CASSANDRA Installation and Configuration

Question 1

Which configuration file is the primary settings file for a Cassandra node?

Accepted Answer

cassandra.yaml

Answer

cassandra.yaml contains the core node configuration including cluster name, data directories, seeds, listen address, and replication settings.

Question 2

What is the role of 'seed nodes' in a Cassandra cluster?

Accepted Answer

They serve as initial contact points for new nodes joining the ring

Answer

Seed nodes are well-known contact points that new nodes use to learn the cluster topology through the gossip protocol during bootstrap.

Question 3

Which JVM garbage collector is recommended for Cassandra to minimize GC pause times?

Accepted Answer

G1GC or ZGC

Answer

G1GC (and increasingly ZGC for newer JDKs) is recommended for Cassandra to keep GC pauses short and avoid stop-the-world events that affect latency.

Question 4

What does the 'listen_address' parameter in cassandra.yaml define?

Accepted Answer

The IP address the node uses to communicate with other nodes in the cluster

Answer

listen_address is the IP that other Cassandra nodes use to reach this node for inter-node communication (gossip, streaming, repairs).

Question 5

What is the default native transport port used by Cassandra for CQL client connections?

Accepted Answer

9042

Answer

Port 9042 is the default CQL native transport port that drivers and tools like cqlsh use to connect to Cassandra.

CASSANDRA - Apache Cassandra Database Practice Test