This question was asked in a google interview for the job 'Product manager', according to www.businessinsider.com. They have also answered it but, I think, it is not pretty satisfactory. The answer they gave is:
A database is a machine that remembers lots of information about lots of things. People use them to help remember that information. Go play outside.
What do you think? What could be the better answer?
Would maybe work for a real 8-yrs old kid: the manga guide to database. But probably not for Google...
I suppose this description depends on if the kid knows what a filing cabinet is. I did at that age because we had one at home.
It is like a filing cabinet, but on a computer. It has a lot of information in, but all of it is in labeled folders in the drawers and each drawer has a name on so I know where the information is and can get at it quickly.
A database is like a box - where you can put things you want to remember and get them back whenever you need it. You can organize the box any way you like, so there are many little compartments for different things you want to remember. It also can tell you quickly how many total things you have, and many other questions.
A database stores pieces of information in an organised fashion, allowing you to quickly retrieve the information that you want and add to information already in it.
Interesting thought! This is the way I would try it.
A database is like the shelf you put your toys on. Now imagine you want to get all your green toys out at the same time. Or all the toys that are horses. Or all the toys that are made of wood. Or all the toys granny got you since she was in hospital last summer.
Now imagine a veeeery long shelf, so long that you'd need your bicycle to get to the other end, with many many toys on it.
A database has like a list lying next to the shelf. The list says where in the shelf all your green toys are. And where all the toys that are horses are. And where all the toys that are made of wood are. And where all the toys granny got you since she was in hospital last summer are.
Even with this list, you still have to drive along the shelf to get the toys, but you don't have to search anymore, you can drive quickly and stop exactly where you know the toy is. That way, you can get all the green toys from the huge shelf in, say, half an hour instead of a day of searching, because the green toys are not all in a row, no, they are all over the shelf because you wouldn't sort them by colour, but by animal, or by how big they are.
There are also special lists to find which toy was the first, which is the biggest, and so on.
Whenever somebody puts a new toy onto the shelf, they have to enter it to the list. If it's green and made out of wood, they have to enter it into a number of lists so they are all correct.
There is an equally intereseting question that is bound to follow:
"But why do you need all the green toys, and all the toys made out of wood, and all the toys that are horses? When I play, that doesn't matter!"
In trying to keep the answer short, simple, and relative to an 8 year old, let me try the green toy analogy:
If I asked you to go get all of your green toys out of your room in 5 seconds, how would you organize your toys so you can find them quickly enough? That's what a database does.
A database is a special computer program. You use it to store information and then get that information again when you need it. Other computer programs can do this too, but databases are the best way to do this because they are very fast and can store a lot of information and lots of people know how to use them.
A database can be like a family. Each Record(Family Member) has an ID(their name) and some attributes(fields) like weight, hair color and favorite ice cream. You can sort and find Members by their Attributes!
Well it doesn't describe a database in a perfect manner but I think it's good enough to understand the basics. Just like teaching a kid electronics you don't have to talk about the electrons to make them understand the flow of electricity.
After your kid did understand the above one you could go on and describe thinks like linking stuff in the household to the IDs of the family members, so the toys map to the kids ID the shaver to daddys and the car can even map to daddy and mom.
At least this is how I would describe it if I had kids...
Santa Claus needs a way to keep track of all the children of the world, what they want for Christmas and whether they were good enough little boys and girls to get any presents. A database stores this onformation and lets him find allthe good little boy and girls in your town and thier addresses and what they want. This makes it easier to fill the sleigh.