High-Performance Entity Framework Core 10: Optimize Queries, Data Access, and Database Performance for Scalable Production .NET Applications

Your Entity Framework Core application may work perfectly with a small database—but what happens when data grows, traffic increases, queries slow down, and production users begin feeling the delay?

High-Performance Entity Framework Core 10 gives .NET developers a practical, step-by-step guide to finding and fixing EF Core performance problems with evidence instead of guesswork.

You do not need prior experience with indexing, execution plans, benchmarking, connection pooling, concurrency, or database diagnostics. If you already understand basic C#, LINQ, DbContext, relationships, migrations, and CRUD, this book will guide you progressively into professional EF Core performance engineering.

Using the realistic FulfilmentOps application, you will learn how to inspect generated SQL, diagnose bottlenecks, reduce unnecessary database work, improve query design, optimize high-volume operations, and validate every change through measurement.

Mistakes and unexpected results are treated as part of the learning process. Each chapter builds confidence through small, measurable improvements that show not only what to optimize, but why it works.

Key Features

• Practical coverage of Entity Framework Core 10 and .NET 10

• Step-by-step optimization using a realistic cumulative application

• LINQ query optimization, projections, tracking, and N+1 troubleshooting

• Keyset pagination, sargable queries, indexing, and SQL execution plans

• High-performance writes with batching, ExecuteUpdate, and ExecuteDelete

• DbContext pooling, compiled queries, concurrency, transactions, and retries

• BenchmarkDotNet, OpenTelemetry, logging, tracing, and load testing

• Checklists, review questions, exercises, and troubleshooting references

What You Will Learn

• Measure and diagnose EF Core performance

• Inspect generated SQL and database commands

• Design efficient read queries and projections

• Detect and eliminate N+1 queries

• Choose effective relationship-loading strategies

• Implement scalable keyset pagination

• Design and evaluate SQL Server indexes

• Read seeks, scans, lookups, joins, and sorts

• Optimize SaveChanges and high-volume writes

• Reduce EF Core runtime overhead

• Handle concurrency, transactions, retries, and idempotency

• Trace application requests to database operations

• Apply a repeatable Measure–Diagnose–Optimize–Validate workflow

Who This Book Is For

This book is ideal for C# and .NET developers, backend developers, software engineers, students, and self-learners who already understand basic Entity Framework Core and want to build faster, more scalable, production-ready data access.

No previous database performance-tuning experience is required.

Table of Contents

1. Measuring and Diagnosing EF Core Performance

2. Designing Efficient Read Queries

3. Optimizing Relationships and Related Data

4. Scaling Search and Pagination

5. Indexing and Query Execution Plans

6. Engineering High-Performance Writes

7. Reducing EF Core Runtime Overhead

8. Concurrency, Transactions, and Resilience

9. Diagnostics, Observability, and Performance Testing

10. Production EF Core Performance Engineering

Stop guessing why your EF Core application is slow. Start measuring, diagnosing, optimizing, and validating with confidence.

Build faster, more scalable .NET data access—one practical improvement at a time.