01/06/2022, 00:29 SQL vs.

NoSQL - Grokking the System Design Interview

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SQL vs. NoSQL

We'll cover the following

• SQL
• NoSQL
• High level differences between SQL and NoSQL

• SQL VS. NoSQL - Which one to use?

• Reasons to use SQL database

• Reasons to use NoSQL database

In the world of databases, there are two main types of solutions: SQL and
NoSQL (or relational databases and non-relational databases). Both of
them differ in the way they were built, the kind of information they store,
and the storage method they use.

Relational databases are structured and have predefined schemas like

phone books that store phone numbers and addresses. Non-relational
databases are unstructured, distributed, and have a dynamic schema like
file folders that hold everything from a person’s address and phone
number to their Facebook ‘likes’ and online shopping preferences.

SQL#
Relational databases store data in rows and columns. Each row contains
all the information about one entity and each column contains all the
separate data points. Some of the most popular relational databases are
MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, SQLite, Postgres, and MariaDB.

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NoSQL#
Following are the most common types of NoSQL:

Key-Value Stores: Data is stored in an array of key-value pairs. The ‘key’

is an attribute name which is linked to a ‘value’. Well-known key-value
stores include Redis, Voldemort, and Dynamo.

Document Databases: In these databases, data is stored in documents

(instead of rows and columns in a table) and these documents are grouped
together in collections. Each document can have an entirely different
structure. Document databases include the CouchDB and MongoDB.

Wide-Column Databases: Instead of ‘tables,’ in columnar databases we

have column families, which are containers for rows. Unlike relational
databases, we don’t need to know all the columns up front and each row
doesn’t have to have the same number of columns. Columnar databases
are best suited for analyzing large datasets - big names include Cassandra
and HBase.

Graph Databases: These databases are used to store data whose relations
are best represented in a graph. Data is saved in graph structures with
nodes (entities), properties (information about the entities), and lines
(connections between the entities). Examples of graph database include
Neo4J and InfiniteGraph.

High level differences between SQL

and NoSQL#
Storage: SQL stores data in tables where each row represents an entity
and each column represents a data point about that entity; for example, if
we are storing a car entity in a table, different columns could be ‘Color’,
‘Make’, ‘Model’, and so on.

NoSQL databases have different data storage models. The main ones are
key-value, document, graph, and columnar. We will discuss differences
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, ,g p , SQL vs. NoSQL - Grokking the System Design Interview

between these databases below.

Schema: In SQL, each record conforms to a fixed schema, meaning the

columns must be decided and chosen before data entry and each row
must have data for each column. The schema can be altered later, but it
involves modifying the whole database and going offline.

In NoSQL, schemas are dynamic. Columns can be added on the fly and
each ‘row’ (or equivalent) doesn’t have to contain data for each ‘column.’

Querying: SQL databases use SQL (structured query language) for

defining and manipulating the data, which is very powerful. In a NoSQL
database, queries are focused on a collection of documents. Sometimes it
is also called UnQL (Unstructured Query Language). Different databases
have different syntax for using UnQL.

Scalability: In most common situations, SQL databases are vertically

scalable, i.e., by increasing the horsepower (higher Memory, CPU, etc.) of
the hardware, which can get very expensive. It is possible to scale a
relational database across multiple servers, but this is a challenging and
time-consuming process.

On the other hand, NoSQL databases are horizontally scalable, meaning

we can add more servers easily in our NoSQL database infrastructure to
handle a lot of traffic. Any cheap commodity hardware or cloud instances
can host NoSQL databases, thus making it a lot more cost-effective than
vertical scaling. A lot of NoSQL technologies also distribute data across
servers automatically.

Reliability or ACID Compliancy (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation,

Durability): The vast majority of relational databases are ACID compliant.
So, when it comes to data reliability and safe guarantee of performing
transactions, SQL databases are still the better bet.

Most of the NoSQL solutions sacrifice ACID compliance for performance

and scalability.

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01/06/2022, 00:29 SQL vs. NoSQL - Grokking the System Design Interview

SQL VS. NoSQL - Which one to use?

#
When it comes to database technology, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
That’s why many businesses rely on both relational and non-relational
databases for different needs. Even as NoSQL databases are gaining
popularity for their speed and scalability, there are still situations where a
highly structured SQL database may perform better; choosing the right
technology hinges on the use case.

Reasons to use SQL database#

Here are a few reasons to choose a SQL database:

1. We need to ensure ACID compliance. ACID compliance reduces

anomalies and protects the integrity of your database by prescribing
exactly how transactions interact with the database. Generally,
NoSQL databases sacrifice ACID compliance for scalability and
processing speed, but for many e-commerce and financial
applications, an ACID-compliant database remains the preferred
option.
2. Your data is structured and unchanging. If your business is not
experiencing massive growth that would require more servers and if
you’re only working with data that is consistent, then there may be
no reason to use a system designed to support a variety of data types
and high traffic volume.

Reasons to use NoSQL database#

When all the other components of our application are fast and seamless,
NoSQL databases prevent data from being the bottleneck. Big data is
contributing to a large success for NoSQL databases mainly because it
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01/06/2022, 00:29 SQL vs. NoSQL - Grokking the System Design Interview
contributing to a large success for NoSQL databases, mainly because it

handles data differently than the traditional relational databases. A few

popular examples of NoSQL databases are MongoDB, CouchDB, Cassandra,
and HBase.

1. Storing large volumes of data that often have little to no structure. A

NoSQL database sets no limits on the types of data we can store
together and allows us to add new types as the need changes. With
document-based databases, you can store data in one place without
having to define what “types” of data those are in advance.

2. Making the most of cloud computing and storage. Cloud-based

storage is an excellent cost-saving solution but requires data to be
easily spread across multiple servers to scale up. Using commodity
(affordable, smaller) hardware on-site or in the cloud saves you the
hassle of additional software and NoSQL databases like Cassandra are
designed to be scaled across multiple data centers out of the box,
without a lot of headaches.

3. Rapid development. NoSQL is extremely useful for rapid

development as it doesn’t need to be prepped ahead of time. If you’re
working on quick iterations of your system which require making
frequent updates to the data structure without a lot of downtime
between versions, a relational database will slow you down.

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Redundancy and Replication CAP Th

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Redundancy and Replication CAP Theorem

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