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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
h476371500a44338b
Venue
VLDB
Year
2016
Pagerank
0.00061463175
Overall Rank
15 | 99.91%
DOI
10.14778/2850583.2850594
PDF
Download (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

BibTeX Citation

@article{leis_vldb16,
        title = {{How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?}},
        author = {Leis, Viktor and Gubichev, Andrey and Mirchev, Atanas and Boncz, Peter and Kemper, Alfons and Neumann, Thomas},
        journal = {PVLDB},
        series = {{VLDB} '16},
        volume = {9},
        number = {3},
        pages = {204--215},
        doi = {10.14778/2850583.2850594},
        url = {https://doi.org/10.14778/2850583.2850594},
        year = {2016}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 50 of 333 citing papers.

Rank Citing Paper Year Venue Pagerank
4,990 Budget-aware Index Tuning with Reinforcement Learning 2022 SIGMOD 6.3120056e-05
4,996 SemBench: A Benchmark for Semantic Query Processing Engines 2026 VLDB 6.3095672e-05
5,029 COMPASS: Online Sketch-based Query Optimization for In-Memory Databases 2021 SIGMOD 6.2952031e-05
5,034 Free Join: Unifying Worst-Case Optimal and Traditional Joins 2023 SIGMOD 6.2921115e-05
5,044 Analyzing the Impact of Cardinality Estimation on Execution Plans in Microsoft SQL Server 2023 VLDB 6.2888728e-05
5,056 Lightweight Cardinality Estimation in LSM-based Systems 2018 SIGMOD 6.282339e-05
5,126 Steering Query Optimizers: A Practical Take on Big Data Workloads 2021 SIGMOD 6.2493606e-05
5,160 Facilitating SQL Query Composition and Analysis 2020 SIGMOD 6.2354336e-05
5,211 Database Workload Characterization with Query Plan Encoders 2022 VLDB 6.2141929e-05
5,223 Exact Cardinality Query Optimization with Bounded Execution Cost 2019 SIGMOD 6.210331e-05
5,237 SAM: Database Generation from Query Workloads with Supervised Autoregressive Models 2022 SIGMOD 6.2027113e-05
5,245 FASTgres: Making Learned Query Optimizer Hinting Effective 2023 VLDB 6.1995935e-05
5,304 An Efficient Transfer Learning Based Configuration Adviser for Database Tuning 2024 VLDB 6.1758143e-05
5,377 Can Large Language Models Predict Data Correlations from Column Names? 2023 VLDB 6.1396287e-05
5,446 Efficient Massively Parallel Join Optimization for Large Queries* 2022 SIGMOD 6.1117489e-05
5,453 Eraser: Eliminating Performance Regression on Learned Query Optimizer 2024 VLDB 6.1077838e-05
5,457 Sample-Efficient Cardinality Estimation Using Geometric Deep Learning 2024 VLDB 6.1058928e-05
5,484 A Comparative Study and Component Analysis of Query Plan Representation Techniques in ML4DB Studies 2024 VLDB 6.0980944e-05
5,613 HyperBench: A Benchmark and Tool for Hypergraphs and Empirical Findings 2019 PODS 6.048773e-05
5,642 Revisiting Reuse in Main Memory Database Systems 2017 SIGMOD 6.0370517e-05
5,671 PGMJoins: Random Join Sampling with Graphical Models 2021 SIGMOD 6.026372e-05
5,687 HMAB: Self-Driving Hierarchy of Bandits for Integrated Physical Database Design Tuning 2023 VLDB 6.0201937e-05
5,713 PilotScope: Steering Databases with Machine Learning Drivers 2024 VLDB 6.0090633e-05
5,794 Lemo: A Cache-Enhanced Learned Optimizer for Concurrent Queries 2023 SIGMOD 5.9759435e-05
5,819 Making SQL Queries Correct on Incomplete Databases: A Feasibility Study 2016 PODS 5.9670046e-05
5,837 Pre-training Summarization Models of Structured Datasets for Cardinality Estimation 2022 VLDB 5.9600736e-05
5,854 Modeling Shifting Workloads for Learned Database Systems 2024 SIGMOD 5.9520525e-05
5,856 Pando: Enhanced Data Skipping with Logical Data Partitioning 2023 VLDB 5.9514226e-05
5,911 Yannakakis+: Practical Acyclic Query Evaluation with Theoretical Guarantees 2025 SIGMOD 5.9338021e-05
5,925 Join Size Bounds using l_p-Norms on Degree Sequences 2024 PODS 5.9282898e-05
6,109 Is Your Learned Query Optimizer Behaving As You Expect? A Machine Learning Perspective 2024 VLDB 5.8676956e-05
6,113 Expand your Training Limits! Generating Training Data for ML-based Data Management 2021 SIGMOD 5.8662826e-05
6,121 Breaking It Down: An In-depth Study of Index Advisors 2024 VLDB 5.863893e-05
6,122 Optimization of Conjunctive Predicates for Main Memory Column Stores 2016 VLDB 5.8638562e-05
6,128 Robustness Metrics for Relational Query Execution Plans 2018 VLDB 5.860258e-05
6,305 Declarative Sub-Operators for Universal Data Processing 2023 VLDB 5.8008469e-05
6,402 A Unified Transferable Model for ML-Enhanced DBMS 2022 CIDR 5.7800842e-05
6,584 Can Large Language Models Be Query Optimizer for Relational Databases? 2026 SIGMOD 5.72395e-05
6,640 SKT: A One-Pass Multi-Sketch Data Analytics Accelerator 2021 VLDB 5.7085404e-05
6,646 Join Order Selection with Deep Reinforcement Learning: Fundamentals, Techniques, and Challenges 2023 VLDB 5.7053761e-05
6,654 Coresets over Multiple Tables for Feature-rich and Data-efficient Machine Learning 2023 VLDB 5.7038474e-05
6,672 Speeding Up End-to-end Query Execution via Learning-based Progressive Cardinality Estimation 2023 SIGMOD 5.6975871e-05
6,725 Simple Adaptive Query Processing vs. Learned Query Optimizers: Observations and Analysis 2023 VLDB 5.6826988e-05
6,752 A Unified and Efficient Coordinating Framework for Autonomous DBMS Tuning 2023 SIGMOD 5.6733557e-05
6,807 Intermittent Query Processing 2019 VLDB 5.661199e-05
6,812 dbET: Execution Time Distribution-based Plan Selection 2023 SIGMOD 5.6597129e-05
6,826 Instance-Optimal Acyclic Join Processing Without Regret: Engineering the Yannakakis Algorithm in Column Stores 2025 VLDB 5.6566963e-05
6,835 CrocodileDB: Efficient Database Execution through Intelligent Deferment 2020 CIDR 5.6527238e-05
6,840 ASM: Harmonizing Autoregressive Model, Sampling, and Multi-dimensional Statistics Merging for Cardinality Estimation 2024 SIGMOD 5.6513231e-05
6,854 Filtered Vector Search: State-of-the-art and Research Opportunities 2025 VLDB 5.647101e-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 0.0023948467
91 On the Propagation of Errors in the Size of Join Results 1991 SIGMOD 0.00034691614
98 LEO - DB2's LEarning Optimizer 2001 VLDB 0.00034050614
103 Selectivity Estimation Without the Attribute Value Independence Assumption 1997 VLDB 0.00033847446
160 CORDS: Automatic Discovery of Correlations and Soft Functional Dependencies 2004 SIGMOD 0.00027775994
254 The History of Histograms (abridged) 2003 VLDB 0.00022999992
381 Preventing Bad Plans by Bounding the Impact of Cardinality Estimation Errors 2009 VLDB 0.00019497061
396 R* Optimizer Validation and Performance Evaluation for Local Queries 1986 SIGMOD 0.00019119719
568 Towards a Robust Query Optimizer: A Principled and Practical Approach 2005 SIGMOD 0.00016221103
881 Dynamic Programming Strikes Back 2008 SIGMOD 0.0001324243
1,061 Lightweight Graphical Models for Selectivity Estimation Without Independence Assumptions 2011 VLDB 0.00012207625
1,604 The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer 2010 VLDB 0.00010086711
1,896 CS2: A New Database Synopsis for Query Estimation 2013 SIGMOD 9.4010932e-05
1,935 Consistently Estimating the Selectivity of Conjuncts of Predicates 2005 VLDB 9.3407959e-05
1,987 Plan Bouquets: Query Processing without Selectivity Estimation 2014 SIGMOD 9.2323722e-05
2,248 Cache-Efficient Aggregation: Hashing Is Sorting 2015 SIGMOD 8.7484225e-05
2,261 Counter Strike: Generic Top-Down Join Enumeration for Hypergraphs 2013 VLDB 8.7351549e-05
2,527 Adaptive and Big Data Scale Parallel Execution in Oracle 2013 VLDB 8.3243069e-05
2,888 Query Optimizers: Time to Rethink the Contract? 2009 SIGMOD 7.8895201e-05
3,361 Exact Cardinality Query Optimization for Optimizer Testing 2009 VLDB 7.3621595e-05
3,807 Query Simplification: Graceful Degradation for Join-Order Optimization 2009 SIGMOD 6.9902343e-05
4,048 Of Snowstorms and Bushy Trees 2014 VLDB 6.817438e-05
6,816 ROX: Run-time Optimization of XQueries 2009 SIGMOD 5.6593309e-05
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