MongoDB Design Patterns

Introduction

MongoDB has a catalogue of design patterns formally published by MongoDB Inc. — Bucket, Outlier, Attribute, Subset, Computed, Extended Reference, Polymorphic, Schema Versioning. Each solves a recurring modeling problem.

Understanding the topic

The big six:

• Bucket — group time-series points (e.g. one doc per minute).
• Outlier — special-case the 0.1% of huge docs.
• Subset — store hot data in parent, cold in a sibling.
• Extended Reference — store ref + a few denormalized fields.
• Computed — pre-aggregate counters on write.
• Schema Versioning — add a schemaVersion field.

Real-world use

Bucket pattern compresses IoT telemetry 10×. Computed pattern keeps Reddit-style vote counts instant.

Best practices

• Name patterns explicitly in code comments — future maintainers will thank you.
• Don't over-apply; reach for them when a real bottleneck appears.