Dynamic asynchronous traversals for distributed graph queries

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing one or more sequences of instructions that are configured to cause, when executed by one or more processors:

• executing, by a database server instance of a database management system, a query over graph data maintained in a graph database by the database management system;
• wherein the graph data comprises a plurality of vertices and a plurality of edges that represent relationships between the plurality of vertices;
• wherein the database server instance is implemented by a plurality of processing threads running on a computing device of the database management system;
• wherein said executing the query over the graph data comprises:
• a particular thread, of the plurality of processing threads, determining that there are less than a threshold number of intermediate results in one or more intermediate result queues;
• in response to determining that there are less than the threshold number of intermediate results in the one or more intermediate result queues:
• the particular thread using breadth-first traversal techniques to produce a set of intermediate results for the query, and
• the particular thread inserting the set of intermediate results into at least one intermediate result queue of the one or more intermediate result queues;
• after inserting the set of intermediate results into the at least one intermediate result queue, the particular thread using depth-first traversal techniques to produce one or more results for the query.