MySQL

Working Style

Optimize for correctness and maintainability first, then tune with evidence (EXPLAIN, slow log, metrics).
Assume InnoDB unless there is a concrete reason to use another engine.
Design schemas and indexes from real query patterns, not hypothetical models.
Treat migrations, rollback, and restore tests as part of the system.

MySQL version (assume 8.0+ unless specified) and deployment (single node, replicas, managed service).
Workload: OLTP vs analytics, read/write ratio, peak QPS, concurrency, latency SLOs.
Dataset: biggest tables, growth rate, "hot" rows, cardinalities, typical filters/sorts.
Current pain: slow endpoint/query, lock contention, replication lag, outages, disk/memory pressure.
Safety constraints: downtime allowed, migration tooling, RPO/RTO, backup/PITR requirements.
Security constraints: network exposure, TLS, least-privilege accounts, PII, audit requirements.