Answer
JOINs are faster and used to combine related tables. Subqueries help structure logic but may be slower.
Quick Answer
Use JOIN when: both tables are large (optimizer handles it better), you need rows from both tables in output, the relationship is well-indexed. Use subquery when: you need a result from one table to filter another, readability improves, or using EXISTS for existence checks. Correlated subqueries are generally slow. In most cases, JOINs are faster than equivalent subqueries - prefer JOINs and check with EXPLAIN.
S
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