MySQL indexes Laravel

 Indexes improve lookup performance by allowing MySQL to locate rows more efficiently.

Example:

$table->index('email');
$table->index(['user_id', 'status']);

A composite index:

INDEX(user_id, status)

can be useful for:

WHERE user_id = ?
AND status = ?

Important interview point

Indexes aren't free.

They:

• consume storage

• increase write/update cost

• require maintenance

• can be useless if poorly designed

I verify indexing decisions using:

EXPLAIN SELECT ...

For example:

EXPLAIN
SELECT *
FROM orders
WHERE user_id = 10
AND status = 'paid';

I would inspect the execution plan rather than adding indexes blindly.