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Question 108 of 1,446

PCDE Practice Question: Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions

A company is migrating from a relational database to Cloud Bigtable. They have a table with a 'user_id' and 'login_timestamp'. Queries often filter by user_id and time range. What should be the row key?

Answer choices

Why each option matters

Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.

Correct answer & explanation

hash(user_id) + timestamp

hashing the user_id prevents hotspots, and appending timestamp enables range scans. 'user_id' alone may cause hotspots if sequential.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

  • timestamp

    Why it's wrong here

    Timestamp first causes write hotspots.

  • hash(user_id) + timestamp

    Why this is correct

    Hash distributes, timestamp enables range queries.

  • user_id + timestamp

    Why it's wrong here

    If user_id is sequential, hotspots occur.

  • user_id

    Why it's wrong here

    Sequential user_id causes hotspots.

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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026

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