How do you design databases for web applications?

Database design is crucial for application performance and scalability. Our process includes: requirements analysis (understanding data needs), entity-relationship modelling (defining data structure), normalisation (eliminating redundancy), index optimisation (fast data retrieval), relationship mapping (how data connects), and query optimisation (efficient database operations). We use modern databases: PostgreSQL (relational, best for complex queries), MySQL (reliable, widely supported), MongoDB (NoSQL, flexible schema), or Firebase (real-time sync). Design considerations include: data types (text, numbers, dates, JSON), constraints (required fields, unique values), relationships (one-to-many, many-to-many), and security (who can access what). Proper design prevents future problems: slow queries, data inconsistencies, or difficulty adding features. We plan for growth: sharding for large datasets, replication for reliability, and caching for performance. Database backups occur automatically - daily full backups, hourly incremental backups, with 30-day retention.