Bottleneck Typical symptoms Common fixes
Database queries and indexing Slow queries, high CPU usage, timeouts Optimize queries, add or remove indexes
Slow disk I/O Slowness even when CPU is low, delays during heavy writes Use faster storage, reduce heavy write operations
Network latency Delays between app and database, inconsistent response times Reduce network round trips, optimize network setup
Locking and concurrency Random slowdowns, queries waiting on other queries Shorter transactions, better isolation levels
Scaling and load limitations Performance drops under load, spikes cause failures Horizontal scaling, load balancing
Resource contention Unpredictable performance, sudden spikes Allocate resources, tune competing workloads
Inefficient data models Complex queries, many joins, hard to optimize Review schema, avoid over-normalization
Unoptimized data retrieval Slow pages, high memory usage Pagination, fetch only needed columns
Denormalization issues Data duplication, increased complexity Careful and intentional denormalization
Inadequate caching Repeated database load, slow repeated actions Add database or application-level caching
Security and authentication Latency during authentication or authorization Optimize authentication mechanisms
Long transactions Blocking, cascading slowdowns Split transactions, commit earlier
Monitoring and tuning gaps Issues discovered late, unclear root causes Add monitoring, query analysis, alerts
Database maintenance Gradual performance degradation Regular maintenance and cleanup
Hardware limitations Constant resource saturation Upgrade or resize hardware