juniorNoSQL
What is horizontal vs vertical scaling?
Updated Apr 28, 2026
Short answer
Vertical scaling involves adding more power (CPU, RAM) to an existing machine; horizontal scaling involves adding more machines to your network.
Deep explanation
Junior level NoSQL understanding focuses on the move away from rigid relational constraints. In NoSQL, data is often denormalized for speed. For instance, in a document store like MongoDB, instead of joining multiple tables, you might embed related data directly into a single document to reduce read latency.
Real-world example
Using Redis (Key-Value) to store session tokens for a high-traffic web application for sub-millisecond retrieval.
Common mistakes
- Treating a NoSQL database exactly like a relational one by normalizing every piece of data.
Follow-up questions
- When should you NOT use NoSQL?
- What is Eventual Consistency?