Assess learners' understanding of relational and NoSQL database paradigms by comparing data models (relational tables, document, key-value, column-family, graph), querying approaches (SQL, JOINs, APIs, map-reduce), consistency and transaction models (ACID, BASE, eventual consistency) and practical trade-offs (CAP theorem, normalization vs denormalization, scalability, latency). Expect definitions, direct comparisons, scenario-based selection of appropriate database types, and concise justification of choices based on consistency, performance, and typical use cases.