Cassandra Architecture

Apache Cassandra is a distributed NoSQL database designed to handle large amounts of data across many commodity servers, providing high availability with no single point of failure. In this module, we will explore the internal mechanisms that make Cassandra so powerful.

Module Contents

1. LSM Trees & Write Path

Understand the write-optimized Log-Structured Merge Tree engine. Visualize how data moves from the Commit Log to MemTables and eventually flushes to SSTables.

2. Gossip Protocol

Learn how Cassandra nodes communicate peer-to-peer to discover cluster state. Simulate gossip propagation and understand Phi Accrual failure detection.

3. Bloom Filters & Read Path

Explore the complex read path. Use the interactive Bloom Filter calculator to see how Cassandra avoids expensive disk seeks using probabilistic data structures.