Back End Developer Mock Interview
Master 30 Back End Developer interview questions covering APIs, databases, system design, and server architecture.
Question 27 of 30
Can you discuss the differences between a clustered and a non-clustered index?
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William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.
Technical questions are often asked in the form of comparing two terms or topics. When responding to these types of technical questions, you should define each term and then compare and contrast them. You may want a finish your answer with an example that illustrates your response. This will confirm to the interviewer that you have a clear understanding of the topic they are asking about. If
William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.
"While both of these are types of indexes that access stored data, the difference between them involves how the data is indexed. In a clustered index, the records in the tables are reordered. The leaf nodes of a clustered index contain the data pages. A table can only have one clustered index. The data in a non-clustered index does not match the physical stored order of the rows on the disk. The leaf nodes of a non-clustered index contain index rows. The purpose of each of these indexes is to make specific types of data easier and faster to retrieve."
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