What is the difference between Star Schemes and Snowflake Schemes?

A Star Schema is a denormalized design where a central fact table is surrounded by dimension tables that are directly linked. This structure simplifies queries and improves read performance because joins are straightforward and the dimension tables are small. A Snowflake Schema normalizes the dimension tables into multiple related tables, reducing data redundancy but increasing the number of joins required. The Snowflake model can save storage and maintain consistency, but it often incurs higher query latency. In practice, we choose a Star Schema for reporting and dashboards where speed matters, and a Snowflake Schema for operational data warehouses where storage efficiency and data integrity are priorities.