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Computer Science
Databases from scratch
How a database actually stores, retrieves, and protects your data — storage engines to transactions.
8 lessons
~130 min total
First principles
What you'll learn
Explain what happens when you run a SELECT or an INSERT
Pick the right database for the shape of your problem
Understand transactions, indexes, and concurrency from the inside
Progress
0 / 8
Track complete ✓
Lessons
1
Why you can't just use files
Durability, concurrency, and query — the three things a DB buys you.
3 objectives
2
B-trees and LSM-trees
The two storage engine families and why each dominates where it does.
3 objectives
3
Indexes, honestly
What an index actually is — and why adding one doesn't always help.
3 objectives
4
Transactions and ACID
What it really takes to make multiple writes look like one.
3 objectives
5
Isolation levels, with teeth
Read-committed, repeatable-read, serializable — and the anomalies each allows.
3 objectives
6
The query planner
Inside the black box that turns your SQL into a plan.
3 objectives
7
Replication and consistency
Primary-replica, multi-writer, and the honest consistency tradeoffs.
3 objectives
8
SQL vs NoSQL — the grown-up conversation
Both are fine. Pick for access pattern and operational fit, not fashion.
3 objectives
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