Are you aware of normalization techniques?

Normalization is a systematic approach to organizing data in a relational database to reduce redundancy and improve data integrity. The most common normal forms are:

1. First Normal Form (1NF) – Each column contains atomic values, and each record is unique. This eliminates repeating groups.
2. Second Normal Form (2NF) – The table is in 1NF and every non‑key attribute is fully functionally dependent on the entire primary key. This removes partial dependencies.
3. Third Normal Form (3NF) – The table is in 2NF and no non‑key attribute is transitively dependent on the primary key. This eliminates indirect dependencies.
4. Boyce‑Codd Normal Form (BCNF) – A stricter version of 3NF where every determinant is a candidate key.
5. Fourth Normal Form (4NF) – Handles multi‑valued dependencies, ensuring that a table does not contain two or more independent multi‑valued facts.

In practice, most systems stop at 3NF or BCNF to balance performance and maintainability. Normalization helps prevent anomalies during insert, update, and delete operations, but over‑normalization can lead to excessive joins and performance hits. Thus, a pragmatic approach often involves normalizing to 3NF and denormalizing only where query performance demands it.