How do you restore a database from a backup?

Short answer: SQL Server: To restore a full backup in SQL Server: - Full Restore RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase FROM DISK = 'C:\Backups\MyDatabase.bak'; - Transaction Log Restore RESTORE LOG MyDatabase FROM DISK = 'C:\Backups\MyDatabase_log.trn'; To restore a database to a specific point in time (using point-in-time recovery), you would restore the full backup and apply transaction logs.

Explain a bit more

RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase FROM DISK = 'C:\Backups\MyDatabase.bak'; RESTORE LOG MyDatabase FROM DISK = 'C:\Backups\MyDatabase_log.trn' WITH STOPAT = '2023-09-14T15:30:00'; -- Restore to a specific time PostgreSQL: To restore a backup from a pg_dump: - Full Restore from SQL dump psql -U username -d mydatabase < /path/to/backup/mydatabase.sql For binary dump (pg_dump -Fc): pg_restore -U username -d mydatabase /path/to/backup/mydatabase.dump MySQL: To restore a MySQL database: - Full Restore from SQL dump mysql -u username -p mydatabase < /path/to/backup/mydatabase.sql For restoring binary logs: mysqlbinlog /path/to/binlog/mysql-bin.000001 | mysql -u username -p

Real-world example (ShopNest)

ShopNest’s SQL Server database stores customers, products, and orders. Good indexes and clear foreign keys keep checkout queries fast and safe.

Say this in the interview

1. Define — one clear sentence (the short answer above).
2. Example — relate it to a project like ShopNest or your real work.
3. Trade-off — when you would not use it.