--- title: How to Fix N+1 Queries in Rails Like a Pro | daily.dev description: N+1 queries are a common Rails performance killer where fetching associated records in a loop triggers hundreds of redundant database calls. The fix is eager... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-fix-n-1-queries-in-rails-like-a-pro-bdttomg9q twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How to Fix N+1 Queries in Rails Like a Pro | daily.dev og:description: N+1 queries are a common Rails performance killer where fetching associated records in a loop triggers hundreds of redundant database calls. The fix is eager... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-fix-n-1-queries-in-rails-like-a-pro-bdttomg9q og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/bDtTOmg9Q.png og:image:alt: How to Fix N+1 Queries in Rails Like a Pro og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How to Fix N+1 Queries in Rails Like a Pro **[Ruby Flow](https://daily.dev/sources/rubyflow)** · 6 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary N+1 queries are a common Rails performance killer where fetching associated records in a loop triggers hundreds of redundant database calls. The fix is eager loading via ActiveRecord's `.includes` method, which pre-fetches all related data in one or two queries instead of one per record. For nested associations, pass a hash to `.includes`. Under the hood, Rails has three eager loading strategies: `.preload` (two separate queries), `.eager_load` (a single LEFT OUTER JOIN, required when filtering on the joined table), and `.includes` (smart default that picks between the two). To catch N+1 bugs before they reach production, enable `strict_loading_by_default` in development, which raises an error the moment a lazy-loaded association is accessed. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Speed Up Your Rails App by Squashing N\+1 Queries](https://daily.dev/posts/speed-up-your-rails-app-by-squashing-n-1-queries-ptt97gwbo) · Hashrocket · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The N\+1 Query Problem in Active Record](https://daily.dev/posts/the-n-1-query-problem-in-active-record-yh0vscveu) · Ruby Flow · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why N\+1 Queries Are a Natural Result of Lazy Loading](https://daily.dev/posts/why-n-1-queries-are-a-natural-result-of-lazy-loading-b9boclvq7) · Ruby Flow · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#rails](https://daily.dev/tags/rails) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-fix-n-1-queries-in-rails-like-a-pro-bdttomg9q) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How to Fix N+1 Queries in Rails Like a Pro","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-fix-n-1-queries-in-rails-like-a-pro-bdttomg9q","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-fix-n-1-queries-in-rails-like-a-pro-bdttomg9q"},"datePublished":"2026-04-12T05:28:47.123Z","dateModified":"2026-04-12T05:29:11.700Z","description":"N+1 queries are a common Rails performance killer where fetching associated records in a loop triggers hundreds of redundant database calls. 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