1. I was wondering when inserting a record into this table, does it lock the whole table?
Ans: In SQL Server, by default, a table in not locked away when we are inserting data. If someone is accessing the same table, it will give them dirty-data read. However, coming back to original question, Not by default, but if you use the TABLOCK hint or if you're doing certain kinds of bulk load operations, then yes.
