Glossary term
What is Inverted index? Meaning for developers
Maps words to the documents containing them. Example: "shoe" → docs 1, 3. Powers search engines.
Learn it properly · System DesignLesson 19: How Search Works: The Inverted IndexLIKE '%running shoes%' scans every row and still misses “running shoe”. How the inverted index flips documents into term → document lists, how analysis makes search forgiving, how BM25 ranks results, and how search scales and stays in sync.