MySql 8.0 Read Speed - php

Question

I'm in need of some expertise here, I have a massive SQL database that I use in conjunction with my Mobile app I program. I'm getting some very long times to fetch a result from the database, at times upwards of 20 to 25 seconds. I've managed to increase the speed and it is were it is now from 40 seconds to retrieve a result. I am hoping someone may have some insight on how I can speed up the query speed and return a result faster then 20 seconds.
Main table is 4 columns + 1 for the "id" column, the database contains 15,254,543 rows of data. Currently it is setup as an InnoDB, with 4 indexes, and it about 1.3GB for size.
My server is a GoDaddy VPS, 1 CPU, with 4 GB of Ram. The is dedicated and I do not share resources with anyone else, its only purpose beside a very basic website is the SQL database.
Just to note, the database record count is not going to get any larger, I really just need to figure out a better way to return a query faster then 20 seconds.
In more detail, the Android app connects to my website via a php document to query and return the results, I have a thought that there maybe a better way to go about this and this maybe were the pitfall is. An interesting note is that when I'm in PHP My Admin, I can do a search and get a result back in under 3 seconds, which also points me to the issue might be in my php document. Here is the php document below that I wrote to do the work.
<?php
require "conn.php";
$FSC = $_POST["FSC"];
$PART_NUMBER = $_POST["NIIN"];
$mysql_qry_1 = "select * from MyTable where PART_NUMBER like '$PART_NUMBER';";
$result_1 = mysqli_query($conn ,$mysql_qry_1);
if(mysqli_num_rows($result_1) > 0) {
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result_1);
$PART_NUMBER = $row["PART_NUMBER"];
$FSC = $row["FSC"];
$NIIN = $row["NIIN"];
$ITEM_NAME = $row["ITEM_NAME"];
echo $ITEM_NAME, ",>" .$PART_NUMBER, ",>" .$FSC, "" .$NIIN;
//usage stats
$sql = "INSERT INTO USAGE_STATS (ITEM_NAME, FSC, NIIN, PART_NUMBER)
VALUES ('$ITEM_NAME', '$FSC', '$NIIN', '$PART_NUMBER')";
if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
$row = mysqli_insert_id($conn);
} else {
//do nothing
}
//
} else {
echo "NO RESULT CHECK TO ENSURE CORRECT PART NUMBER WAS ENTERED ,> | ,>0000000000000";
}
$mysql_qry_2 = "select * from MYTAB where FSC like '$FSC' and NIIN like '$NIIN';";
$result_2 = mysqli_query($conn ,$mysql_qry_2);
if(mysqli_num_rows($result_2) > 0) {
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result_2);
$AD_PART_NUMBER = $row["PART_NUMBER"];
if(mysqli_num_rows($result_2) > 1){
echo ",>";
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result_2)) {
$AD_PART_NUMBER = $row["PART_NUMBER"];
echo $AD_PART_NUMBER, ", ";
}
} else {
echo ",> | NO ADDITIONAL INFO FOUND | ";
}
} else {
echo ",> | NO ADDITIONAL INFO FOUND | ";
}
mysqli_close($con);
?>
So my question here is how can I improve the read speed with the available resources I have or is there an issue with my current PHP document that is causing the bottle neck here?

Answer 1

Instead of using LIKE you would get much faster reads by selecting a specific column that was indexed.
SELECT * FROM table_name FORCE INDEX (index_list) WHERE condition;
The other thing that speeds up Mysql greatly is the use of an SSD drive on the VPS server. A SSD drive will greatly decrease the amount of time it takes to scan a database that large.