Scaling Writes easy
Your database is struggling with write traffic. You decide to 'Scale Up' (Vertical Scaling) by buying a bigger server. What is the eventual hard limit of this strategy?
- A Software licensing costs.
- B Network cable speed.
- C Hardware limitations; there is a maximum amount of CPU/RAM you can fit in a single machine.
- D The database software cannot run on large servers.
Answer: C. Hardware limitations; there is a maximum amount of CPU/RAM you can fit in a single machine.
Vertical scaling is the easiest first step, but it hits a ceiling. You cannot upgrade a single server infinitely; eventually, you must distribute the load (Horizontal Scaling).
One system design question a day, with spaced repetition so the ones you miss come back.
Get the appRelated questions
- What does the 'Atomicity' property in a database transaction guarantee regarding writes?
- A developer sets up a 'Fire-and-Forget' write pattern (sending data without waiting for a database confirmation) to speed up the app. What is the major risk?
- Why is inserting 1,000 rows in a single 'Batch' query faster than executing 1,000 separate `INSERT` queries?
- In the Raft consensus algorithm, what mechanism prevents a 'Split Vote' (where no leader gets a majority) from stalling the cluster indefinitely?
- Your 'Logs' table has 10 billion rows and writes are getting slow. You barely access logs older than 1 year. What is the simplest strategy to improve performance?
- When measuring how well your system handles writes, which metric is most important?