What describes the primary difference among conceptual, logical, and physical data models?

• A. Conceptual captures business entities and relationships at a high level; logical defines tables, keys, and relationships without DB specifics; physical implements the model with data types, constraints, and storage details.
• B. Physical models describe business entities at a high level; conceptual models define storage details; logical models define user interfaces.
• C. Logical models implement storage details; conceptual models describe user interfaces.
• D. Physical models capture business rules and processes; conceptual models handle data governance.

Answer: (C)

Understanding the stages of data modeling helps you see how ideas move from business concepts to a real database. A conceptual model focuses on what the business needs: the main entities and how they relate to each other, described without worrying about how they will be stored. A logical model takes those ideas and adds structure—defining tables, primary and foreign keys, and the relationships between tables—while still staying independent of any specific database technology. A physical model then maps that logical design to a concrete database, specifying data types, constraints, storage details, indexes, and other implementation choices tied to a particular DBMS.

This sequencing—high-level business concepts, then structured but technology-agnostic tables and relationships, then actual storage and implementation details—best captures the primary difference among the three models. Concepts like user interfaces or business processes don’t define the core roles of the data models; instead, storing data efficiently and enforcing relationships is what the physical model adds on top of the logical design.