Add a second access pattern to a key-value store
WHAT IT TESTS: secondary indexing in NoSQL. OUTLINE: add a global secondary index on EmailAddress, weighing extra storage, write amplification, and eventual consistency. RED FLAG: a full scan with a filter, or assuming indexes are free.
WHAT IT TESTS: designing new access patterns in a partition-key world without scanning. ANSWER OUTLINE: add a global secondary index whose partition key is EmailAddress, so lookups become targeted queries, not scans. The GSI is a separate, automatically maintained, eventually consistent projection. Discuss costs: extra storage, added write capacity on every base write, and projecting only needed attributes. RED FLAG: a Scan with a filter, which still reads the whole table, or treating indexes as free and instantly consistent.
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- #dynamodb
- #global-secondary-index
- #nosql
- #data-modeling
- #indexing
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