Doltgres, a version-controlled SQL database, faced a performance regression due to the inclusion of system tables in its pg_catalog. The author utilized Go's pprof tool to visualize performance differences between code branches, ultimately identifying and fixing a bug that was causing unnecessary overhead in fetching table names. This fix not only resolved the slowdown but also improved overall performance benchmarks.

Understanding software performance often requires profiling to determine where code execution time is spent. Go offers built-in profiling tools and the article explains how to use flame graphs to visualize profiling data, helping developers identify performance bottlenecks effectively.