What is the general space-time tradeoff when using indexing in a database?

What is the general space-time tradeoff when using indexing in a database?

• A. Indexing speeds reads at the cost of extra storage and slower writes.
• B. Indexing speeds writes but increases storage.
• C. Indexing has no effect on performance.
• D. Indexing reduces storage.

Answer: (A)

Indexes speed up reads by letting the database locate data quickly through a separate data structure, but they require extra storage and add overhead to write operations because the index must be updated whenever the underlying data changes. This creates a tradeoff: faster read performance at the cost of more storage usage and slower writes. That’s why the best statement is that reads are sped up at the cost of extra storage and slower writes.