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Performance Tuning & Optimization

Stop guessing why your queries are slow. Learn to read execution plans, design effective indexes, analyze wait statistics, and systematically optimize SQL Server performance.

🕒 10 Hours 📜 52 Lessons ★ 4.9/5 (870 reviews) 🎓 Certificate
$49
One-time payment • Lifetime access
  • 10 hours of advanced content
  • 52 lessons with real slow queries
  • Tuning scripts and DMV queries
  • Indexing strategy cheat sheet
  • Certificate of completion
  • Priority Q&A support
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30-day money-back guarantee

What You Will Learn

  • Read and interpret execution plans like a pro
  • Design clustered and non-clustered indexes
  • Identify and eliminate parameter sniffing issues
  • Analyze wait statistics to find bottlenecks
  • Optimize tempdb and memory configuration
  • Rewrite expensive queries for better performance
  • Use Query Store for regression detection
  • Implement filtered and columnstore indexes
  • Monitor and reduce I/O and CPU pressure
  • Build a performance tuning methodology

Course Curriculum

Module 1: Performance Tuning Methodology 6 lessons
  • The performance tuning mindset
  • Establishing baselines
  • Wait statistics overview and analysis
  • Using DMVs for performance diagnostics
  • SET STATISTICS IO and TIME
  • Lab: Diagnosing a slow production workload
Module 2: Execution Plans Deep Dive 10 lessons
  • How the query optimizer works
  • Reading graphical execution plans
  • Common operators explained
  • Estimated vs actual plans
  • Identifying costly operators
  • Implicit conversions and their impact
  • Cardinality estimation issues
  • Plan caching and recompilation
  • Plan guides and forcing plans
  • Lab: Fixing plans gone wrong
Module 3: Indexing Strategies 10 lessons
  • How indexes work internally (B-tree structure)
  • Clustered index design principles
  • Non-clustered index strategies
  • Covering indexes and included columns
  • Filtered indexes for partial data
  • Columnstore indexes for analytics
  • Index maintenance (rebuild vs reorganize)
  • Missing index DMVs and recommendations
  • Finding and removing unused indexes
  • Lab: Indexing a real workload
Module 4: Query Optimization 8 lessons
  • SARGable predicates and index usage
  • Rewriting subqueries as joins
  • Optimizing OR conditions
  • Parameter sniffing diagnosis and solutions
  • Temp tables vs table variables for performance
  • Batch processing for large operations
  • Statistics and their role in optimization
  • Lab: Transforming slow queries into fast ones
Module 5: Server-Level Optimization 6 lessons
  • Memory configuration and buffer pool
  • CPU and MAXDOP settings
  • tempdb optimization techniques
  • I/O subsystem analysis
  • Query Store setup and usage
  • Final project: Complete tuning engagement

Make Your Databases Blazing Fast

The skills that separate good DBAs from great ones.

Enroll for $49