Cassandra Practice Test

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using Cassandra for data storage?

1. Horizontal scaling

2. Quick recovery after failures

3. Complex transactions

4. Low latency reads and writes

The correct answer is: Complex transactions

Cassandra is designed as a distributed NoSQL database, primarily focusing on scalability, availability, and performance. The ability to scale horizontally is one of its significant advantages, allowing for the addition of more nodes to a cluster to handle increased loads without the need for complex re-architecture. Quick recovery after failures is another benefit of Cassandra. Its architecture supports high availability and fault tolerance, which is crucial for systems that require uninterrupted access to data. This means that even if individual nodes fail, Cassandra can still operate without downtime, ensuring continuous availability. Low latency reads and writes are a core feature of Cassandra, as it is optimized for high-speed transactions, making it suitable for applications requiring real-time data access. However, the ability to perform complex transactions is typically not a benefit associated with Cassandra. While it supports lightweight transactions using the Paxos consensus algorithm, it doesn't offer the full-fledged ACID transactional capabilities found in relational databases. This makes Cassandra less suitable for applications that require stringent transaction control and complex querying across multiple tables. Hence, the choice that indicates a lack of benefit—complex transactions—is accurate in the context of Cassandra's characteristics.