How to Optimize Indexing for Read-Heavy Workloads in MongoDB?

I am building a web application with a heavy read-to-write ratio in MongoDB. As our dataset grows, queries are taking longer to execute. What are the best practices for creating and optimizing indexes specifically for read-heavy workloads?

Key Indexing Strategies

To improve read performance, consider the following techniques:

• Use Compound Indexes: Position fields used for exact matches first, followed by range filters, and finally sort fields.
• Leverage Covered Queries: Ensure that all fields returned by the query are present in the index to avoid reading full documents from disk.
• Analyze Query Execution: Use the explain("executionStats") method to check if queries are performing collection scans.

Example: Creating a Compound Index

db.users.createIndex({
    "status": 1,
    "createdAt": -1
});

db.users.find({
    status: "active"
}).sort({
    createdAt: -1
});