What is a recommended approach to improve a performance bottleneck in a database query?

Rewriting the query for efficiency and optimizing it is a sound approach to address performance bottlenecks in a database query. This option allows for a targeted examination of how the query executes, including the way it accesses and processes data. By analyzing the execution plan and identifying inefficient joins, unused columns, or excessive calculations, the query can be refined to run more efficiently, using fewer resources and minimizing response times.

Optimizing the query may involve several techniques, such as adding appropriate indexes, restructuring joins, or utilizing more efficient filtering criteria. This can reduce the load on the database and speed up retrieval times, directly addressing performance issues.

The benefit of this approach is that it often leads to sustainable improvements without requiring additional resources. In contrast, just increasing server resources may only provide temporary relief and could lead to higher costs without addressing the underlying inefficiencies. While reducing the amount of data retrieved is also helpful, it may not always address the core performance problems as effectively as optimizing the query itself. Caching the entire database in memory, while beneficial for certain scenarios, isn't always practical or feasible and may not resolve all query optimization issues.