SQL Interview: 99 Table join order

This is a post in the SQL Interview series. These aren’t trick or gotcha questions, they’re just questions designed to scope out a candidate’s knowledge around SQL Server and Azure SQL Database.

Section: Development Level: Medium

Question:

You are writing a query that involves inner joins across five tables. Does the order of the tables within the query affect the query plan?

Answer:

No. SQL Server determines the best order for you to join the tables in.

Note that it is possible for you to tell SQL Server to join the tables in the order they are written, by applying the following query hint:

OPTION (FORCE ORDER)

While there are rare situations where it makes sense, generally, you should not add this hint.

2025-12-21