MongoDB Schema Design

MongoDB offers two main ways to model relationships:

Embedding

{
  "_id": 1,
  "name": "Alice",
  "orders": [ { "id": 1001, "amount": 200 } ]
}

• Good for small, related data
• Fast reads

Referencing

{
  "_id": 1,
  "name": "Alice",
  "orderIds": [1001, 1002]
}

• Good for large collections
• More scalable

Rule of Thumb

• Embed if data is read together
• Reference if data grows large or is reused

Think in terms of access patterns, not just structure.