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Optimize Slow SQL Queries
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Optimize Slow SQL Queries

HardSQL · PostgreSQL

Problem

How would you optimize a slow-performing SQL query that retrieves data from multiple large tables?

Provide an optimized PostgreSQL query for the supplied schema and explain the execution-plan, indexing, filtering, join, and aggregation decisions. The result should report qualifying customer product totals for the first quarter of 2025.

Output

  1. One row per qualifying customer and top-two product, with customer_id, customer_name, product_name, product_revenue, customer_total_revenue, and product_rank
  2. Include only completed orders from 2025-01-01 through 2025-03-31, with at most two products per customer
  3. Order by customer_id, then product_rank, then product_id

Schema

customers
ColumnTypeDescription
customer_idPKINTUnique customer identifier
customer_nameVARCHAR(100)Customer display name
emailVARCHAR(255)Customer email address
orders
ColumnTypeDescription
order_idPKINTUnique order identifier
customer_idINTCustomer who placed the order
order_dateDATEDate the order was placed
statusVARCHAR(20)Order processing status
order_items
ColumnTypeDescription
order_item_idPKINTUnique order-line identifier
order_idINTOrder containing the item
product_idINTPurchased product
quantityINTNumber of units purchased
unit_priceNUMERIC(10,2)Price per unit at purchase time
products
ColumnTypeDescription
product_idPKINTUnique product identifier
product_nameVARCHAR(120)Product name
categoryVARCHAR(60)Product category
Tablescustomersordersorder_itemsproducts
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