Database / RocksDB Basics Interview Questions
What is an Index Block in an SSTable?
An Index Block is a section within an SSTable that maps key ranges to the specific data block containing them, letting RocksDB jump directly to the right location instead of scanning the whole file.
- Acts like a table of contents for the data blocks inside that SSTable
- Loaded into memory, often cached, so lookups within it are fast
- Used together with a Bloom filter, the filter first rules out files that definitely don't contain the key, then the index block locates exactly where to look within a file that might
Without an index block, finding a specific key inside an SSTable would require scanning through data sequentially rather than jumping straight to the relevant section.
What does an Index Block map key ranges to?
What does an Index Block act like?
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