diff --git a/iterator.go b/iterator.go
index f57cfa4c9..52542f909 100644
--- a/iterator.go
+++ b/iterator.go
@@ -717,10 +717,23 @@ func (it *Iterator) fill(item *Item) {
 func hasPrefix(it *Iterator) bool {
 	// We shouldn't check prefix in case the iterator is going in reverse. Since in reverse we expect
 	// people to append items to the end of prefix.
-	if !it.opt.Reverse && len(it.opt.Prefix) > 0 {
-		return bytes.HasPrefix(y.ParseKey(it.iitr.Key()), it.opt.Prefix)
+	if it.opt.Reverse || len(it.opt.Prefix) == 0 {
+		return true
 	}
-	return true
+	// iitr.Key() is the internal key = userKey + 8-byte ts. When len(Prefix) fits
+	// entirely within the userKey portion (len(key) >= len(Prefix)+8), then
+	// bytes.HasPrefix(internalKey, Prefix) is equivalent to
+	// bytes.HasPrefix(y.ParseKey(internalKey), Prefix) — the prefix can only
+	// match bytes that lie before the ts suffix. This elides one y.ParseKey
+	// (nil-check + sub + slice) per iterator Next on the hot dgraph rollup loop.
+	key := it.iitr.Key()
+	p := it.opt.Prefix
+	if len(key) >= len(p)+8 {
+		return bytes.HasPrefix(key, p)
+	}
+	// Prefix is longer than userKey — must reparse so we don't spuriously match
+	// against ts bytes.
+	return bytes.HasPrefix(y.ParseKey(key), p)
 }
 
 func (it *Iterator) prefetch() {
diff --git a/iterator_hasprefix_test.go b/iterator_hasprefix_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3c07378be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/iterator_hasprefix_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+/*
+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: © Hypermode Inc. <hello@hypermode.com>
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+
+package badger
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+// TestRegressionHasPrefixShortPrefixFallback covers the hasPrefix fallback
+// branch where the user-supplied prefix is longer than userKey (len(p) >
+// len(key)-8). The short-circuit "len(key) >= len(p)+8" must be false so we
+// take the ParseKey path and correctly return false (no spurious match
+// against ts bytes).
+func TestRegressionHasPrefixShortPrefixFallback(t *testing.T) {
+	runBadgerTest(t, nil, func(t *testing.T, db *DB) {
+		// userKey "z" sorts AFTER prefix "yy", so Seek(prefix) lands on it
+		// and hasPrefix is actually called. The internal key is "z"+8 ts
+		// bytes (9 bytes), strictly shorter than prefix(2)+8=10, forcing
+		// the ParseKey fallback branch.
+		txnSet(t, db, []byte("z"), []byte("v"), 0)
+
+		require.NoError(t, db.View(func(txn *Txn) error {
+			opt := DefaultIteratorOptions
+			opt.Prefix = []byte("yy") // 2 bytes, longer than userKey "z"
+			it := txn.NewIterator(opt)
+			defer it.Close()
+			count := 0
+			for it.Rewind(); it.Valid(); it.Next() {
+				count++
+			}
+			require.Equal(t, 0, count, "no key should match an over-long prefix")
+			return nil
+		}))
+	})
+}
+
+// TestRegressionHasPrefixFastPath covers the optimized hasPrefix path where
+// len(prefix) fits within userKey: it must still correctly identify matching
+// and non-matching keys, equivalent to the old ParseKey-based check.
+func TestRegressionHasPrefixFastPath(t *testing.T) {
+	runBadgerTest(t, nil, func(t *testing.T, db *DB) {
+		txnSet(t, db, []byte("alpha/1"), []byte("v"), 0)
+		txnSet(t, db, []byte("alpha/2"), []byte("v"), 0)
+		txnSet(t, db, []byte("beta/1"), []byte("v"), 0)
+
+		require.NoError(t, db.View(func(txn *Txn) error {
+			opt := DefaultIteratorOptions
+			opt.Prefix = []byte("alpha/")
+			it := txn.NewIterator(opt)
+			defer it.Close()
+			count := 0
+			for it.Rewind(); it.Valid(); it.Next() {
+				require.True(t, bytes.HasPrefix(it.Item().Key(), opt.Prefix))
+				count++
+			}
+			require.Equal(t, 2, count, "alpha/ should match both alpha/1 and alpha/2")
+			return nil
+		}))
+	})
+}