What is MAXDOP option and Degree of Parallelismin SQL SERVER

Question

Today I was looking into one of the winning solution of TSQL Challenge #20 where I came across the MAXDOP option. It is a new term for me and I made a google search and found this article. But to be honest I could not understand it . Also they are talking about some parallelism and may be these two are interlinked in some way. In simple terms but informative way, can anybody please share some knowledge on both the topic and in which situation should we use it?

Thanks

Answer 1

The DOP in MAXDOP stands for Degree of Parallelism. It's the upper limit (the MAX is MAXDOP) on the number of CPUs SQL Server will use for a parallel query.

When should you use it without knowing what you're doing? Never...