MCQs on Introduction to Cassandra | Cassandra
Cassandra is a powerful NoSQL database designed to handle large amounts of data across many commodity servers, ensuring high availability and no single point of failure. This set of MCQs covers the key aspects of Cassandra, including its history, use cases, advantages over traditional RDBMS, and its ecosystem. Perfect for learning the basics of Cassandra and NoSQL databases.
1. What is Cassandra?
- Cassandra is a:
a) Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)
b) Distributed NoSQL database
c) Column-oriented database only for reads
d) File storage system - Which of the following best describes the main advantage of Cassandra?
a) ACID compliance
b) High scalability and availability
c) Supports only structured data
d) Single-node architecture - What is the primary reason for choosing Cassandra over traditional RDBMS?
a) Strong consistency and transaction support
b) Ability to handle large volumes of data across distributed nodes
c) Simplified SQL queries
d) Full support for relational joins - Cassandra stores data primarily in:
a) Key-value pairs
b) Tables with rows and columns
c) Graph-based format
d) JSON files - What is the data model used by Cassandra?
a) Relational model
b) Column-family model
c) Document model
d) Graph model
2. History and Use Cases
- Cassandra was initially developed at:
a) Amazon
b) Facebook
c) Google
d) Netflix - What problem was Cassandra originally built to solve?
a) Providing a cloud-based storage system
b) Handling massive amounts of data across multiple nodes with no single point of failure
c) Relational data joins
d) Implementing real-time analytics - Which of the following industries commonly uses Cassandra?
a) Healthcare
b) Finance
c) Social Media and E-commerce
d) All of the above - Which of the following is a typical use case for Cassandra?
a) Real-time analytics on streaming data
b) High-transaction e-commerce platforms
c) Storing and analyzing log data
d) All of the above - In which of these scenarios would Cassandra NOT be the best fit?
a) Large-scale data analytics
b) Applications requiring strong consistency
c) Real-time data storage with high availability
d) High-volume, fast-growing data
3. Advantages of NoSQL and Cassandra’s Role
- Which of the following is a key advantage of NoSQL databases like Cassandra over traditional RDBMS?
a) Transactional integrity
b) Schema flexibility and scalability
c) Fixed data structures
d) Support for SQL joins - Cassandra is particularly good at:
a) Handling large amounts of data across distributed nodes
b) Ensuring strict ACID compliance
c) Relational data and SQL joins
d) Enforcing rigid schemas - What is one of the main reasons why NoSQL databases like Cassandra are popular for Big Data applications?
a) They offer SQL-like querying
b) They scale horizontally
c) They are faster for transactions
d) They are ACID-compliant - In which scenario would Cassandra’s “eventual consistency” model be most acceptable?
a) Banking transactions
b) Real-time analytics systems
c) User login data storage
d) Small-scale inventory management - Cassandra can handle data replication across multiple nodes, making it:
a) Less fault-tolerant than traditional databases
b) Highly available and fault-tolerant
c) Unfit for large-scale applications
d) Only suitable for small data sets
4. Comparison with Other Databases (RDBMS vs. NoSQL)
- What is a key difference between relational databases (RDBMS) and NoSQL databases like Cassandra?
a) RDBMS uses fixed schemas while NoSQL allows for flexible schemas
b) RDBMS can scale horizontally, while NoSQL databases cannot
c) RDBMS supports distributed data models natively
d) NoSQL databases do not use indexes - Which of the following is a limitation of Cassandra compared to an RDBMS?
a) Poor scalability
b) Lack of ACID compliance
c) Support for relational data models
d) No support for horizontal scaling - Which of the following features is NOT typically associated with traditional RDBMS?
a) Support for SQL queries
b) Vertical scaling
c) Flexible schema
d) Transaction support (ACID) - Cassandra offers horizontal scaling, which means:
a) The system’s capacity increases as more powerful servers are added
b) The system’s capacity increases as more nodes are added to the cluster
c) The data is processed more efficiently on a single server
d) There is a fixed limit to the amount of data the system can handle - Which of these NoSQL features sets Cassandra apart from traditional relational databases?
a) High availability and partition tolerance
b) ACID transactions
c) Support for relational joins
d) Fixed schema design
5. Cassandra Ecosystem Overview
- In the Cassandra ecosystem, what is a Node?
a) A container for all the data
b) A database client used for querying data
c) A single instance of Cassandra that holds data and participates in the cluster
d) A software tool for monitoring the database - What is the purpose of the Cassandra Query Language (CQL)?
a) To interact with external APIs
b) To execute SQL-like queries for accessing Cassandra data
c) To connect Cassandra to Hadoop
d) To manage node replication - In Cassandra, the Data Center concept refers to:
a) A group of servers located in one geographical region
b) A group of nodes designed to share data
c) A logical grouping of clusters for better replication
d) The physical servers where data is stored - What is Replication Factor in Cassandra?
a) The number of backups made for each data record
b) The number of nodes that hold a copy of the data
c) The time it takes to back up the data
d) The frequency of data updates - In Cassandra, Consistency Levels allow you to:
a) Determine how many nodes need to respond to a query before it is considered successful
b) Set the number of replication nodes
c) Configure backup schedules
d) Set the maximum data retention period - Which of the following tools is used for monitoring Cassandra clusters?
a) Hadoop
b) Grafana
c) DataStax OpsCenter
d) MySQL Workbench - Cassandra’s architecture is designed for:
a) Single-node data storage
b) A master-slave model of replication
c) Peer-to-peer communication across distributed nodes
d) A hierarchical clustering model - What does Column Family in Cassandra refer to?
a) A group of related rows stored together
b) A single row of data
c) The primary key in a Cassandra database
d) The same column across multiple databases - Cassandra provides built-in compaction to:
a) Merge and reorganize SSTables to reduce storage usage
b) Encrypt data at rest
c) Improve consistency levels
d) Enable SQL joins - In the Cassandra ecosystem, Apache Spark can be integrated to:
a) Perform real-time analytics on Cassandra data
b) Store data within Cassandra clusters
c) Create backups for Cassandra
d) Replace Cassandra for NoSQL functionality
Answer Key
| Q No. | Answer |
|---|---|
| 1 | b) Distributed NoSQL database |
| 2 | b) High scalability and availability |
| 3 | b) Ability to handle large volumes of data across distributed nodes |
| 4 | b) Tables with rows and columns |
| 5 | b) Column-family model |
| 6 | b) Facebook |
| 7 | b) Handling massive amounts of data across multiple nodes with no single point of failure |
| 8 | d) All of the above |
| 9 | d) All of the above |
| 10 | b) Applications requiring strong consistency |
| 11 | b) Schema flexibility and scalability |
| 12 | a) Handling large amounts of data across distributed nodes |
| 13 | b) They scale horizontally |
| 14 | b) Real-time analytics systems |
| 15 | b) Highly available and fault-tolerant |
| 16 | a) RDBMS uses fixed schemas while NoSQL allows for flexible schemas |
| 17 | b) Lack of ACID compliance |
| 18 | c) Flexible schema |
| 19 | b) The system’s capacity increases as more nodes are added to the cluster |
| 20 | a) High availability and partition tolerance |
| 21 | c) A single instance of Cassandra that holds data and participates in the cluster |
| 22 | b) To execute SQL-like queries for accessing Cassandra data |
| 23 | c) A logical grouping of clusters for better replication |
| 24 | b) The number of nodes that hold a copy of the data |
| 25 | a) Determine how many nodes need to respond to a query before it is considered successful |
| 26 | c) DataStax OpsCenter |
| 27 | c) Peer-to-peer communication across distributed nodes |
| 28 | a) A group of related rows stored together |
| 29 | a) Merge and reorganize SSTables to reduce storage usage |
| 30 | a) Perform real-time analytics on Cassandra data |