Don't eager loading if unneeded for `FinderMethods#exists?`

Fixes #29025.

3 files changed, 6 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation.rb
index 5775eda5a5..333ad16e11 100644
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation.rb
@@ -269,8 +269,7 @@ module ActiveRecord
     # Returns true if there are no records.
     def empty?
       return @records.empty? if loaded?
-
-      limit_value == 0 || !exists?
+      !exists?
     end
 
     # Returns true if there are no records.
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation/finder_methods.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation/finder_methods.rb
index a1459c87c6..1d661fa8ed 100644
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation/finder_methods.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation/finder_methods.rb
@@ -307,9 +307,11 @@ module ActiveRecord
         MSG
       end
 
-      return false if !conditions
+      return false if !conditions || limit_value == 0
+
+      relation = self unless eager_loading?
+      relation ||= apply_join_dependency(self, construct_join_dependency(eager_loading: false))
 
-      relation = apply_join_dependency(self, construct_join_dependency(eager_loading: false))
       return false if ActiveRecord::NullRelation === relation
 
       relation = construct_relation_for_exists(relation, conditions)
diff --git a/activerecord/test/cases/associations/eager_test.rb b/activerecord/test/cases/associations/eager_test.rb
index 11f4aae5b3..36238dd088 100644
--- a/activerecord/test/cases/associations/eager_test.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/cases/associations/eager_test.rb
@@ -1363,6 +1363,7 @@ class EagerAssociationTest < ActiveRecord::TestCase
     assert_nothing_raised do
       authors(:david).essays.includes(:writer).any?
       authors(:david).essays.includes(:writer).exists?
+      authors(:david).essays.includes(:owner).where("name IS NOT NULL").exists?
     end
   end