Disclosed herein are systems and methods for efficiently querying external tables. In an embodiment, a database platform receives a query that is directed at least in part to external data in an external table stored on a data storage platform that is external to the database platform. The external table includes a plurality of partitions. The database platform identifies, from external-table metadata, a subset of the plurality of partitions of the external table as including data that potentially satisfies the query. The external-table metadata is stored by the database platform. The database platform identifies data that satisfies the query by scanning the identified subset of the partitions, and responds to the query at least in part with the identified data that satisfies the query.