How I Cut an 8‑Second SQL Query to 0.7 Seconds: Step‑by‑Step Optimization
This article walks through a real‑world case of a slow MySQL query that took 8 seconds, explains how the original use of EXISTS and NOT EXISTS caused performance bottlenecks, and details two successive rewrites—first using JOIN + GROUP BY, then replacing NOT EXISTS with NOT IN—bringing execution time down to 0.7 seconds while highlighting key indexing and testing lessons.
