Answer
Dirty pages: modified in buffer pool but not yet persisted to disk.
Clean pages: identical to the disk version.
Checkpoints convert dirty pages to clean pages. Too many dirty pages increase recovery time and degrade performance.
Quick Answer
Dirty pages are buffer pool pages that have been modified but not yet written to disk. Clean pages are in sync with disk. CHECKPOINT flushes dirty pages. Tracking dirty vs. clean pages is how SQL Server knows exactly what needs to be written during a checkpoint and what needs to be redone after a crash.
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SugharaIQ Editorial Team
Verified Answer
This answer has been peer-reviewed by industry experts holding senior engineering roles to ensure technical accuracy and relevance for modern interview standards.
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Source: SugharaIQ