CMU 15–445/645 course posted on YouTube
If you want to start learning database systems, there are many available textbooks and articles. However, textbook alone is not sufficient for learning a difficult subject like database systems. You need an instructor who knows databases inside out to help you navigate this difficult subject. If your background is not CS and you have not taken this course in the school, it is hard to find a good quality course outside academia. There are not many good online courses/educators for database systems. That is why I was stunned when I found Andy Pavlo’s YouTube videos(here). He is a CMU professor (The CMU is the 1st school on the ranking of CS programs) and for some strange reasons he has decided to share his excellent quality courses with the world. For this reason alone, I consider him as a true philanthropist (Yes Andy, you’ve heard it right, you are a philanthropist). So, if you are like me, interested in auditing an online course and listening to a real professor explaining database systems to you, Andy Pavlo’s YouTube videos is an absolute gem.
This video series are very comprehensive and cover almost all topics on single-node and distributed databases. Andy finishes the series after 24 sessions with this statement:
At this point, you should be confident enough to go to the real world and either manage a database or use a database, and know enough to opine whether the database you’re working on is a good idea. We covered a lot and hopefully you guys have followed along. I am confident you guys can go to real world and discuss databases.
It is a very bold statement but my personal experience says it is absolutely true. The amount of information Andy has packed in these series is mind-blowing. Every session is full of relevant information, illustrative pictures and sometimes well-thought demos.
You can access notes, slides, homeworks, and project assignments on the course webpage (here). Besides the course, he has created a website, database of databases (here) that serves an encyclopedia of databases. His students update this website every semester and it describes literally any available database in the entire universe!! I am not kidding.
I have no affiliation with CMU and I haven’t talked or met Andy Pavlo, but after auditing the course and learning from it, I felt I owe him this piece to introduce his work and promote it as much as I can. Kudos to all the good professors in academia who believe in sharing their work in the digital world.