Introduction to MongoDB#

📝 This lesson's quiz can be found - here.
🗒️ Solutions for this lesson's quiz can be found - here.
📖 This lesson's lecture slides can be found - here.

SQL vs NoSQL#

When it comes to deciding on a database, one of the bigger questions that often needs to be addressed is either using a relational database or a non-relational database. Relational databases are often recognized as SQL databases while non-relational databases are often recognized as NoSQL Databases.

SQL databases use a Structured Query Language for manipulating and reading data which are stored in tables. Data is stored in tables as rows and columns with predefined relationships between them (hence the term - a relational database). SQL databases require us to use defined schemas to determine the data structure. The advantage of this is we can always be confident in the structure of our data. However, this also means that a significant change in schema, later on, would be difficult to manage and somewhat disruptive since earlier forms of data may not match the newer schema.