Databases
Postgres VACUUM and the Bloat It's Fighting
What Postgres's VACUUM process is actually cleaning up, why tables bloat despite it, and how to keep autovacuum from falling behind.
3 min read
Tag
PostgreSQL
13 articles
Databases
CTEs and Recursive Queries: Solving Hierarchies in SQL
How common table expressions clean up nested subqueries, and how recursive CTEs turn hierarchical data into a solvable SQL problem.
3 min read
Databases
Window Functions Every Developer Should Know
An introduction to window functions — running totals, rankings, and moving averages — for anyone still reaching for self-joins and subqueries.
3 min read
Databases
Zero-Downtime Schema Migrations in Production
Techniques for adding columns, changing types, and backfilling data on a live table without locking it or breaking the app mid-deploy.
3 min read
Databases
Full-Text Search Inside Your Database (Before You Reach for Elasticsearch)
How to use your database's built-in full-text search before reaching for a separate search cluster, and where it stops being enough.
3 min read
Databases
JSON Columns: When Schemaless Inside SQL Makes Sense
A practical look at JSON and JSONB columns: when they replace a schema migration, when they hide a design problem, and how to index them.
3 min read
Databases
Synchronous vs Asynchronous Replication: The Real Trade-offs
What synchronous and asynchronous replication actually guarantee during a failover, and why the choice is really about how much data you can lose.
3 min read
Databases
Table Partitioning Strategies That Actually Pay Off
A comparison of range, list, and hash partitioning strategies, when each one earns its operational complexity, and when it's premature.
3 min read
Databases
Connection Pooling: Sizing It Right and Avoiding the Pitfalls
Why connection pool sizing is a math problem, not a guess, and the deadlocks, leaks, and saturation bugs that show up when it's sized wrong.
3 min read
Databases
MVCC: How Postgres Handles Concurrency Without Locking Everything
How Postgres lets readers and writers proceed without blocking each other, what a snapshot actually is, and where MVCC's costs show up later.
3 min read
Databases
Transaction Isolation Levels and the Anomalies They Allow
A tour of READ UNCOMMITTED through SERIALIZABLE, the dirty reads and phantom rows each level permits, and how to pick one without guessing.
3 min read
Databases
Reading Query Execution Plans Without Guessing
A field guide to reading EXPLAIN output, spotting sequential scans that shouldn't be there, and turning a query plan into an actual fix.
3 min read
Databases
How B-Tree Indexes Actually Work
A practical walkthrough of B-tree index internals, why they dominate relational databases, and how their structure shapes real query performance.
3 min read