Skip to content
LakeBench
ProblemsCommunityPricing
Sign inStart practicing
Back
  1. Home
  2. Interview prep
  3. Data Vault: hubs, links, and satellites

Data modeling · Keys & Relationships

Data Vault: hubs, links, and satellites

Hardmodel-15
data vaulthublinksatellite

Question

What is Data Vault modeling? Explain hubs, links, and satellites.

Solution

Data Vault is an enterprise modeling approach for integrating many sources with auditability and agility. Core building blocks:

Hub

  • Unique business keys for a core entity (customer, product, order)
  • Thin: hash key, business key, load timestamp, source

Link

  • Relationships / transactions between hubs (customer placed order, order contains product)
  • Thin: hash of related hub keys, load metadata

Satellite

  • Descriptive attributes and history hanging off a hub or link
  • Where change tracking lives (often insert-only history)
hub_customer          hub_order
      \                  /
       \                /
        link_customer_order
              |
       sat_order_details   (status, amounts, effective timing)

Mental model

Hubs = nouns, links = verbs/relationships, satellites = adjectives and history.

Why teams use it

  • Ingest raw source truth quickly without forcing a star on day one
  • Preserve lineage and multi-source conflicts
  • Build star marts later on top of the vault

Interview tip

> "Data Vault separates business keys (hubs), relationships (links), and attributes over time (satellites). It is an integration layer, often under BI-facing stars."

PreviousNext