SQL Building Blocks: Same Components, Different Builds

Like LEGO blocks - combine the same pieces differently for each use case

SQL Building Blocks: Same Components, Different Builds Like LEGO blocks - combine the same pieces differently for each use case Component Library Build with SQL blocks Basic SELECT FROM WHERE GROUP BY Joins INNER LEFT FULL CROSS Intermediate CTE WINDOW Scale PARTITION INDEX CLUSTER SHARD Data & Flow JSON/MongoDB Transactions (ACID) Queues (Kafka) ETL/Pipelines Stage 1: Exploration & Pipelines Quick prototypes and data pipelines Prototype Pattern Schema-optional, rapid iteration JSON SELECT FROM WHERE LEFT CTE Mongo Scale: MB → GB SQLite, DuckDB, MySQL Postgres, MongoDB Pipeline Pattern Extract, transform, aggregate ETL SELECT CTE GROUP JOIN WINDOW LOAD Scale: GB → TB Airflow, DBT, Spark ETL Kafka, distributed systems Stage 2: Production Systems Scaled analytics and transactional systems Analytics Pattern OLAP, dashboards, ML training SELECT WINDOW PARTITION JOIN CTE GROUP INDEX Scale: TB → PB BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift Spark, Presto, Athena Transactional Pattern OLTP, real-time, high concurrency BEGIN SELECT INDEX COMMIT QUEUE SHARD ROLLBACK Scale: 1K → 1M TPS MySQL, Postgres, Aurora Spanner, CockroachDB, Vitess Scale Reference Guide Server Scale (MB-GB) SQLite, MySQL, Postgres Cluster Scale (GB-TB) Spark, Kafka, MongoDB Cloud Scale (TB-PB) BigQuery, Spanner, Snowflake Component Types Basic Joins Intermediate Scale Transactions Queues JSON/NoSQL ETL/Pipelines

Key Insights

Same Blocks, Different Builds

Remember

  1. Start simple - Don't over-engineer early

  2. Components compose - Mix and match as needed

  3. Scale when necessary - Not before

  4. Patterns evolve - Prototype → Production is natural

The same SQL building blocks that work at MB scale can handle PB scale - you just arrange them differently!