Data model on online exam system [duplicate]

Question

I am trying to implement online examination system.

There are two types of question, either fill in the blanks, or multiple choice questions (MCQs).

Right now, I modeled tables as:

questions (
    qid INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, 
    question TEXT,
    answer VARCHAR(20),
    mcq TINYINT(1)
);

options (
    qid INT,
    options VARCHAR(20)
);

Options will be stored as:

{
    (1,option1),
    (1,option2),
    (1,option3),
    (1,option4)
}

MCQ is a 1-bit flag to flag whether it is MCQ or not, if yes, then it fetches options from options table.

1. For different courses in any institute, should I maintain different table for different courses, or add course field in question table itself?

2. Is it okay to store answer in questions table, or should I maintain a separate answers table ?

   answers (
       qid INT,
       course VARCHAR(10),
       answer
   );
   

Answer 1

1. For future additions etc. it is better to have a course table and refer to it in your questions table. This gives you flexibility when modifying your structure.
2. Again, for future additions you had better to have a separate answer table.

Your design can be like this:

Since it is a one-to-many relationship, there will be a course_id field in the question table.