Database Management for Scale
Master the architectural decisions and performance tuning required to manage production-grade databases. Learn to optimize queries, handle high-concurrency transactions, and design for global scalability.
Like Duolingo, but for Database Management for Scale. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
23 levels across 4 sections, about 46 minutes end to end, roughly 9 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Performance and Query Tuning, Reliability and Data Integrity, Scaling and Architecture, and Security and Maintenance. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Database Management for Scale
- Composite indexes only work if the query filters by the first column in the index
- Covering indexes include every column mentioned in the SELECT and WHERE clauses
- Skipping the first column forces the database to perform a full table scan
- Avoiding the 'heap lookup' or 'bookmark lookup' saves expensive disk I/O operations
- The leftmost prefix rule allows partial matches starting from the left side
- The index acts as a mini-version of the table for that specific query
- Applying the leftmost prefix rule to determine index usability
- Understanding how covering indexes bypass the data heap
- Index fragmentation occurs when page splits leave half-empty data blocks
- Bloated indexes increase the number of disk pages the engine must read
- Rebuilding or reorganizing an index compacts the tree and restores seek speed
- Partial indexes use a WHERE clause to ignore irrelevant or null rows
- Functional indexes store the result of a calculation or transformation
- These specialized indexes save disk space and reduce maintenance overhead
- Choosing between partial and functional indexes for specific scenarios
- Identifying the cause of performance degradation in aging indexes
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Database Management for Scale the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What must a 'covering index' contain to satisfy a query without looking at the main table?
Get it right to open this lesson and 22 more in the app.
Where Database Management for Scale takes you
- 1
Performance and Query Tuning
- Advanced Indexing Strategies
- Execution Plans and Optimization
- 2
Reliability and Data Integrity
- Concurrency and Isolation Levels
- Schema Design and Normalization
- 3
Scaling and Architecture
- Partitioning and Sharding
- High Availability and Replication
- 4
Security and Maintenance
- Database Security and Access
- Connection Management and Health
4 sections · 8 units · 23 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Database Management for Scale is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Database Management for Scale today.
Download Tomo, search Database Management for Scale, and play your first lesson in under a minute.