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How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?

Summary: Introduces the Join Order Benchmark (JOB) to test optimizer components on real-world, multi-join workloads. Cardinality estimators are error-prone; cost models matter less than estimates; exhaustive dynamic programming improves plan quality over heuristics under poor cardinality. (summarized by gpt-5-nano on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID
11314
Venue
VLDB
Year
2016
Pagerank
0.00059446482
Overall Rank
71 | 99.51%
DOI
-

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

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Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 50 of 302 citing papers.

Rank Citing Paper Year Venue Pagerank
5,673 Budget-aware Index Tuning with Reinforcement Learning 2022 SIGMOD 5.3789277e-05
5,682 LSched: A Workload-Aware Learned Query Scheduler for Analytical Database Systems 2022 SIGMOD 5.3752251e-05
5,696 Exact Cardinality Query Optimization with Bounded Execution Cost 2019 SIGMOD 5.367449e-05
5,772 Predicate Transfer: Efficient Pre-Filtering on Multi-Join Queries 2024 CIDR 5.3313794e-05
5,834 An Efficient Transfer Learning Based Configuration Adviser for Database Tuning 2024 VLDB 5.3082111e-05
5,863 Making SQL Queries Correct on Incomplete Databases: A Feasibility Study 2016 PODS 5.2949117e-05
5,886 COMPASS: Online Sketch-based Query Optimization for In-Memory Databases 2021 SIGMOD 5.2847297e-05
5,925 HMAB: Self-Driving Hierarchy of Bandits for Integrated Physical Database Design Tuning 2023 VLDB 5.2669029e-05
5,931 FASTgres: Making Learned Query Optimizer Hinting Effective 2023 VLDB 5.2632167e-05
5,941 Eraser: Eliminating Performance Regression on Learned Query Optimizer 2024 VLDB 5.2594013e-05
5,944 SAM: Database Generation from Query Workloads with Supervised Autoregressive Models 2022 SIGMOD 5.2583712e-05
5,952 PGMJoins: Random Join Sampling with Graphical Models 2021 SIGMOD 5.2547498e-05
5,994 Steering Query Optimizers: A Practical Take on Big Data Workloads 2021 SIGMOD 5.2367998e-05
6,060 Efficient Massively Parallel Join Optimization for Large Queries* 2022 SIGMOD 5.2271244e-05
6,294 Free Join: Unifying Worst-Case Optimal and Traditional Joins 2023 SIGMOD 5.1202075e-05
6,328 A Comparative Study and Component Analysis of Query Plan Representation Techniques in ML4DB Studies 2024 VLDB 5.1034426e-05
6,365 Pre-training Summarization Models of Structured Datasets for Cardinality Estimation 2022 VLDB 5.0892829e-05
6,372 Optimization of Conjunctive Predicates for Main Memory Column Stores 2016 VLDB 5.0878306e-05
6,376 A Unified and Efficient Coordinating Framework for Autonomous DBMS Tuning 2023 SIGMOD 5.0861082e-05
6,382 Sample-Efficient Cardinality Estimation Using Geometric Deep Learning 2024 VLDB 5.0835686e-05
6,461 Pando: Enhanced Data Skipping with Logical Data Partitioning 2023 VLDB 5.0479786e-05
6,507 Expand your Training Limits! Generating Training Data for ML-based Data Management 2021 SIGMOD 5.0273414e-05
6,687 How Good are Learned Cost Models, Really? Insights from Query Optimization Tasks 2025 SIGMOD 4.957987e-05
6,753 Breaking It Down: An In-depth Study of Index Advisors 2024 VLDB 4.9345582e-05
6,763 Robustness Metrics for Relational Query Execution Plans 2018 VLDB 4.9291549e-05
6,774 A Unified Transferable Model for ML-Enhanced DBMS 2022 CIDR 4.9253635e-05
6,777 Revisiting Reuse in Main Memory Database Systems 2017 SIGMOD 4.9242249e-05
6,862 Join Order Selection with Deep Reinforcement Learning: Fundamentals, Techniques, and Challenges 2023 VLDB 4.9004921e-05
6,863 Declarative Sub-Operators for Universal Data Processing 2023 VLDB 4.9003859e-05
6,883 PilotScope: Steering Databases with Machine Learning Drivers 2024 VLDB 4.8918682e-05
6,967 LpBound: Pessimistic Cardinality Estimation using ℓp-Norms of Degree Sequences 2025 SIGMOD 4.875312e-05
6,986 CrocodileDB: Efficient Database Execution through Intelligent Deferment 2020 CIDR 4.8672517e-05
7,009 Is Your Learned Query Optimizer Behaving As You Expect? A Machine Learning Perspective 2024 VLDB 4.8597992e-05
7,011 Simple Adaptive Query Processing vs. Learned Query Optimizers: Observations and Analysis 2023 VLDB 4.8583284e-05
7,118 ASM: Harmonizing Autoregressive Model, Sampling, and Multi-dimensional Statistics Merging for Cardinality Estimation 2024 SIGMOD 4.8204951e-05
7,122 Debunking the Myth of Join Ordering: Toward Robust SQL Analytics 2025 SIGMOD 4.8199209e-05
7,163 SKT: A One-Pass Multi-Sketch Data Analytics Accelerator 2021 VLDB 4.808534e-05
7,180 Coresets over Multiple Tables for Feature-rich and Data-efficient Machine Learning 2023 VLDB 4.8032775e-05
7,188 LPLM: A Neural Language Model for Cardinality Estimation of LIKE-Queries 2024 SIGMOD 4.8017628e-05
7,220 Speeding Up End-to-end Query Execution via Learning-based Progressive Cardinality Estimation 2023 SIGMOD 4.7926382e-05
7,326 Lemo: A Cache-Enhanced Learned Optimizer for Concurrent Queries 2023 SIGMOD 4.7563708e-05
7,332 Refactoring Index Tuning Process with Benefit Estimation 2024 VLDB 4.7553758e-05
7,337 Join Size Bounds using l_p-Norms on Degree Sequences 2024 PODS 4.7532633e-05
7,397 Intermittent Query Processing 2019 VLDB 4.7367491e-05
7,461 Scalable Multi-Query Execution using Reinforcement Learning 2021 SIGMOD 4.7193668e-05
7,465 Yannakakis+: Practical Acyclic Query Evaluation with Theoretical Guarantees 2025 SIGMOD 4.7186055e-05
7,564 Modeling Shifting Workloads for Learned Database Systems 2024 SIGMOD 4.7049893e-05
7,666 Fast Detection of Denial Constraint Violations 2022 VLDB 4.6792751e-05
7,676 E2ETune: End-to-End Knob Tuning via Fine-tuned Generative Language Model 2025 VLDB 4.6770108e-05
7,776 Plan Stitch: Harnessing the Best of Many Plans 2018 VLDB 4.6493147e-05
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Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 23 of 23 cited papers.

Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.

Rank Cited Paper Year Venue Pagerank
1 Access Path Selection in a Relational Database Management System 1979 SIGMOD 0.0040465394
100 On the Propagation of Errors in the Size of Join Results 1991 SIGMOD 0.00050033475
141 Selectivity Estimation Without the Attribute Value Independence Assumption 1997 VLDB 0.00041819767
181 LEO - DB2's LEarning Optimizer 2001 VLDB 0.00036970794
224 CORDS: Automatic Discovery of Correlations and Soft Functional Dependencies 2004 SIGMOD 0.00032743209
269 R* Optimizer Validation and Performance Evaluation for Local Queries 1986 SIGMOD 0.00029665158
325 The History of Histograms (abridged) 2003 VLDB 0.00027398081
627 Preventing Bad Plans by Bounding the Impact of Cardinality Estimation Errors 2009 VLDB 0.00018959896
680 Towards a Robust Query Optimizer: A Principled and Practical Approach 2005 SIGMOD 0.00018193263
1,297 The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer 2010 VLDB 0.00012732768
1,344 Dynamic Programming Strikes Back 2008 SIGMOD 0.00012477274
1,536 Lightweight Graphical Models for Selectivity Estimation Without Independence Assumptions 2011 VLDB 0.00011458359
2,359 Consistently Estimating the Selectivity of Conjuncts of Predicates 2005 VLDB 8.967267e-05
2,369 CS2: A New Database Synopsis for Query Estimation 2013 SIGMOD 8.9462051e-05
2,632 Plan Bouquets: Query Processing without Selectivity Estimation 2014 SIGMOD 8.4153283e-05
2,741 Cache-Efficient Aggregation: Hashing Is Sorting 2015 SIGMOD 8.1977375e-05
2,778 Counter Strike: Generic Top-Down Join Enumeration for Hypergraphs 2013 VLDB 8.1345892e-05
3,016 Adaptive and Big Data Scale Parallel Execution in Oracle 2013 VLDB 7.7060968e-05
3,402 Query Optimizers: Time to Rethink the Contract? 2009 SIGMOD 7.134261e-05
3,943 Exact Cardinality Query Optimization for Optimizer Testing 2009 VLDB 6.6067351e-05
4,503 Of Snowstorms and Bushy Trees 2014 VLDB 6.131076e-05
4,734 Query Simplification: Graceful Degradation for Join-Order Optimization 2009 SIGMOD 5.9553181e-05
6,879 ROX: Run-time Optimization of XQueries 2009 SIGMOD 4.8934866e-05
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