Answer
Frequent checkpoints cause I/O spikes, while infrequent ones increase crash recovery time. Proper tuning balances durability with performance.
Quick Answer
Checkpoints flush dirty shared_buffers to disk. Frequent checkpoints: faster crash recovery but continuous I/O load (write storm at each checkpoint). Infrequent checkpoints (larger max_wal_size): less I/O normally but longer recovery time and more WAL to replay. checkpoint_completion_target (default 0.9) spreads the writes over 90% of the checkpoint interval to smooth out I/O spikes.
S
SugharaIQ Editorial Team
Verified Answer
This answer has been peer-reviewed by industry experts holding senior engineering roles to ensure technical accuracy and relevance for modern interview standards.
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Source: SugharaIQ