Cassandra Practice Test

How does having partitions that are too large affect compaction in Cassandra?

1. It increases the speed of compaction

2. It simplifies the compaction process

3. It makes compaction more resource-intensive

4. It prevents compaction altogether

The correct answer is: It makes compaction more resource-intensive

Having partitions that are too large significantly impacts the efficiency of compaction in Cassandra, making compaction more resource-intensive. When partitions grow excessively large, the process of consolidating data becomes more demanding on system resources such as CPU, memory, and disk I/O. This is primarily because the compaction process has to deal with a larger volume of data at once, resulting in longer processing times and increased load on the system. In Cassandra, compaction is designed to merge SSTables (Sorted Strings Tables) into larger files to optimize read performance and reclaim disk space. However, when partitions are too large, the system not only has to read and write larger amounts of data but also manage the complexity of handling those large partitions, potentially leading to increased latencies and higher chances of compaction-related issues, such as dropping requests or causing timeouts. Smaller partitions are generally more manageable, allowing for quicker compaction cycles and reducing the total resource consumption. Therefore, it's crucial to maintain a balanced partition size to ensure optimal performance and efficient compaction processes within a Cassandra cluster.