How are Data Structures used in Database Indexing? (B+ Trees, Hash Indexes)

Difficulty: 5/10

B+ Tree indexing, Hash indexes, Index maintenance

Data Structures in Database Indexing

Database indexes use specialized data structures to reduce the amount of data that must be scanned. B+ Trees support ordered lookup, range queries, sorting, and prefix-like ordered access, while hash indexes provide efficient equality lookups but do not naturally support range ordering. The choice depends on the query workload.

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1
B+ Trees support equality and range queries.
2
B+ Trees maintain sorted key order.
3
Hash indexes are optimized for equality predicates.
4
Indexes trade storage and write overhead for faster reads.
5
Poorly chosen or excessive indexes can increase insert and update costs.

Scenario Questions

0-2 years experience

2-5 years experience

1We observed a sudden slowdown on range queries after adding a new hash index. Walk me through how you would diagnose the issue.

Follow-up Questions