Database / Supabase Intermediate to Advanced Interview Questions
How does pg_cron enable scheduled jobs directly inside a Supabase Postgres database?
pg_cron is a Postgres extension that schedules SQL commands or function calls to run on a cron-style schedule, stored and executed entirely inside the database rather than needing an external scheduler.
select cron.schedule( 'nightly-cleanup', '0 2 * * *', $$ delete from sessions where expires_at < now() $$ );
Because the job runs inside Postgres, it can call any function you've already written, including one that uses pg_net to fire an outbound webhook, letting you chain a scheduled trigger into an Edge Function without a separate cron service. It's well suited to housekeeping tasks like pruning expired rows, refreshing a materialized view, or recalculating aggregates on a schedule, and jobs can be listed or unscheduled with cron.job and cron.unschedule().
Where does a pg_cron job actually execute?
What kind of task is pg_cron well suited for?
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