How prefetch_related and Other Optimization Techniques Work in Django ORM

Django’s Object-Relational Mapper (ORM) is one of its most powerful features, allowing developers to interact with databases using Python code instead of writing raw SQL queries. However, as your application grows, inefficient database queries can become a bottleneck. This is where optimization techniques like prefetch_related, select_related, and others come into play.

In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into how Django ORM works, explore the differences between prefetch_related and select_related, and discuss other optimization techniques to make your Django application faster and more efficient.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Django ORM
2. The N+1 Problem
3. Understanding select_related
4. Understanding prefetch_related
5. When to Use prefetch_related vs select_related
6. Other Optimization Techniques
   • only() and defer()
   • annotate() and aggregate()
   • values() and values_list()
7. Best Practices for ORM Optimization
8. Conclusion

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