The key differences between a star schema and snowflake schema are: A star schema has a single, centralized fact table connected to multiple dimension tables, while a snowflake schema normalizes dimensions into multiple tables linked through foreign keys. This reduces data redundancy in a snowflake schema but requires more complex joins. Queries are typically faster with a star schema due to its simpler structure and fewer joins compared to the snowflake schema.

1. Difference Between Star Schema and Snowflake Schema
S.No Star Schema Snowflake Schema
1 Data Structure: Data Structure:
De-Normalized Data Structure Normalized Data Structure
2 Dimension: Dimension:
Category wise Single Dimension Dimension table split into many pieces
Table
3 Data dependency & Data dependency & redundancy:
redundancy: Less data dependency and No
More data dependency and redundancy
redundancy
4 Join: Join:
No need to use complicated join Complicated Join
5 Query Result: Query Result:
Query Results Faster Some delay in Query Processing
6 Parent Table: Parent Table:
No Parent Table It may contain Parent Table
7 DB Structure: DB Structure:
Simple DB Structure Complicated DB Structure
8 Sample: Sample:
http://blog- http://blog-
mstechnology.blogspot.in/2010/06 mstechnology.blogspot.in/2010/06/bi-
/bi-dimensional-model-star- dimensional-model-snowflake-
schema.html schema.html
And, further updates on difference between questions and answers, please visit my blog @
http://onlydifferencefaqs.blogspot.in/