Django Performance Review

Review Django code for validated performance issues. Research the codebase to confirm issues before reporting. Report only what you can prove.

When to Use

• You need a Django performance review focused on verified ORM and query issues.
• The code likely has N+1 queries, unbounded querysets, missing indexes, or other database-driven bottlenecks.
• You want only provable performance findings, not speculative optimization advice.

Review Approach

1. Research first - Trace data flow, check for existing optimizations, verify data volume
2. Validate before reporting - Pattern matching is not validation
3. Zero findings is acceptable - Don't manufacture issues to appear thorough
4. Severity must match impact - If you catch yourself writing "minor" in a CRITICAL finding, it's not critical. Downgrade or skip it.

Impact Categories

Issues are organized by impact. Focus on CRITICAL and HIGH - these cause real problems at scale.

Priority 1: N+1 Queries (CRITICAL)

Impact: Each N+1 adds O(n) database round trips. 100 rows = 100 extra queries. 10,000 rows = timeout.

Rule: Prefetch related data accessed in loops

Validate by tracing: View → Queryset → Template/Serializer → Loop access

# PROBLEM: N+1 - each iteration queries profile
def user_list(request):
    users = User.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'users.html', {'users': users})

# Template:
# {% for user in users %}
#     {{ user.profile.bio }}  ← triggers query per user
# {% endfor %}

# SOLUTION: Prefetch in view
def user_list(request):
    users = User.objects.select_related('profile')
    return render(request, 'users.html', {'users': users})

Rule: Prefetch in serializers, not just views

DRF serializers accessing related fields cause N+1 if queryset isn't optimized.

# PROBLEM: SerializerMethodField queries per object
class UserSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    order_count = serializers.SerializerMethodField()

    def get_order_count(self, obj):
        return obj.orders.count()  # ← query per user

# SOLUTION: Annotate in viewset, access in serializer
class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    def get_queryset(self):
        return User.objects.annotate(order_count=Count('orders'))

class UserSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    order_count = serializers.IntegerField(read_only=True)

Rule: Model properties that query are dangerous in loops

# PROBLEM: Property triggers query when accessed
class User(models.Model):
    @property
    def recent_orders(self):
        return self.orders.filter(created__gte=last_week)[:5]

# Used in template loop = N+1

# SOLUTION: Use Prefetch with custom queryset, or annotate

Validation Checklist for N+1

• [ ] Traced data flow from view to template/serializer
• [ ] Confirmed related field is accessed inside a loop
• [ ] Searched codebase for existing select_related/prefetch_related
• [ ] Verified table has significant row count (1000+)
• [ ] Confirmed this is a hot path (not admin, not rare action)

Priority 2: Unbounded Querysets (CRITICAL)

Impact: Loading entire tables exhausts memory. Large tables cause OOM kills and worker restarts.

Rule: Always paginate list endpoints

# PROBLEM: No pagination - loads all rows
class UserListView(ListView):
    model = User
    template_name = 'users.html'

# SOLUTION: Add pagination
class UserListView(ListView):
    model = User
    template_name = 'users.html'
    paginate_by = 25

Rule: Use iterator() for large batch processing

# PROBLEM: Loads all objects into memory at once
for user in User.objects.all():
    process(user)

# SOLUTION: Stream with iterator()
for user in User.objects.iterator(chunk_size=1000):
    process(user)

Rule: Never call list() on unbounded querysets

# PROBLEM: Forces full evaluation into memory
all_users = list(User.objects.all())

# SOLUTION: Keep as queryset, slice if needed
users = User.objects.all()[:100]

Validation Checklist for Unbounded Querysets

• [ ] Table is large (10k+ rows) or will grow unbounded
• [ ] No pagination class, paginate_by, or slicing
• [ ] This runs on user-facing request (not background job with chunking)

Priority 3: Missing Indexes (HIGH)

Impact: Full table scans. Negligible on small tables, catastrophic on large ones.

Rule: Index fields used in WHERE clauses on large tables

# PROBLEM: Filtering on unindexed field
# User.objects.filter(email=email)  # full sc