How Notion Manages 200 Billion Notes Without Crashing

Image Credit: Skynet

Notion’s engineering feats allow it to handle over 200 billion blocks efficiently.

By implementing sharding and building a custom data lake, they maintained performance and uptime.

Paul’s Perspective:

Understanding how Notion manages a vast amount of data without interruptions highlights advanced strategies in data management and scalability. This knowledge provides valuable lessons for businesses aiming to improve their digital infrastructures for better efficiency and growth.


Key Points in Video:

  • Notion’s user base doubled every 6-12 months during explosive growth.
  • The sharding strategy significantly improved data management and performance.
  • Creating a customized data lake addressed scalability beyond traditional solutions.
  • Infrastructure was tripled while avoiding any system downtime.

Strategic Actions:

  1. Understand Notion’s single database limitations and scaling issues.
  2. Explore the sharding strategy that boosted performance.
  3. Analyze the custom data lake solution for enhanced scalability.
  4. Learn the process behind tripling infrastructure without downtime.
  5. Review the migration strategy to avoid performance hiccups.

The Bottom Line:

  • Notion’s engineering feats allow it to handle over 200 billion blocks efficiently.
  • By implementing sharding and building a custom data lake, they maintained performance and uptime.

Dive deeper > Source Video:


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Curated by Paul Helmick

Founder. CEO. Advisor.

@PaulHelmick
@323Works

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