Described is a technology by which a database management system more efficiently processes read requests than write requests for a read-mostly database table, which is a database table that is generally read far more often than written. A lock partitioning mechanism may be implemented to provide a read lock for each CPU of a plurality of CPUs, in which only one read lock is acquired to process a read request. A database table state changing mechanism may be implemented that more efficiently processes read requests relative to write requests by maintaining the database table in a read-only state until a write request is processed. When a write request is received, the database table is changed to a read-write state to process the write request. The database table is then reset back to a read-only state, such as by running a background thread.