MongoDB relationships: embed or reference?

Question

I\'m new to MongoDB--coming from a relational database background. I want to design a question structure with some comments, but I don\'t know which relationship to use for

Answer 1

MongoDB gives freedom to be schema-less and this feature can result in pain in the long term if not thought or planned well,

There are 2 options either Embed or Reference. I will not go through definitions as the above answers have well defined them.

When embedding you should answer one question is your embedded document going to grow, if yes then how much (remember there is a limit of 16 MB per document) So if you have something like a comment on a post, what is the limit of comment count, if that post goes viral and people start adding comments. In such cases, reference could be a better option (but even reference can grow and reach 16 MB limit).

So how to balance it, the answer is a combination of different patterns, check these links, and create your own mix and match based on your use case.

https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/building-with-patterns-a-summary

https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/6-rules-of-thumb-for-mongodb-schema-design-part-1