# Database Design Doesn't Start With Table. It Starts With Consequences

DevFeed: [Database Design Doesn't Start With Table. It Starts With Consequences](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/database-design-doesn-t-start-with-table-it-starts-with-consequences-18107.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://thetshaped.dev/p/database-design-foundations-backend-engineers-mistakes-and-lessons>)

Author: The T-Shaped Dev

Published: 2026-02-17T05:19:18Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [The T-Shaped Dev](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/the-t-shaped-dev.md>)

Topics: [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [Structured-data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/structured-data.md>), [Back end](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/backend.md>), [PostgreSQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/postgresql.md>)

Tags: [backend](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backend.md>), [databases](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/databases.md>), [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [postgresql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgresql.md>), [schema](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/schema.md>), [schema-design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/schema-design.md>)

## AI overview

An introduction to database design for backend engineers. The article explains why schema decisions have long-term consequences, recommends modeling the business domain before designing tables, and discusses normalization and database constraints.

## Source excerpt

Here's what most backend engineers get wrong about schema design and how to fix it before you hit production. (6 min)