Explain index maintenance: fragmentation, page splits, fillfactor, and when to rebuild versus reorganize.

Problem Statement

Explanation

Frequent random inserts or deletes fragment leaf pages, causing extra I/O. Page splits occur when an insertion lands in a full page and the engine splits it, which adds log volume and can cascade. Lowering fillfactor leaves free space to absorb new rows in hot ranges and reduces splits. Reorganize (or REINDEX concurrently) when fragmentation is moderate and uptime matters. Rebuild when fragmentation is severe, statistics are off, or you must change index definition or fillfactor. Schedule maintenance off-peak and monitor write pressure so benefit outweighs the cost.

Code Solution

SolutionRead Only

-- SQL Server examples
ALTER INDEX ix ON t REORGANIZE;
ALTER INDEX ix ON t REBUILD WITH (FILLFACTOR = 90);

Practice Sets

This question appears in the following practice sets:

Indexing Strategies & Access Paths

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Explain index maintenance: fragmentation, page splits, fillfactor, and when to rebuild versus reorganize.

Problem Statement

Explanation

Code Solution

Practice Sets

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Master Interviews Anywhere, Anytime

Explain index maintenance: fragmentation, page splits, fillfactor, and when to rebuild versus reorganize.

Problem Statement

Explanation

Code Solution

Practice Sets

Related Questions

Which SQL statement retrieves all columns and rows from a table named employees?

Which clause filters rows before aggregation and affects which rows are grouped?

What is the default sort order when ORDER BY is used without ASC or DESC?

Which construct is commonly used to paginate results in SQL engines like Postgres and MySQL?

Which predicate correctly checks for missing values in standard SQL?

More from SQL & Databases

Master Interviews
Anywhere, Anytime