Database Design Interview Questions

Common database design interview patterns

• SQL vs NoSQL selection criteria
• Schema normalization and denormalization trade-offs
• Index design for read-heavy vs write-heavy workloads
• CAP theorem and consistency models
• Database replication strategies
• Data modeling for time-series, graph, and document data

Common mistakes with database design

• Choosing a database without understanding access patterns
• Over-normalizing when denormalization improves read performance
• Adding too many indexes without considering write overhead
• Ignoring data growth and capacity planning
• Not discussing backup and disaster recovery

How database design questions are evaluated

Related system design concepts

• Scalability interview questions
• Caching interview questions
• SQL data manipulation interview questions