What is a primary trade-off when using normalization in relational database design?

• A. Normalization minimizes data redundancy and enforces data integrity, but may require complex joins and slower reads.
• B. Normalization increases redundancy and speeds reads.
• C. Normalization eliminates the need for keys.
• D. Normalization makes the schema entirely denormalized.

Answer: (A)

Normalization in relational database design aims to minimize data redundancy and enforce data integrity by organizing data into related tables. The key trade-off is that while you reduce duplication and update anomalies, assembling a complete dataset often requires joins across multiple tables, which can make reads more complex and potentially slower. Normalization relies on keys (primary and foreign) to link tables, and it does not eliminate the need for these keys or make the schema denormalized—that would defeat the purpose of normalization.