Cassandra Practice Test

What is the default time period for a coordinator to store a Hinted Handoff?

1. 1 hour

2. 3 hours

3. 6 hours

4. 24 hours

The correct answer is: 3 hours

The default time period for a coordinator to store a Hinted Handoff in Cassandra is indeed 3 hours. Hinted Handoff is a mechanism that allows Cassandra to handle temporary disruptions in node availability. When a node is down and a write operation is attempted, the coordinator node saves a hint for that operation so that when the downed node comes back online, it can be updated with any missed writes. The 3-hour timeframe strikes a balance between retaining hints long enough to accommodate short-term outages without overwhelming the system with stale hints. Retaining hints for too long could lead to performance degradation as the coordinator might accumulate a significant number of hints that it needs to manage. If the time period were shorter than 3 hours, it might not allow sufficient time for nodes that are briefly unavailable to catch up on their missed writes. Conversely, a longer time period could cause potential inconsistencies and increased load on the cluster when too many hints are stored, leading to complications during the read and write processes once the hinted handoff is executed.