Document References vs Embedding

🍁 MongoDBLesson 8Intermediate

Data modeling in MongoDB involves deciding between Embedding (nested schemas) and Referencing (linking documents using IDs).

1 Reference Modeling Syntax

JSON — Linked Documents

# User Document
{
  "_id": ObjectId("507f1f77bcf86cd799439011"),
  "name": "Balaji"
}

# Post Document referencing User
{
  "title": "Learning MongoDB",
  "author_id": ObjectId("507f1f77bcf86cd799439011")
}

2 Code Challenge

Challenge: Explain when embedding is a better model choice than referencing, and when referencing should be preferred for data consistency.