Columnar Storage and Query Optimization
Completed by Vaibhav Khanduja
August 27, 2026
10 hours (approximately)
Vaibhav Khanduja's account is verified. Coursera certifies their successful completion of Columnar Storage and Query Optimization
What you will learn
Explain how data is stored, distinguish row vs columnar storage, and identify performance advantages of columnar formats
Work with Parquet and ORC formats, query columnar data using DuckDB, and compare storage performance against CSV
Read SQL execution plans using EXPLAIN, diagnose bottlenecks, and compare query performance across different engines
Apply optimization techniques including column pruning, filter pushdown, partitioning, and data skipping for analytics
Skills you will gain
- Category: Data Processing
- Category: Databases
- Category: Database Software
- Category: Data Storage Technologies
- Category: Performance Tuning
- Category: Query Languages
- Category: Database Management
- Category: Data Access
- Category: Data Import/Export
- Category: SQL
- Category: Metadata Management
- Category: Data Warehousing

