Query Optimizers: Time to Rethink the Contract?

Summary: Rethinks the classic optimizer contract: fast, data-agnostic plan search with limited data insight. Proposes using rich usage signals and application input to guide optimization and calls for a research agenda to advance data-driven query optimization. (summarized by gpt-5-nano on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID: hdc34d082c0f5c793
Venue: SIGMOD
Year: 2009
Pagerank: 7.8895201e-05
Overall Rank: 2,888 | 80.65%
DOI: 10.1145/1559845.1559955

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. Surajit Chaudhuri (Microsoft)

BibTeX Citation

@inproceedings{chaudhuri_sigmod09,
        title = {{Query Optimizers: Time to Rethink the Contract?}},
        author = {Chaudhuri, Surajit},
        series = {{SIGMOD} '09},
        booktitle = {Proceedings of the {ACM} {SIGMOD} International Conference on Management of Data},
        publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
        doi = {10.1145/1559845.1559955},
        url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1559845.1559955},
        year = {2009}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 18 of 18 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
15	How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2016	VLDB	0.00061463175
690	Selectivity Estimation for Range Predicates using Lightweight Models	2019	VLDB	0.00014703258
1,282	AI Meets AI: Leveraging Query Executions to Improve Index Recommendations	2019	SIGMOD	0.00011197535
3,144	Solving the Join Ordering Problem via Mixed Integer Linear Programming	2017	SIGMOD	7.5846375e-05
3,212	Efficiently Approximating Selectivity Functions using Low Overhead Regression Models	2020	VLDB	7.5145409e-05
3,406	Variance Aware Optimization of Parameterized Queries	2010	SIGMOD	7.3151509e-05
3,606	Access Path Selection in Main-Memory Optimized Data Systems: Should I Scan or Should I Probe?	2017	SIGMOD	7.1528863e-05
4,726	Learned Index Benefits: Machine Learning Based Index Performance Estimation	2022	VLDB	6.4329878e-05
5,006	An Incremental Anytime Algorithm for Multi-Objective Query Optimization	2015	SIGMOD	6.3057396e-05
5,044	Analyzing the Impact of Cardinality Estimation on Execution Plans in Microsoft SQL Server	2023	VLDB	6.2888728e-05
5,062	Leveraging Query Logs and Machine Learning for Parametric Query Optimization	2022	VLDB	6.2791511e-05
5,223	Exact Cardinality Query Optimization with Bounded Execution Cost	2019	SIGMOD	6.210331e-05
5,245	FASTgres: Making Learned Query Optimizer Hinting Effective	2023	VLDB	6.1995935e-05
7,561	Learned Offline Query Planning via Bayesian Optimization	2025	SIGMOD	5.4784915e-05
7,975	Robust Query Processing: Mission Possible	2020	VLDB	5.3985544e-05
9,335	Rethink Query Optimization in HTAP Databases	2023	SIGMOD	5.1791475e-05
10,249	Turbo-Charging SPJ Query Plans with Learned Physical Join Operator Selections	2022	VLDB	5.0412674e-05
11,011	Ultron: History-Based Query Optimization at Databricks	2026	VLDB	4.9605343e-05

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 24 of 24 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
53	Eddies: Continuously Adaptive Query Processing	2000	SIGMOD	0.00040739114
57	On Random Sampling over Joins	1999	SIGMOD	0.0003999751
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
109	Extensible/Rule Based Query Rewrite Optimization in Starburst	1992	SIGMOD	0.00032702871
138	Join Synopses for Approximate Query Answering	1999	SIGMOD	0.00029532435
149	Efficient Mid-Query Re-Optimization of Sub-Optimal Query Execution Plans	1998	SIGMOD	0.00028910892
254	The History of Histograms (abridged)	2003	VLDB	0.00022999992
259	An Overview of Query Optimization in Relational Systems	1998	PODS	0.00022881075
287	Selectivity Estimation using Probabilistic Models	2001	SIGMOD	0.00022060616
291	Optimization of Dynamic Query Evaluation Plans	1994	SIGMOD	0.00021898776
396	R* Optimizer Validation and Performance Evaluation for Local Queries	1986	SIGMOD	0.00019119719
426	Cost-based Query Scrambling for Initial Delays	1998	SIGMOD	0.00018432573
457	Self-tuning Histograms: Building Histograms Without Looking at Data	1999	SIGMOD	0.00017915659
489	Randomized Algorithms For Optimizing Large Join Queries	1990	SIGMOD	0.00017402488
532	Automatic SQL Tuning in Oracle 10g	2004	VLDB	0.0001681305
568	Towards a Robust Query Optimizer: A Principled and Practical Approach	2005	SIGMOD	0.00016221103
646	Exploiting Statistics on Query Expressions for Optimization	2002	SIGMOD	0.00015166402
996	Analyzing Plan Diagrams of Database Query Optimizers	2005	VLDB	0.00012595827
1,935	Consistently Estimating the Selectivity of Conjuncts of Predicates	2005	VLDB	9.3407959e-05
3,142	Statistics on Views	2003	VLDB	7.5858292e-05
4,674	On the Production of Anorexic Plan Diagrams	2007	VLDB	6.4584193e-05
5,490	A Pay-As-You-Go Framework for Query Execution Feedback	2008	VLDB	6.0970166e-05

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#	Overall Rank	Paper	Year	Venue
1	7,619	On the Calculation of Optimality Ranges for Relational Query Execution Plans	2018	SIGMOD
2	646	Exploiting Statistics on Query Expressions for Optimization	2002	SIGMOD
3	3,050	Configuration-Parametric Query Optimization for Physical Design Tuning	2008	SIGMOD
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5	3,218	Implementing an Interpreter for Functional Rules in a Query Optimizer	1988	VLDB
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8	14,552	Query Optimization at the Crossroads	1997	SIGMOD
9	259	An Overview of Query Optimization in Relational Systems	1998	PODS
10	291	Optimization of Dynamic Query Evaluation Plans	1994	SIGMOD