Book excerpt: In this book you will find both examples and theoretical concepts covered. Every recipe is based on a script/procedure explained step-by-step, with screenshots, while theoretical concepts are explained in the context of the recipe, to explain why a solution performs better than another. This book is aimed at software developers, software and data architects, and DBAs who are using or are planning to use the Oracle Database, who have some experience and want to solve performance problems faster and in a rigorous way. If you are an architect who wants to design better applications, a DBA who is keen to dig into the causes of performance issues, or a developer who wants to learn why and where the application is running slow, this is the book for you. Basic knowledge of SQL language is required and general knowledge of the Oracle Database architecture is preferable.