Database Schema Design

Database Schema Design

When to use this skill

Lists specific situations where this skill should be triggered:

• New Project: Database schema design for a new application
• Schema Refactoring: Redesigning an existing schema for performance or scalability
• Relationship Definition: Implementing 1:1, 1:N, N:M relationships between tables
• Migration: Safely applying schema changes
• Performance Issues: Index and schema optimization to resolve slow queries

Input Format

The required and optional input information to collect from the user:

Required Information

• Database Type: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, SQLite, etc.
• Domain Description: What data will be stored (e.g., e-commerce, blog, social media)
• Key Entities: Core data objects (e.g., User, Product, Order)

Optional Information

• Expected Data Volume: Small (<10K rows), Medium (10K-1M), Large (>1M) (default: Medium)
• Read/Write Ratio: Read-heavy, Write-heavy, Balanced (default: Balanced)
• Transaction Requirements: Whether ACID is required (default: true)
• Sharding/Partitioning: Whether large data distribution is needed (default: false)

Input Example

Design a database for an e-commerce platform:
- DB: PostgreSQL
- Entities: User, Product, Order, Review
- Relationships:
  - A User can have multiple Orders
  - An Order contains multiple Products (N:M)
  - A Review is linked to a User and a Product
- Expected data: 100,000 users, 10,000 products
- Read-heavy (frequent product lookups)

Instructions

Specifies the step-by-step task sequence to follow precisely.

Step 1: Define Entities and Attributes

Identify core data objects and their attributes.

Tasks:

• Extract nouns from business requirements → entities
• List each entity's attributes (columns)
• Determine data types (VARCHAR, INTEGER, TIMESTAMP, JSON, etc.)
• Designate Primary Keys (UUID vs Auto-increment ID)

Example (E-commerce):

Users
- id: UUID PRIMARY KEY
- email: VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE NOT NULL
- username: VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL
- password_hash: VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
- created_at: TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
- updated_at: TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()

Products
- id: UUID PRIMARY KEY
- name: VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
- description: TEXT
- price: DECIMAL(10, 2) NOT NULL
- stock: INTEGER DEFAULT 0
- category_id: UUID REFERENCES Categories(id)
- created_at: TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()

Orders
- id: UUID PRIMARY KEY
- user_id: UUID REFERENCES Users(id)
- total_amount: DECIMAL(10, 2) NOT NULL
- status: VARCHAR(20) DEFAULT 'pending'
- created_at: TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()

OrderItems (Junction table)
- id: UUID PRIMARY KEY
- order_id: UUID REFERENCES Orders(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
- product_id: UUID REFERENCES Products(id)
- quantity: INTEGER NOT NULL
- price: DECIMAL(10, 2) NOT NULL

Step 2: Design Relationships and Normalization

Define relationships between tables and apply normalization.

Tasks:

• 1:1 relationship: Foreign Key + UNIQUE constraint
• 1:N relationship: Foreign Key
• N:M relationship: Create junction table
• Determine normalization level (1NF ~ 3NF)

Decision Criteria:

• OLTP systems → normalize to 3NF (data integrity)
• OLAP/analytics systems → denormalization allowed (query performance)
• Read-heavy → minimize JOINs with partial denormalization
• Write-heavy → full normalization to eliminate redundancy

Example (ERD Mermaid):

erDiagram
    Users ||--o{ Orders : places
    Orders ||--|{ OrderItems : contains
    Products ||--o{ OrderItems : "ordered in"
    Categories ||--o{ Products : categorizes
    Users ||--o{ Reviews : writes
    Products ||--o{ Reviews : "reviewed by"

    Users {
        uuid id PK
        string email UK
        string username UK
        string password_hash
        timestamp created_at
    }

    Products {
        uuid id PK
        string name
        decimal price
        int stock
        uuid category_id FK
    }

    Orders {
        uuid id PK
        uuid user_id FK
        decimal total_amount
        string status
        timestamp created_at
    }

    OrderItems {
        uuid id PK
        uuid order_id FK
        uuid product_id FK
        int quantity
        decimal price
    }

Step 3: Establish Indexing Strategy

Design indexes for query performance.

Tasks:

• Primary Keys automatically create indexes
• Columns frequently used in WHERE clauses → add indexes
• Foreign Keys used in JOINs → indexes
• Consider composite indexes (WHERE col1 = ? AND col2 = ?)
• UNIQUE indexes (email, username, etc.)

Checklist:

• [x] Indexes on frequently queried columns
• [x] Indexes on Foreign Key columns
• [x] Composite index order optimized (high selectivity columns first)
• [x] Avoid excessive indexes (degrades INSERT/UPDATE performance)

Example (PostgreSQL):

-- Primary Keys (auto-indexed)
CREATE TABLE users (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    email VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE NOT NULL,  -- UNIQUE = auto-indexed
    username VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    password_hash VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

-- Foreign Keys + explicit indexes
CREATE TABLE orders (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    user_id UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    total_amount DECIMAL(10, 2) NOT NULL,
    status VARCHAR(20) DEFAULT 'pending',
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_id ON orders(user_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_status ON orders(status);
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_created_at ON orders(created_at);

-- Composite index (status and created_at frequently queried together)
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_status_created ON orders(status, created_at DESC);

-- Products table
CREATE TABLE products (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    description TEXT,
    price DECIMAL(10, 2) NOT NULL CHECK (price >= 0),
    stock INTEGER DEFAULT 0 CHECK (stock >= 0),
    category_id UUID REFERENCES categories(id),
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE INDEX idx_products_category ON products(category_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_products_price ON products(price);  -- price range search
CREATE INDEX idx_products_name ON products(name);    -- product name search

-- Full-text search (PostgreSQL)
CREATE INDEX idx_products_name_fts ON products USING GIN(to_tsvector('english', name));
CREATE INDEX idx_products_description_fts ON products USING GIN(to_tsvector('english', description));

Step 4: Set Up Constraints and Triggers

Add constraints to ensure data integrity.

Tasks:

• NOT NULL: required columns
• UNIQUE: columns that must be unique
• CHECK: value range constraints (e.g., price >= 0)
• Foreign Key + CASCADE option
• Set default values

Example:

CREATE TABLE products (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    price DECIMAL(10, 2) NOT NULL CHECK (price >= 0),
    stock INTEGER DEFAULT 0 CHECK (stock >= 0),
    discount_percent INTEGER CHECK (discount_percent >= 0 AND discount_percent <= 100),
    category_id UUID REFERENCES categories(id) ON DELETE SET NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

-- Trigger: auto-update updated_at
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION update_updated_at_column()
RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
BEGIN
    NEW.updated_at = NOW();
    RETURN NEW;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

CREATE TRIGGER update_products_updated_at
BEFORE UPDATE ON products
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE FUNCTION update_updated_at_column();

Step 5: Write Migration Scripts

Write migrations that safely apply schema changes.

Tasks:

• UP migration: apply changes
• DOWN migration: rollback
• Wrap in transactions
• Prevent data loss (use ALTER TABLE carefully)

Example (SQL migration):

-- migrations/001_create_initial_schema.up.sql
BEGIN;

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";

CREATE TABLE users (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    email VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    username VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    password_hash VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE TABLE categories (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    name VARCHAR(100) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    parent_id UUID REFERENCES categories(id)
);

CREATE TABLE products (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    description TEXT,
    price DECIMAL(10, 2) NOT NULL CHECK (price >= 0),
    stock INTEGER DEFAULT 0 CHECK (stock >= 0),
    category_id UUID REFERENCES categories(id),
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE INDEX idx_products_category ON products(category_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_products_price ON products(price);

COMMIT;

-- migrations/001_create_initial_schema.down.sql
BEGIN;

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS products CASCADE;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS categories CASCADE;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS users CASCADE;

COMMIT;

Output format

Defines the exact format that deliverables should follow.

Basic Structure

project/
├── database/
│   ├── schema.sql                    # full schema
│   ├── migrations/
│   │   ├── 001_create_users.up.sql
│   │   ├── 001_create_users.down.sql
│   │   ├── 002_create_products.up.sql
│   │   └── 002_create_products.down.sql
│   ├── seeds/
│   │   └── sample_data.sql           # test data
│   └── docs/
│       ├── ERD.md                     # Mermaid ERD diagram
│       └── SCHEMA.md                  # schema documentation
└── README.md

ERD Diagram (Mermaid Format)

# Database Schema

## Entity Relationship Diagram

\`\`\`mermaid
erDiagram
    Users ||--o{ Orders : places
    Orders ||--|{ OrderItems : contains
    Products ||--o{ OrderItems : "ordered in"

    Users {
        uuid id PK
        string email UK
        string username UK
    }

    Products {
        uuid id PK
        string name
        decimal price
    }
\`\`\`

## Table Descriptions

### users
- **Purpose**: Store user account information
- **Indexes**: email, username
- **Estimated rows**: 100,000

### products
- **Purpose**: Product catalog
- **Indexes**: category_id, price, name
- **Estimated rows**: 10,000

Constraints

Specifies mandatory rules and prohibited actions.

Mandatory Rules (MUST)

1. Primary Key Required: Define a Primary Key on every table

• Unique record identification
• Ensures referential integrity

2. Explicit Foreign Keys: Tables with relationships must define Foreign Keys

• Specify ON DELETE CASCADE/SET NULL options
• Prevent orphan records

3. Use NOT NULL Appropriately: Required columns must be NOT NULL

• Clearly specify nullable vs. non-nullable
• Providing defaults is recommended

Prohibited Actions (MUST NOT)

1. Avoid EAV Pattern Abuse: Use the Entity-Attribute-Value pattern only in special cases

• Query complexity increases dramatically
• Performance degradation

2. Excessive Denormalization: Be careful when denormalizing for performance

• Data consistency issues
• Risk of update anomalies

3. No Plaintext Storage of Sensitive Data: Never store passwords, card numbers, etc. in plaintext

• Hashing/encryption is mandatory
• Legal liability issues

Security Rules

• Principle of Least Privilege: Grant only the necessary permissions to application DB accounts
• SQL Injection Prevention: Use Prepared Statements / Parameterized Queries
• Encrypt Sensitive Columns: Consider encrypting personally identifiable information at rest

Examples

Demonstrates how to apply the skill through real-world use cases.

Example 1: Blog Platform Schema

Situation: Database design for a Medium-style blog platform

User Request:

Design a PostgreSQL schema for a blog platform:
- Users can write multiple posts
- Posts can have multiple tags (N:M)
- Users can like and bookmark posts
- Comment feature (with nested replies)

Final Result:

-- Users
CREATE TABLE users (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    email VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    username VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    bio TEXT,
    avatar_url VARCHAR(500),
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

-- Posts
CREATE TABLE posts (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    author_id UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    slug VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    content TEXT NOT NULL,
    published_at TIMESTAMP,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE INDEX idx_posts_author ON posts(author_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_posts_published ON posts(published_at);
CREATE INDEX idx_posts_slug ON posts(slug);

-- Tags
CREATE TABLE tags (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    name VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    slug VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL
);

-- Post-Tag relationship (N:M)
CREATE TABLE post_tags (
    post_id UUID REFERENCES posts(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    tag_id UUID REFERENCES tags(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    PRIMARY KEY (post_id, tag_id)
);

CREATE INDEX idx_post_tags_post ON post_tags(post_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_post_tags_tag ON post_tags(tag_id);

-- Likes
CREATE TABLE post_likes (
    user_id UUID REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    post_id UUID REFERENCES posts(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    PRIMARY KEY (user_id, post_id)
);

-- Bookmarks
CREATE TABLE post_bookmarks (
    user_id UUID REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    post_id UUID REFERENCES posts(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    PRIMARY KEY (user_id, post_id)
);

-- Comments (self-referencing for nested comments)
CREATE TABLE comments (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    post_id UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES posts(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    author_id UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    parent_comment_id UUID REFERENCES comments(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    content TEXT NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE INDEX idx_comments_post ON comments(post_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_comments_author ON comments(author_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_comments_parent ON comments(parent_comment_id);

Example 2: MongoDB Schema (NoSQL)

Situation: MongoDB schema for a real-time chat app

User Request:

Design a MongoDB schema for a real-time chat app.
Reads are very frequent, and message history needs to be retrieved quickly.

Final Result:

// users collection
{
  _id: ObjectId,
  username: String,  // indexed, unique
  email: String,     // indexed, unique
  avatar_url: String,
  status: String,    // 'online', 'offline', 'away'
  last_seen: Date,
  created_at: Date
}

// conversations collection (denormalized - read-optimized)
{
  _id: ObjectId,
  participants: [    // indexed
    {
      user_id: ObjectId,
      username: String,
      avatar_url: String
    }
  ],
  last_message: {    // denormalized for fast recent-message retrieval
    content: String,
    sender_id: ObjectId,
    sent_at: Date
  },
  unread_counts: {   // unread message count per participant
    "user_id_1": 5,
    "user_id_2": 0
  },
  created_at: Date,
  updated_at: Date
}

// messages collection
{
  _id: ObjectId,
  conversation_id: ObjectId,  // indexed
  sender_id: ObjectId,
  content: String,
  attachments: [
    {
      type: String,  // 'image', 'file', 'video'
      url: String,
      filename: String
    }
  ],
  read_by: [ObjectId],  // array of user IDs who have read the message
  sent_at: Date,        // indexed
  edited_at: Date
}

// Indexes
db.users.createIndex({ username: 1 }, { unique: true });
db.users.createIndex({ email: 1 }, { unique: true });

db.conversations.createIndex({ "participants.user_id": 1 });
db.conversations.createIndex({ updated_at: -1 });

db.messages.createIndex({ conversation_id: 1, sent_at: -1 });
db.messages.createIndex({ sender_id: 1 });

Design Highlights:

• Denormalization for read optimization (embedding last_message)
• Indexes on frequently accessed fields
• Using array fields (participants, read_by)

Best practices

Quality Improvement

1. Naming Convention Consistency: Use snake_case for table/column names

• users, post_tags, created_at
• Be consistent with plurals/singulars (tables plural, columns singular, etc.)

2. Consider Soft Delete: Use logical deletion instead of physical deletion for important data

• deleted_at TIMESTAMP (NULL = active, NOT NULL = deleted)
• Allows recovery of accidentally deleted data
• Audit trail

3. Timestamps Required: Include created_at and updated_at in most tables

• Data tracking and debugging
• Time-series analysis

Efficiency Improvements

• Partial Indexes: Minimize index size with conditional indexes

  CREATE INDEX idx_posts_published ON posts(published_at) WHERE published_at IS NOT NULL;

• Materialized Views: Cache complex aggregate queries as Materialized Views
• Partitioning: Partition large tables by date/range

Common Issues

Issue 1: N+1 Query Problem

Symptom: Multiple DB calls when a single query would suffice

Cause: Individual lookups in a loop without JOINs

Solution:

-- ❌ Bad example: N+1 queries
SELECT * FROM posts;  -- 1 time
-- for each post
SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?;  -- N times

-- ✅ Good example: 1 query
SELECT posts.*, users.username, users.avatar_url
FROM posts
JOIN users ON posts.author_id = users.id;

Issue 2: Slow JOINs Due to Unindexed Foreign Keys

Symptom: JOIN queries are very slow

Cause: Missing index on Foreign Key column

Solution:

CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_id ON orders(user_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_order_items_order_id ON order_items(order_id);
CREATE INDEX idx_order_items_product_id ON order_items(product_id);

Issue 3: UUID vs Auto-increment Performance

Symptom: Insert performance degradation when using UUID Primary Keys

Cause: UUIDs are random, causing index fragmentation

Solution:

• PostgreSQL: Use uuid_generate_v7() (time-ordered UUID)
• MySQL: Use UUID_TO_BIN(UUID(), 1)
• Or consider using Auto-increment BIGINT

References

Official Documentation

• PostgreSQL Documentation
• MySQL Documentation
• MongoDB Schema Design Best Practices

Tools

• dbdiagram.io - ERD diagram creation
• PgModeler - PostgreSQL modeling tool
• Prisma - ORM + migrations

Learning Resources

• Database Design Course (freecodecamp)
• Use The Index, Luke - SQL indexing guide

Metadata

Version

• Current Version: 1.0.0
• Last Updated: 2025-01-01
• Compatible Platforms: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini

Related Skills

• api-design: Schema design alongside API design
• performance-optimization: Query performance optimization

Tags

#database #schema #PostgreSQL #MySQL #MongoDB #SQL #NoSQL #migration #ERD