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Database / Apache Cassandra Intermediate and Advanced interview questions

What is the difference between SimpleStrategy and NetworkTopologyStrategy?

These are Cassandra's two main replication strategies, and they answer the same question — "where should replicas go?" — very differently.

SimpleStrategyNetworkTopologyStrategy
Places replicas on the next nodes clockwise on the ring, ignoring topology.Places replicas per-datacenter, respecting rack awareness within each DC.
Single replication factor for the whole cluster.Separate replication factor configured per datacenter.
Suitable only for single-datacenter test/dev clusters.Required for any multi-datacenter production deployment.
-- SimpleStrategy
CREATE KEYSPACE test WITH replication =
 {'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 3};

-- NetworkTopologyStrategy
CREATE KEYSPACE prod WITH replication =
 {'class': 'NetworkTopologyStrategy', 'dc1': 3, 'dc2': 3};

Because SimpleStrategy has no concept of racks or datacenters, it can accidentally place every replica of a partition in the same rack, defeating the purpose of replication when that rack fails. Almost every real production keyspace should use NetworkTopologyStrategy, even on a single datacenter, since it's rack-aware and makes future multi-DC expansion straightforward.

Which replication strategy is rack-aware and safe for multi-datacenter clusters?
What risk does SimpleStrategy carry that NetworkTopologyStrategy avoids?

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