Meet the SQL Server Query Optimizer

Kendra Little | March 11, 2024

Meet the SQL Server Query Optimizer, the brain behind every query execution plan. This clever optimizer analyzes your queries and decides the best way to execute them, choosing join operators, index usage, and execution strategies.

Thanks to Erik Darling for pointing out that it needed a little teeth.

Copyright (c) 2025, Catalyze SQL, LLC; all rights reserved. Opinions expressed on this site are solely those of Kendra Little of Catalyze SQL, LLC. Content policy: Short excerpts of blog posts (3 sentences) may be republished, but longer excerpts and artwork cannot be shared without explicit permission.