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Engineering / Tags / #Databases
#Databases 23 Articles

Articles tagged with #Databases

A curated list of engineering series, deep dives, and notes related to #Databases.

Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 20 2026-10-23

Building a Custom Transactional Storage Engine in Java: The Database Capstone

Build a complete, working transactional storage engine in Java with slotted memory pages, WAL crash recovery, LRU buffer pool management, and 2PL locking.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 19 2026-10-20

Advanced SQL Performance Tuning: Window Functions, Recursive CTEs, and Partitioning

Master advanced SQL optimization: Window function framing, recursive CTE tree traversals, and table partitioning with partition pruning.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 18 2026-10-16

Operating Production Databases: High Availability Replication & Connection Pooling

Learn how to operate production databases: MySQL binary logging formats (RBR/SBR), GTIDs, semi-synchronous replication, and HikariCP connection pooling.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 17 2026-10-13

MySQL vs PostgreSQL MVCC: Heap Tuple Versions vs Undo Log Segments

Compare MySQL InnoDB and PostgreSQL MVCC implementations: Undo log version chains vs in-page heap tuples, HOT optimizations, and VACUUM engines.

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Engineering System Design & Distributed Systems from First Principles • Part 17 2026-10-13

Multi-Region Distributed Databases: Active-Active vs Active-Passive Cross-Data-Center Replication

Master multi-region distributed databases. Compare Active-Passive and Active-Active cross-datacenter replication models and conflict resolution.

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Engineering Spring & Spring Boot Core Internals from First Principles • Part 16 2026-10-09

Declarative Transaction Management: How @Transactional Works Under the Hood

Understand Spring's @Transactional internal mechanics: TransactionInterceptor proxying, PlatformTransactionManager, propagation levels, and silent rollback failures.

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Engineering Spring & Spring Boot Core Internals from First Principles • Part 15 2026-10-06

Hibernate ORM and Spring Data JPA: Entity Management and N+1 Query Traps

Dissect Hibernate ORM and Spring Data JPA internals. Master the Persistence Context, entity states, lazy loading proxies, and solutions for N+1 queries.

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Engineering Spring & Spring Boot Core Internals from First Principles • Part 14 2026-10-02

Data Access Primitives: From Plain JDBC to Spring JdbcTemplate

Trace data access evolution in Java from raw JDBC boilerplate and connection leaks to Spring JdbcTemplate and HikariCP connection pool tuning.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 12 2026-09-25

Composite & Covering Indexes: Maximizing Index-Only Scans and Avoiding Table Lookups

Master multi-column composite indexes in MySQL: leftmost prefix rules, range predicate traps, Index Condition Pushdown (ICP), and covering indexes.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 11 2026-09-22

Join Algorithms Under the Hood: Nested Loop, Hash Join & Sort-Merge Join Mechanics

Master relational join algorithms: Simple, Index, and Block Nested Loop Joins, Classic & Grace Hash Joins, and Sort-Merge Joins with big-O complexities.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 10 2026-09-18

The Volcano Execution Model & Cost-Based Optimizer: From SQL to EXPLAIN Plans

Explore the internal life cycle of a SQL query: parsing ASTs, algebraic rewrites, predicate pushdown, Volcano Iterator model mechanics, and Cost-Based Optimizer (CBO) statistics.

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Engineering Kubernetes & Distributed Orchestration from First Principles • Part 10 2026-09-18

Stateful Workloads: StatefulSets, Stable Network Identities, and Ordered Scaling

Master Kubernetes StatefulSets: Ordinal indexing (pod-0, pod-1), Headless Service DNS identities, dedicated volumeClaimTemplates, and ordered scaling.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 9 2026-09-15

Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC): How Non-Blocking Snapshot Reads Work

Learn how modern databases like MySQL InnoDB implement Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) to achieve non-blocking snapshot reads using DB_TRX_ID and roll pointers.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 8 2026-09-11

Two-Phase Locking (2PL) & Deadlock Resolution: Shared vs Exclusive Lock Mechanics

Understand Strict 2-Phase Locking (2PL), lock hierarchy (S, X, IS, IX), lock compatibility matrices, Wait-For Graph deadlock detection, and rollback cost strategies.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 7 2026-09-08

Database Concurrency Anomalies: Dirty Reads, Non-Repeatable Reads, Phantoms & Lost Updates

Explore database concurrency anomalies including dirty reads, non-repeatable reads, phantom reads, and lost updates, with interleaved transaction timelines.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 6 2026-09-04

The InnoDB Buffer Pool: Dirty Pages, LRU Eviction, and LSN Checkpointing

Learn how MySQL InnoDB Buffer Pool caches 16KB data pages, evicts cold pages via midpoint LRU algorithms, and flushes dirty pages asynchronously.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 5 2026-09-01

Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) & ARIES Crash Recovery: How Databases Guarantee Durability

Learn how Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) and the ARIES algorithm guarantee zero data loss during power outages and system crashes.

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Engineering System Design & Distributed Systems from First Principles • Part 5 2026-09-01

Database Sharding & Partitioning Strategies: Range, Hash, and Dynamic Rebalancing

Master database sharding strategies. Learn range partitioning, hash sharding, cross-shard query traps, and dynamic shard splitting.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 4 2026-08-28

Demystifying ACID: Transactions as an Isolation & Recovery Abstraction

Deconstruct ACID transaction guarantees in database engines. Learn how atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability function under the hood.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 3 2026-08-25

The B+ Tree Deep Dive: Why Database Indexes Use Balanced Trees Instead of Hash Maps

Discover why database storage engines use B+ Trees for primary and secondary indexes. Learn how high fan-out page nodes enable range scans in 3 disk IOs.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 2 2026-08-21

Pages, Blocks, and Heap Files: How Database Storage Engines Layout Data on Disk

Explore how database engines organize table data on disk using 16KB Slotted Pages, slot offset arrays, tuple headers, and Record IDs.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 1 2026-08-18

Why Files Fail as Databases: Concurrent Access, Update Anomalies & Crash Recovery

Discover why storing application data inside flat CSV or JSON files leads to race conditions, lost updates, corrupted data on crash, and performance failure.

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Engineering Database Internals from First Principles • Part 0 2026-08-14

Mastering Database Internals from First Principles: Series Introduction & Learning Roadmap

Discover what you will learn in this 20-part series on Database Internals. Build a transactional storage engine and master B+ Trees and MVCC.

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