GraphAcademy
Course

Neo4j Management, Optimization, and Refactoring Workshop

Instructor-led Neo4j workshop on Aura administration, backups, metrics, Cypher query tuning with PROFILE, indexes, and graph model refactoring.

4 hours21 lessons across 4 modules
Developing Practitioner Skills in Neo4j
About this workshop

In this 4-hour workshop, you will learn

Neo4j Management, Optimization, and Refactoring is a hands-on Neo4j workshop for practitioners who already run queries against a graph and want them to run well. Over four hours you create your own Neo4j Aura instanceA single Neo4j database running in Aura., load the Northwind dataset, and use it to practise the three disciplines that keep a production graph healthy: administering the database, tuning slow CypherNeo4j's implementation of GQL, the ISO standard query language for graph databases. It is declarative: you describe the pattern to find, and the database decides how to find it. queries, and refactoring the model itself.

The workshop is built to accompany an instructor-led session, and this course is your companion for it. Every exercise runs against your own Aura instance, so the queries you profile, the metrics you read, and the refactoring you apply all happen on a database you control and keep after the session. If you were not at the live event, the material stands on its own and you can complete it at your own pace. What sets it apart from an introductory course is its focus on why a database behaves the way it does: you do not just learn that indexes make queries faster, you profile a query, count the database hits, add the index, and profile it again to see the difference.

  • Neo4j Database Management

    Configure and administer Neo4j Aura instances, manage backups, and apply operational best practices to keep your database healthy and available.

  • Aura Monitoring and Metrics

    Explore Aura's built-in monitoring tools to track query performance, memory usage, and cluster health, then act on the metrics you collect.

  • Cypher Query Optimization

    Use PROFILE and EXPLAIN to diagnose slow queries, identify missing indexes, and rewrite Cypher statements to run faster at scale.

  • Graph Database Refactoring

    Apply proven refactoring patterns to restructure an existing graph model, improving query efficiency and aligning the schema with evolving business requirements.

Before you start

What you need to take part.

  • A GraphAcademy account

    The workshop is delivered here on GraphAcademy, so you need to be signed in to work through the lessons and keep your progress. Creating an account is free.

    Sign in or create an account

Course content

4 modules, 4 hours.

  1. 3 lessons
    1. Setup Aura5 min
    2. Aura Overview5 min
    3. Northwind Data Set5 min
  2. 6 lessons
    1. Managing Organizations, Projects, and Instances5 min
    2. Database Backup & Restore5 min
    3. Accessing and Understanding Logs5 min
    4. Viewing your metrics5 min
    5. Memory Usage5 min
    6. Database Store Size Management5 min
  3. 7 lessons
    1. Cypher Query Lifecycle5 min
    2. Analyzing Query Performance5 min
    3. Query Good Practice5 min
    4. Indexes5 min
    5. Count Store5 min
    6. Breaking down complex queries with WITH5 min
    7. Investigate5 min
  4. 5 lessons
    1. Why refactor?5 min
    2. Adding specific node labels5 min
    3. Indirect relationships between nodes5 min
    4. Normalizing a property to a node5 min
    5. Challenge: Refactor the graph5 min

  • Who this workshop is for

    This workshop is for developers, data engineers, and administrators who have moved past their first Neo4j project and now care about performance and operations. If you have written CypherNeo4j's implementation of GQL, the ISO standard query language for graph databases. It is declarative: you describe the pattern to find, and the database decides how to find it. that works but feels slow, inherited a graph model you suspect could be better, or become responsible for an Aura instanceA single Neo4j database running in Aura. and want to understand its logs, metrics, and backups, this workshop is aimed at you. It is not a beginner course: you should have completed Neo4j Fundamentals and Cypher Fundamentals, or be able to read and write Cypher MATCH patterns without help.

  • What you'll do

    You start by provisioning an Aura instanceA single Neo4j database running in Aura. and importing the Northwind dataset, which gives every later exercise a realistic graph of products, orders, and customers to work against. No local installation is required.

    On the administration side, you manage organizations, projects, and instances in the AuraNeo4j's fully managed cloud service. console, take and restore backups, read logs and metrics, and learn how Neo4j uses memory. On the performance side, you follow a CypherNeo4j's implementation of GQL, the ISO standard query language for graph databases. It is declarative: you describe the pattern to find, and the database decides how to find it. query through its lifecycle, use EXPLAIN and PROFILE to inspect query plans and count database hits, create indexes, exploit the count store, and break down complex queries with WITH before investigating a slow query yourself. Finally, you refactor the graph: adding more specific nodeA vertex in a graph. In a property graph it can carry labels and properties. labelsA tag on a node that groups it with other nodes of the same kind. A node can carry more than one., materialising indirect relationshipsA named, directed connection between two nodes. Every relationship has a type, a start node and an end node., and promoting propertiesA named value stored on a node or a relationship. to nodes, finishing with a challenge in which you refactor the model on your own.

  • Where to go next

    To go deeper on performance, take Cypher Indexes and Constraints and Intermediate Cypher Queries. For the operational side, Neo4j Aura Administration expands on managing instances and backups, while Graph Data Modeling Fundamentals formalises the refactoring instincts from the final module. The schedule of upcoming instructor-led sessions is on the workshops page.