Database Design

It walks you through the full workflow from entity design to migration deployment, with a strong emphasis on doing things correctly the first time. You get solid coverage of normalization principles, indexing strategies for different query patterns, N+1 detection across ORMs, and zero-downtime migration patterns. The EXPLAIN plan guidance and cursor-based pagination examples are especially practical. What I appreciate is the honest take on denormalization: it tells you to measure first, not denormalize on hunches. The connection pooling section gives you actual numbers instead of vague advice. Load this when you're designing schemas, hunting performance issues, or planning migrations that won't lock your tables.