What are the advantages and disadvantages of using denormalization in relational databases?

Advantages of denormalization:

• Accelerates data reading by reducing the number of JOIN operations.
• Simplifies queries as data is stored in a more readable form.

Disadvantages of denormalization:

• Increases the volume of stored data due to duplication.
• Difficulties in maintaining data integrity — duplicated records need to be synchronized during updates.
• Possibility of anomalies during insertion, updating, and deletion of data.

Denormalization is useful in systems with high read load where access speed is important, but it requires careful data management.