Multiversion Concurrency Control (MVCC) enables what type of backup?

Question

Options

• AHot
• BBinary
• CLogical
• DIncremental

• A
  93% (62)
• B
  4% (3)
• C
  1% (1)
• D
  1% (1)

Explanation

MVCC enables hot backups (A) because it maintains multiple versions of data simultaneously, allowing a backup process to read a consistent snapshot of the database while write transactions continue uninterrupted - no locks, no downtime required. This is exactly how tools like pg_basebackup (PostgreSQL) and MySQL Enterprise Backup work.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• B (Binary): Binary vs. logical describes the format of a backup (raw data files vs. SQL statements), not a backup type enabled by MVCC - it's orthogonal to concurrency control.
• C (Logical): Logical backups (e.g., pg_dump) do benefit from MVCC's consistent snapshots, but "logical" again refers to format/method, not the capability MVCC uniquely unlocks. The key capability is online/hot operation.
• D (Incremental): Incremental backups track changes since the last backup - that's a WAL/redo-log concern, not an MVCC feature.

Memory tip: Think of MVCC as a "time travel" feature - because the database can serve a frozen point-in-time snapshot, a backup tool can safely read that snapshot while the database stays hot (live and writable). MVCC = no locks = no downtime = hot backup.

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