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: 7.9021718e-05
Overall Rank: 2,891 | 80.57%
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	0.00061066921
692	Selectivity Estimation for Range Predicates using Lightweight Models	2019	VLDB	0.00014741011
1,279	AI Meets AI: Leveraging Query Executions to Improve Index Recommendations	2019	SIGMOD	0.00011226878
3,139	Solving the Join Ordering Problem via Mixed Integer Linear Programming	2017	SIGMOD	7.6046928e-05
3,210	Efficiently Approximating Selectivity Functions using Low Overhead Regression Models	2020	VLDB	7.5363533e-05
3,396	Variance Aware Optimization of Parameterized Queries	2010	SIGMOD	7.3418098e-05
3,599	Access Path Selection in Main-Memory Optimized Data Systems: Should I Scan or Should I Probe?	2017	SIGMOD	7.1773938e-05
4,711	Learned Index Benefits: Machine Learning Based Index Performance Estimation	2022	VLDB	6.4573842e-05
4,980	An Incremental Anytime Algorithm for Multi-Objective Query Optimization	2015	SIGMOD	6.3293674e-05
5,022	Analyzing the Impact of Cardinality Estimation on Execution Plans in Microsoft SQL Server	2023	VLDB	6.3100988e-05
5,039	Leveraging Query Logs and Machine Learning for Parametric Query Optimization	2022	VLDB	6.3023214e-05
5,199	Exact Cardinality Query Optimization with Bounded Execution Cost	2019	SIGMOD	6.2327836e-05
5,241	FASTgres: Making Learned Query Optimizer Hinting Effective	2023	VLDB	6.2154384e-05
7,954	Robust Query Processing: Mission Possible	2020	VLDB	5.4190023e-05
8,332	Learned Offline Query Planning via Bayesian Optimization	2025	SIGMOD	5.3528188e-05
9,301	Rethink Query Optimization in HTAP Databases	2023	SIGMOD	5.1987909e-05
10,205	Turbo-Charging SPJ Query Plans with Learned Physical Join Operator Selections	2022	VLDB	5.0603873e-05
10,941	Ultron: History-Based Query Optimization at Databricks	2026	VLDB	4.9793485e-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	0.0023947656
53	Eddies: Continuously Adaptive Query Processing	2000	SIGMOD	0.00040860054
57	On Random Sampling over Joins	1999	SIGMOD	0.00040108301
91	On the Propagation of Errors in the Size of Join Results	1991	SIGMOD	0.0003475226
98	LEO - DB2's LEarning Optimizer	2001	VLDB	0.00034106982
109	Extensible/Rule Based Query Rewrite Optimization in Starburst	1992	SIGMOD	0.0003276959
138	Join Synopses for Approximate Query Answering	1999	SIGMOD	0.00029627449
149	Efficient Mid-Query Re-Optimization of Sub-Optimal Query Execution Plans	1998	SIGMOD	0.00028981723
255	The History of Histograms (abridged)	2003	VLDB	0.00022981861
272	An Overview of Query Optimization in Relational Systems	1998	PODS	0.00022509573
286	Selectivity Estimation using Probabilistic Models	2001	SIGMOD	0.0002211981
289	Optimization of Dynamic Query Evaluation Plans	1994	SIGMOD	0.0002196543
397	R* Optimizer Validation and Performance Evaluation for Local Queries	1986	SIGMOD	0.00019157058
424	Cost-based Query Scrambling for Initial Delays	1998	SIGMOD	0.0001848836
454	Self-tuning Histograms: Building Histograms Without Looking at Data	1999	SIGMOD	0.00017962189
487	Randomized Algorithms For Optimizing Large Join Queries	1990	SIGMOD	0.00017462723
529	Automatic SQL Tuning in Oracle 10g	2004	VLDB	0.00016866092
569	Towards a Robust Query Optimizer: A Principled and Practical Approach	2005	SIGMOD	0.00016245271
646	Exploiting Statistics on Query Expressions for Optimization	2002	SIGMOD	0.0001520859
996	Analyzing Plan Diagrams of Database Query Optimizers	2005	VLDB	0.00012634603
1,929	Consistently Estimating the Selectivity of Conjuncts of Predicates	2005	VLDB	9.3546057e-05
3,133	Statistics on Views	2003	VLDB	7.6127492e-05
4,657	On the Production of Anorexic Plan Diagrams	2007	VLDB	6.4824233e-05
5,470	A Pay-As-You-Go Framework for Query Execution Feedback	2008	VLDB	6.1182634e-05

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1	7,597	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	3,041	Configuration-Parametric Query Optimization for Physical Design Tuning	2008	SIGMOD
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5	3,209	Implementing an Interpreter for Functional Rules in a Query Optimizer	1988	VLDB
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8	14,507	Query Optimization at the Crossroads	1997	SIGMOD
9	272	An Overview of Query Optimization in Relational Systems	1998	PODS
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