Cassandra Mastery (Senior → Principal)

Operate

• Start from access patterns, partitioning reality, and consistency needs.
• Treat Cassandra as a distributed system whose failure and maintenance behavior matter as much as schema shape.
• Prefer simple, query-driven data models over relational instincts.
• Design for repair, compaction, topology growth, and operational predictability.

Default Standards

• Data modeling must follow read/write patterns explicitly.
• Partition keys should control hotspot and size risk.
• Consistency choices must map to business semantics.
• Repair, compaction, and tombstone behavior need proactive ownership.
• Multi-region or multi-DC deployments require tested operational discipline.

References