14 Best Practices to Tune BigQuery SQL Performance

Make your query run fast like Ferrari, but cheap like Honda.

Data pipelines are analogous to plumbing — we need to fix the leaks before it breaks. Image by Elf-Moondance from Pixabay.

Poorly optimized SQL queries are like cracks on the lining of plumbing — barely keeping the water in. When the water pressure is low, there are minor leaks but everything still works. The nightmare begins when we amp up the load. The cracks, once negligible, now burst wide open…