SAP / SAP Mid Level (3 to 8 yrs) Interview questions
When is column store preferred over row store in HANA?
Column store is the right default for large tables where queries typically aggregate or filter across a subset of columns spanning many rows — the classic reporting and analytics pattern. Row store remains preferable for smaller tables, or tables where the typical access pattern reads or writes an entire row's worth of fields at once, since row store avoids the overhead of reconstructing a full row from separately stored columns.
| Favor Column Store | Favor Row Store |
| Large tables with analytical/aggregate queries. | Small, frequently whole-row-accessed tables. |
| Queries typically touch a subset of columns. | Queries typically need every field of a row together. |
| Reporting, dashboards, mass data scans. | System/configuration tables, small lookup tables. |
In practice, most business data tables in S/4HANA default to column store, since that pattern dominates modern SAP applications, with row store reserved for a smaller set of specific tables where its characteristics are genuinely a better fit.
What kind of table is column store best suited for?
Why might row store be preferable for certain small system/configuration tables?
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