Database / ScyllaDB Interview questions
What are the key features of ScyllaDB?
ScyllaDB's design goals center on extracting maximum throughput per node while keeping the operational model familiar to Cassandra users.
- Shard-per-core architecture - each CPU core owns its own data and connections, avoiding lock contention.
- No JVM / no GC pauses - written in C++ on the Seastar async framework.
- CQL and Cassandra wire compatibility - existing Cassandra drivers and tools work with minimal changes.
- Alternator - a DynamoDB-compatible API for easy migration off DynamoDB.
- Tunable consistency - per-query consistency levels like ONE, QUORUM, ALL.
- Built-in Change Data Capture (CDC) and workload prioritization for mixed OLTP/analytics workloads.
Together these let ScyllaDB clusters handle the same workload as a larger Cassandra cluster with meaningfully fewer nodes.
Which architecture lets each CPU core avoid lock contention?
What lets ScyllaDB clusters typically use fewer nodes than Cassandra for the same load?
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