MongoDB vs Redis — Same NoSQL, Different Roles

Why MongoDB and Redis end up in different roles even under the same NoSQL umbrella. A comparison across data model, storage, schema, scaling, and use cases.

April 2, 2024 · 5 min read

Optimistic and Pessimistic Locking

A transaction gives atomicity, a lock gives serialization — they aren’t substitutes. How pessimistic and optimistic locking cover the Lost Update that an isolation level’s plain reads don’t, and how to choose between them.

October 1, 2023 · 6 min read

What Isolation Levels Actually Prevent

A transaction isolation level is a policy choice about which anomalies to allow. The anomalies each ANSI level prevents, and how InnoDB’s MVCC and Repeatable Read behave differently from the standard.

September 15, 2023 · 7 min read

What RDB Transaction ACID Actually Guarantees

What each of the four ACID properties actually guarantees in an RDB transaction. A/C/D are relatively clear guarantees, but only I has ’levels’ — the gateway to the correctness vs. concurrency trade-off.

September 1, 2023 · 4 min read