Key-Value Stores at Scale (DynamoDB)
Difficulty: Medium | Topic #21
What to Learn
Single-table design, partition key + sort key modeling, Global Secondary Indexes (GSIs), DynamoDB Streams, provisioned vs on-demand capacity, hot partition problem.
Resources
- Hello Interview: DynamoDB Deep Dive ↗
- ByteByteGo: How Key-Value Stores Work (Redis, DynamoDB) ↗
- Hussein Nasser: Designing a Highly Available KV Store — The Dynamo Paper ↗
Covered by Problems
| Problem | Difficulty | Link |
|---|---|---|
| URL Shortener/Bitly | Easy | → |
| Distributed Cache | Medium | → |
| Job Scheduler | Medium | → |
Key Concepts to Master
- Single-table design and overloading partition/sort keys for multiple entity types
- GSIs for alternate access patterns (index overloading)
- DynamoDB Streams for event-driven patterns
- Hot partition detection via CloudWatch and key sharding solutions
- On-demand vs provisioned capacity and when to switch