A query explain plan is described for use with a distributed data system in order to help developers and IT experts to detect bottlenecks and to determine which queries are to blame for a slow running system. In accordance with an embodiment, the distributed data grid utilizes a facility to provide a distributed explain plan. This distributed explain plan provides visibility into how a query was answered by each node in the cluster. For example, one node may have applied the filters of the query in one sequence, while another node may have used a different sequence. Additionally, the distributed query explain plan can provide execution tracing, rendering information about the execution time of each step, total execution time and the like.