EVALUATING QUERY PERFORMANCE

An approach is provided for evaluating a performance of a query. A risk of selecting a low performance access path for a query is determined. The risk is determined to exceed a risk threshold. Based on the risk exceeding the risk threshold and using a machine learning optimizer, first costs of access paths for the query are determined. Using a cost-based database optimizer, second costs of the access paths are determined. Using a strong classifier operating on the first costs and the second costs, a final access path for the query is selected from the access paths.