The 100-million-row challenge
Written on 2026-02-24Join over 14k subscribers on my mailing list. I write about PHP news, share programming content from across the web, keep you up to date about what's happening on this blog, my work on Tempest, and more.
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Hi
A month ago, I went on a performance quest, trying to optimize a PHP script that took 5 days to run. Together with the help of many talented developers, I eventually got it to run in under 30 seconds. This optimization process with so much fun, and so many people pitched in with their ideas; so I eventually decided I wanted to do something more.
That's why I built a performance challenge for the PHP community, and I invite you all to participate 😁
The goal of this challenge is to parse 100 million rows of data with PHP, as efficiently as possible. The challenge will run for about two weeks, and at the end there are some prizes for the best entries (amongst the prize is the very sought-after PhpStorm Elephpant, of which we only have a handful left).
So, are you ready to participate? Head over to the challenge repository and give it your best shot!
Hope to see your entry soon!
Brent