SQL Optimization Patterns

Transform slow database queries into lightning-fast operations through systematic optimization, proper indexing, and query plan analysis.

When to Use This Skill

• Debugging slow-running queries
• Designing performant database schemas
• Optimizing application response times
• Reducing database load and costs
• Improving scalability for growing datasets
• Analyzing EXPLAIN query plans
• Implementing efficient indexes
• Resolving N+1 query problems

Core Concepts

1. Query Execution Plans (EXPLAIN)

Understanding EXPLAIN output is fundamental to optimization.

PostgreSQL EXPLAIN:

-- Basic explain
EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = 'user@example.com';

-- With actual execution stats
EXPLAIN ANALYZE
SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = 'user@example.com';

-- Verbose output with more details
EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS, VERBOSE)
SELECT u.*, o.order_total
FROM users u
JOIN orders o ON u.id = o.user_id
WHERE u.created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days';

Key Metrics to Watch:

• Seq Scan: Full table scan (usually slow for large tables)
• Index Scan: Using index (good)
• Index Only Scan: Using index without touching table (best)
• Nested Loop: Join method (okay for small datasets)
• Hash Join: Join method (good for larger datasets)
• Merge Join: Join method (good for sorted data)
• Cost: Estimated query cost (lower is better)
• Rows: Estimated rows returned
• Actual Time: Real execution time

2. Index Strategies

Indexes are the most powerful optimization tool.

Index Types:

• B-Tree: Default, good for equality and range queries
• Hash: Only for equality (=) comparisons
• GIN: Full-text search, array queries, JSONB
• GiST: Geometric data, full-text search
• BRIN: Block Range INdex for very large tables with correlation

-- Standard B-Tree index
CREATE INDEX idx_users_email ON users(email);

-- Composite index (order matters!)
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_status ON orders(user_id, status);

-- Partial index (index subset of rows)
CREATE INDEX idx_active_users ON users(email)
WHERE status = 'active';

-- Expression index
CREATE INDEX idx_users_lower_email ON users(LOWER(email));

-- Covering index (include additional columns)
CREATE INDEX idx_users_email_covering ON users(email)
INCLUDE (name, created_at);

-- Full-text search index
CREATE INDEX idx_posts_search ON posts
USING GIN(to_tsvector('english', title || ' ' || body));

-- JSONB index
CREATE INDEX idx_metadata ON events USING GIN(metadata);

3. Query Optimization Patterns

Avoid SELECT *:

-- Bad: Fetches unnecessary columns
SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = 123;

-- Good: Fetch only what you need
SELECT id, email, name FROM users WHERE id = 123;

Use WHERE Clause Efficiently:

-- Bad: Function prevents index usage
SELECT * FROM users WHERE LOWER(email) = 'user@example.com';

-- Good: Create functional index or use exact match
CREATE INDEX idx_users_email_lower ON users(LOWER(email));
-- Then:
SELECT * FROM users WHERE LOWER(email) = 'user@example.com';

-- Or store normalized data
SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = 'user@example.com';

Optimize JOINs:

-- Bad: Cartesian product then filter
SELECT u.name, o.total
FROM users u, orders o
WHERE u.id = o.user_id AND u.created_at > '2024-01-01';

-- Good: Filter before join
SELECT u.name, o.total
FROM users u
JOIN orders o ON u.id = o.user_id
WHERE u.created_at > '2024-01-01';

-- Better: Filter both tables
SELECT u.name, o.total
FROM (SELECT * FROM users WHERE created_at > '2024-01-01') u
JOIN orders o ON u.id = o.user_id;

Optimization Patterns

Pattern 1: Eliminate N+1 Queries

Problem: N+1 Query Anti-Pattern

# Bad: Executes N+1 queries
users = db.query("SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 10")
for user in users:
    orders = db.query("SELECT * FROM orders WHERE user_id = ?", user.id)
    # Process orders

Solution: Use JOINs or Batch Loading

-- Solution 1: JOIN
SELECT
    u.id, u.name,
    o.id as order_id, o.total
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON u.id = o.user_id
WHERE u.id IN (1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

-- Solution 2: Batch query
SELECT * FROM orders
WHERE user_id IN (1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

# Good: Single query with JOIN or batch load
# Using JOIN
results = db.query("""
    SELECT u.id, u.name, o.id as order_id, o.total
    FROM users u
    LEFT JOIN orders o ON u.id = o.user_id
    WHERE u.id IN (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
""")

# Or batch load
users = db.query("SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 10")
user_ids = [u.id for u in users]
orders = db.query(
    "SELECT * FROM orders WHERE user_id IN (?)",
    user_ids
)
# Group orders by user_id
orders_by_user = {}
for order in orders:
    orders_by_user.setdefault(order.user_id, []).append(order)

Pattern 2: Optimize Pagination

Bad: OFFSET on Large Tables

-- Slow for large offsets
SELECT * FROM users
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 20 OFFSET 100000;  -- Very slow!

Good: Cursor-Based Pagination

-- Much faster: Use cursor (last seen ID)
SELECT * FROM users
WHERE created_at < '2024-01-15 10:30:00'  -- Last cursor
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 20;

-- With composite sorting
SELECT * FROM users
WHERE (created_at, id) < ('2024-01-15 10:30:00', 12345)
ORDER BY created_at DESC, id DESC
LIMIT 20;

-- Requires index
CREATE INDEX idx_users_cursor ON users(created_at DESC, id DESC);

Pattern 3: Aggregate Efficiently

Optimize COUNT Queries:

-- Bad: Counts all rows
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM orders;  -- Slow on large tables

-- Good: Use estimates for approximate counts
SELECT reltuples::bigint AS estimate
FROM pg_class
WHERE relname = 'orders';

-- Good: Filter before counting
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM orders
WHERE created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '7 days';

-- Better: Use index-only scan
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_created ON orders(created_at);
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM orders
WHERE created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '7 days';

Optimize GROUP BY:

-- Bad: Group by then filter
SELECT user_id, COUNT(*) as order_count
FROM orders
GROUP BY user_id
HAVING COUNT(*) > 10;

-- Better: Filter first, then group (if possible)
SELECT user_id, COUNT(*) as order_count
FROM orders
WHERE status = 'completed'
GROUP BY user_id
HAVING COUNT(*) > 10;

-- Best: Use covering index
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_status ON orders(user_id, status);

Pattern 4: Subquery Optimization

Transform Correlated Subqueries:

-- Bad: Correlated subquery (runs for each row)
SELECT u.name, u.email,
    (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM orders o WHERE o.user_id = u.id) as order_count
FROM users u;

-- Good: JOIN with aggregation
SELECT u.name, u.email, COUNT(o.id) as order_count
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON o.user_id = u.id
GROUP BY u.id, u.name, u.email;

-- Better: Use window functions
SELECT DISTINCT ON (u.id)
    u.name, u.email,
    COUNT(o.id) OVER (PARTITION BY u.id) as order_count
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON o.user_id = u.id;

Use CTEs for Clarity:

-- Using Common Table Expressions
WITH recent_users AS (
    SELECT id, name, email
    FROM users
    WHERE created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days'
),
user_order_counts AS (
    SELECT user_id, COUNT(*) as order_count
    FROM orders
    WHERE created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days'
    GROUP BY user_id
)
SELECT ru.name, ru.email, COALESCE(uoc.order_count, 0) as orders
FROM recent_users ru
LEFT JOIN user_order_counts uoc ON ru.id = uoc.user_id;

Pattern 5: Batch Operations

Batch INSERT:

-- Bad: Multiple individual inserts
INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ('Alice', 'alice@example.com');
INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ('Bob', 'bob@example.com');
INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ('Carol', 'carol@example.com');

-- Good: Batch insert
INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES
    ('Alice', 'alice@example.com'),
    ('Bob', 'bob@example.com'),
    ('Carol', 'carol@example.com');

-- Better: Use COPY for bulk inserts (PostgreSQL)
COPY users (name, email) FROM '/tmp/users.csv' CSV HEADER;

Batch UPDATE:

-- Bad: Update in loop
UPDATE users SET status = 'active' WHERE id = 1;
UPDATE users SET status = 'active' WHERE id = 2;
-- ... repeat for many IDs

-- Good: Single UPDATE with IN clause
UPDATE users
SET status = 'active'
WHERE id IN (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...);

-- Better: Use temporary table for large batches
CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_user_updates (id INT, new_status VARCHAR);
INSERT INTO temp_user_updates VALUES (1, 'active'), (2, 'active'), ...;

UPDATE users u
SET status = t.new_status
FROM temp_user_updates t
WHERE u.id = t.id;

Advanced Techniques

Materialized Views

Pre-compute expensive queries.

-- Create materialized view
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW user_order_summary AS
SELECT
    u.id,
    u.name,
    COUNT(o.id) as total_orders,
    SUM(o.total) as total_spent,
    MAX(o.created_at) as last_order_date
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON u.id = o.user_id
GROUP BY u.id, u.name;

-- Add index to materialized view
CREATE INDEX idx_user_summary_spent ON user_order_summary(total_spent DESC);

-- Refresh materialized view
REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW user_order_summary;

-- Concurrent refresh (PostgreSQL)
REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW CONCURRENTLY user_order_summary;

-- Query materialized view (very fast)
SELECT * FROM user_order_summary
WHERE total_spent > 1000
ORDER BY total_spent DESC;

Partitioning

Split large tables for better performance.

-- Range partitioning by date (PostgreSQL)
CREATE TABLE orders (
    id SERIAL,
    user_id INT,
    total DECIMAL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP
) PARTITION BY RANGE (created_at);

-- Create partitions
CREATE TABLE orders_2024_q1 PARTITION OF orders
    FOR VALUES FROM ('2024-01-01') TO ('2024-04-01');

CREATE TABLE orders_2024_q2 PARTITION OF orders
    FOR VALUES FROM ('2024-04-01') TO ('2024-07-01');

-- Queries automatically use appropriate partition
SELECT * FROM orders
WHERE created_at BETWEEN '2024-02-01' AND '2024-02-28';
-- Only scans orders_2024_q1 partition

Query Hints and Optimization

-- Force index usage (MySQL)
SELECT * FROM users
USE INDEX (idx_users_email)
WHERE email = 'user@example.com';

-- Parallel query (PostgreSQL)
SET max_parallel_workers_per_gather = 4;
SELECT * FROM large_table WHERE condition;

-- Join hints (PostgreSQL)
SET enable_nestloop = OFF;  -- Force hash or merge join

Best Practices

1. Index Selectively: Too many indexes slow down writes
2. Monitor Query Performance: Use slow query logs
3. Keep Statistics Updated: Run ANALYZE regularly
4. Use Appropriate Data Types: Smaller types = better performance
5. Normalize Thoughtfully: Balance normalization vs performance
6. Cache Frequently Accessed Data: Use application-level caching
7. Connection Pooling: Reuse database connections
8. Regular Maintenance: VACUUM, ANALYZE, rebuild indexes

-- Update statistics
ANALYZE users;
ANALYZE VERBOSE orders;

-- Vacuum (PostgreSQL)
VACUUM ANALYZE users;
VACUUM FULL users;  -- Reclaim space (locks table)

-- Reindex
REINDEX INDEX idx_users_email;
REINDEX TABLE users;

Common Pitfalls

• Over-Indexing: Each index slows down INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE
• Unused Indexes: Waste space and slow writes
• Missing Indexes: Slow queries, full table scans
• Implicit Type Conversion: Prevents index usage
• OR Conditions: Can't use indexes efficiently
• LIKE with Leading Wildcard: LIKE '%abc' can't use index
• Function in WHERE: Prevents index usage unless functional index exists

Monitoring Queries

-- Find slow queries (PostgreSQL)
SELECT query, calls, total_time, mean_time
FROM pg_stat_statements
ORDER BY mean_time DESC
LIMIT 10;

-- Find missing indexes (PostgreSQL)
SELECT
    schemaname,
    tablename,
    seq_scan,
    seq_tup_read,
    idx_scan,
    seq_tup_read / seq_scan AS avg_seq_tup_read
FROM pg_stat_user_tables
WHERE seq_scan > 0
ORDER BY seq_tup_read DESC
LIMIT 10;

-- Find unused indexes (PostgreSQL)
SELECT
    schemaname,
    tablename,
    indexname,
    idx_scan,
    idx_tup_read,
    idx_tup_fetch
FROM pg_stat_user_indexes
WHERE idx_scan = 0
ORDER BY pg_relation_size(indexrelid) DESC;