Published / updated29 Aug 2026

Glossary

Before you start

You need: nothing. This is a reference, not a lesson.

How to use it: do not read it end to end and do not memorise it. When a page uses a word you do not know, come here, read the one line, go back. The words become familiar through use.

Every entry has an example from the School Management System, because a definition without an example is usually just another sentence you do not understand.

If a word is missing, it is almost certainly defined in the article that introduces it — check its Before you start and the first paragraph that uses it in bold.

The basics

Term	Meaning
Code	Instructions written for a computer to follow.
Program / application / app	A complete set of instructions that does something useful — the school portal is an application.
Software	The general word for programs, as opposed to the physical machine.
Developer / programmer	The person who writes and changes code.
Codebase	All the code that makes up one application. "The school portal codebase" means every file in it.
Bug	A mistake in code that makes it behave wrongly — marking an absent student as having scored zero, for instance.
Debugging	Finding and fixing a bug.
Feature	One thing an application does. Fee collection is a feature.
Requirement	A statement of what the software must do, usually written before it is built.
Syntax	The grammar rules of a programming language. A missing semicolon is a syntax error.
Compile	Translate the code you wrote into a form the computer can run. C# is compiled; Python is not.
Runtime	While the program is actually running. A runtime error happens then, not when compiling.
Run / execute	Make the program actually do its work.

The three parts

Term	Meaning
Frontend	The part the user sees and clicks — the screen listing students. Runs in the browser.
Backend	The part on a server that decides what happens — checks the clerk may view this student, fetches the record.
Database	The organised store where information lives so it survives after the app closes. Every student, mark and fee payment.
Full-stack	A developer who works on all three.
Server	A computer, elsewhere, that runs the backend and answers requests.
Client	Whatever asks the server for something — usually the browser.
Request and response	The question the client asks and the answer the server sends. "Give me student NCA-2024-0012" and the record that comes back.
Localhost	Your own machine, acting as the server while you develop.
Deploy	Put your application somewhere other people can reach it, rather than only on your laptop.
Production	The live version real users are actually using. A bug in production affects real people.
Staging	A copy of production used for testing before the real thing.

Data and databases

Term	Meaning
Table	A grid in a database. The Students table holds one row per student.
Row / record	One entry — Ravi Kumar's student record.
Column / field	One piece of information every row has — RollNumber, ClassName.
Primary key	The column that uniquely identifies a row. No two students share an Id.
Foreign key	A column pointing at another table's row. ExamResult.StudentId says which student this mark belongs to.
Schema	The design of a database — its tables, columns and rules.
Query	A question asked of the database. "All students in class 10-A."
SQL	The language queries are written in.
Index	A structure that makes lookups fast, like a book's index. Without one, finding a roll number means reading every row.
Constraint	A rule the database itself enforces — a roll number must be unique within a school.
NULL	"No value recorded." Different from zero and different from empty text: an absent student's mark is NULL, not 0.
Transaction	A group of database changes that all succeed or all undo. Recording a fee payment and updating the balance must not half-happen.
Rollback	Undoing a transaction because something failed partway.
Migration	A recorded change to the database design, so every machine can apply the same change in the same order.
Seed data	Sample rows loaded so the application has something to show while you develop.
Soft delete	Marking a row inactive instead of removing it, so the history survives. A transferred student stays in the table.

Programming words

Term	Meaning
Variable	A named box holding a value. string studentName = "Ravi Kumar";
Type	What kind of value something is — text, whole number, date, money.
Integer (int)	A whole number. Marks obtained, for instance.
Decimal	A number with exact fractional parts. Always used for money — never double, which drifts by paise.
Boolean (bool)	True or false. IsPresent is a boolean.
String	Text. A student's name is a string.
Method / function	A named block of code you can run by name. CalculateAverage().
Parameter and argument	The input a method expects, and the value you actually pass.
Return value	What a method gives back to whoever called it.
Class	A blueprint describing what something is and what it can do — the Student class.
Object / instance	One actual thing made from that blueprint — Ravi Kumar.
Property	A named value belonging to an object. student.RollNumber.
Collection / list	Many things held together — a list of students in a class.
Loop	Doing something repeatedly, once per item. Marking attendance for every student.
Condition / if statement	Doing something only when a test is true. Grade "A+" only if the percentage is 90 or more.
Exception / error	The program's way of saying something went wrong and it cannot continue normally.
Interface	A list of what something must be able to do, without saying how.
Inheritance	One class building on another, reusing what it already has.
Library / package	Code someone else wrote that you use rather than rewrite.
Framework	A large library that also shapes how you structure your application. ASP.NET Core is a framework.
NuGet / npm / pip	The tools that fetch packages for .NET, JavaScript and Python.
Boilerplate	Code you must write but that carries no real decisions.
Refactor	Improve how code is written without changing what it does.

The web

Term	Meaning
HTML	Describes what is on a page — headings, tables, buttons.
CSS	Describes how it looks — colours, spacing, layout.
JavaScript	Makes a page do things — react to a click, fetch data without reloading.
Browser	Chrome, Edge, Firefox — the program that renders the frontend.
URL	The address of a page or a piece of data.
HTTP	The rules browsers and servers use to talk. HTTPS is the encrypted version.
API	A way for one program to ask another for something. Your frontend uses the backend's API to fetch students.
REST	The common convention for designing an API around addresses and standard verbs.
Endpoint	One specific address the API answers on — /api/students/{id}.
GET, POST, PUT, DELETE	The verbs: fetch, create, update, remove.
Status code	A number the server sends describing the outcome. 200 fine, 401 not logged in, 404 not found, 500 server broke.
JSON	The common text format for sending data between programs.
DTO	Data Transfer Object. A trimmed-down shape sent to the frontend — a student's name and class, not their password hash.
CRUD	Create, Read, Update, Delete. The four basic operations on stored data; most business software is largely this.
CORS	The browser rule about which sites may call your API. Configured on the server, never a security control by itself.
Responsive	A layout that works on a phone as well as a laptop.

Security and accounts

Term	Meaning
Authentication	Proving who you are. Logging in.
Authorisation	What you are allowed to do once in. A teacher may see marks; a clerk may not.
Token	A signed piece of text the server gives you at login and your browser sends with every later request, proving who you are.
JWT	The common token format used in this programme.
Claim	One fact stored inside a token — which school you belong to, what role you have.
Role	A named set of permissions — Admin, Principal, Teacher, Student.
Hash	A one-way scramble. Passwords are stored hashed, so a stolen database does not reveal them.
Multi-tenant	One application serving several separate customers — several schools — whose data must never mix.
Tenant isolation	Making sure School 1 can never read School 2's students. Always taken from the token, never from what the request asks for.
SQL injection	An attack where user input is treated as database instructions. Prevented by parameterised queries.
Secret	An API key, password or connection string. Never written into code and never committed.
User Secrets / environment variable	Where secrets are kept instead of in your code.

Tools and teamwork

Term	Meaning
IDE	The program you write code in. Visual Studio, VS Code.
SDK	The bundle of tools needed to build for a platform — the .NET SDK.
Solution and project	Visual Studio's grouping: a solution holds one or more projects.
Breakpoint	A marker telling the debugger to pause at that line so you can look at the values.
Debugger	The tool that runs your code slowly so you can inspect it while it runs.
Stack trace	The list of method calls that led to an error. Read it top down; the first line mentioning your own file is usually where to look.
Git	The tool that records the history of your code.
Repository / repo	One project's code and its full history.
Commit	One saved change, with a message saying what and why.
Branch	A separate line of work, so unfinished changes do not disturb the working version.
Merge	Combining a branch back in.
Merge conflict	Two people changed the same lines; Git asks you to decide.
Pull request	A request to merge your branch, which others review first.
Code review	Someone reading your change before it goes in. Normal, expected, and not a judgement of you.
GitHub	The website that hosts repositories and pull requests.
Postman	A tool for calling your API without a frontend.
Stand-up	A short daily team meeting: what you did, what you are doing, what is blocking you.
Sprint	A fixed period, usually two weeks, of planned work.
Ticket / issue	One item of work, written down and assigned.

Testing and quality

Term	Meaning
Unit test	Code that checks one small piece of your code does the right thing, run automatically.
Test case	One specific situation being checked — an absent student excluded from the average.
Edge case	An unusual input that breaks naive code. Zero students, a missing mark, a name with an apostrophe.
Regression	Something that used to work and now does not.
Assertion	The line in a test that states what should be true.
Test Explorer	Visual Studio's panel for running tests and seeing what failed.

AI words

Term	Meaning
AI / LLM	Large Language Model. The kind of system behind Claude and similar tools — it predicts useful text, it does not know things.
Prompt	What you type to it.
Context	Everything it can currently see — your prompt plus what you have pasted or opened.
Hallucination	When it states something false with complete confidence. Always verify.
API key	The credential your application uses to call an AI service. A secret.
Token (AI sense)	A chunk of text, roughly a short word. Usage and cost are measured in these. Unrelated to a login token.
Rate limit	The cap on how often you may call a service. Your code must handle being refused.
Human in the loop	A person reviews the AI's output before it counts. A teacher edits the drafted report-card comment before it is saved.

Words about jobs

Term	Meaning
Fresher	Someone with no professional experience yet.
Junior developer	The first job title. Works on defined tasks with review.
Portfolio	The work you can show. For a fresher this is usually one real project with a live link.
Referral	Someone inside a company putting your name forward. The most effective route into a first job.
Technical round	An interview stage about code rather than personality.
Walkthrough	Being asked to explain your own project. The round freshers most often lose and most easily prepare for.
Notice period	How long you must work before leaving a job. Zero for a fresher.
CTC	Cost to company. The total figure in an offer, which is more than what reaches your bank account.

Common mistakes

• Trying to memorise this page. Use it as a lookup instead
• Assuming a word means the same everywhere — "token" means two different things above
• Skipping past an unfamiliar word and hoping. It compounds; look it up
• Confusing authentication with authorisation. Who you are, versus what you may do
• Confusing frontend and backend when describing where a bug is
• Treating NULL as zero. That single confusion causes real bugs in marks and fees

Practice

1. Pick five terms you did not know. Say each one aloud in your own words.
2. Explain the difference between authentication and authorisation using the school system.
3. Explain the difference between NULL and 0 for an exam mark, and why it matters.
4. Bookmark this page. You will use it for weeks.
5. Keep your own list of words the tracks use that are not here, and look each one up.

You can now

• Look up a term instead of guessing at it
• Say what frontend, backend and database mean
• Tell authentication and authorisation apart
• Explain why money is decimal and marks can be NULL
• Recognise the words a first interview will use

Go back to Start here if you have not read it, or begin the work at Track 02 — Software Industry Foundation.