Clustering is most beneficial for which type of tables?

• A. Tables with heavy write workloads
• B. Tables that are queried frequently and not changed frequently
• C. Tables with no queries
• D. Tables that are updated every second

Answer: (B)

Clustering helps a table be read more efficiently by organizing data so that queries can skip large portions of unread data. This works best when a table is large and the queries frequently filter on the clustering columns, allowing the system to prune partitions and only scan the relevant parts.

So, the scenario that benefits most is a read-heavy table that is queried frequently with predicates on the clustering keys but not updated often. In contrast, if the table is updated very often, the clustering structure needs constant maintenance, which can erode the performance gains. If there are no queries, clustering provides little or no benefit.