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Unmasking N+1 Queries - Laravel In Practice EP5
Your dashboard loads, but something feels off. The data is correct, the code looks clean, but users are complaining about speed. What if I told you that your seemingly simple dashboard is secretly hammering your database with hundreds of unnecessary queries?
In this episode of Laravel In Practice, I show you how to profile your Laravel application and uncover hidden performance killers. You'll learn to install and configure Laravel Telescope to see exactly what's happening behind the scenes, identify N+1 query problems that silently destroy performance, and understand why that innocent-looking dashboard is making more than 400 database queries.
The result? You'll discover shocking performance bottlenecks you never knew existed. Your 150ms page load isn't because of complex calculations - it's because of preventable database issues. You'll see exactly which queries are running, how many times they're being called, and why your database is working 100x harder than it needs to.
This kicks off our Performance Optimization part of Laravel In Practice, building on the reporting system from Episodes 1-4. That beautiful code we wrote? It works, but it's secretly inefficient. Now you'll learn to spot these problems before your users do, using real profiling tools instead of guessing what's slow.
Whether you're debugging a slow dashboard, investigating customer complaints, or just curious about your app's performance, these profiling techniques reveal the truth. Telescope shows you the full story - every query, every model load, every cache hit. You'll create benchmarks that measure real performance, not assumptions.
The profiling strategies we implement here set the foundation for the dramatic optimizations coming in the next episodes.