diff --git a/pkg/sentry/platform/kvm/kvm.go b/pkg/sentry/platform/kvm/kvm.go
index d7dec72b1..e1d0218e9 100644
--- a/pkg/sentry/platform/kvm/kvm.go
+++ b/pkg/sentry/platform/kvm/kvm.go
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ type KVM struct {
 
 	platform.DoesOwnPageTables
 
+	platform.HottestSyscallsNotSpecified
+
 	// machine is the backing VM.
 	machine *machine
 }
diff --git a/pkg/sentry/platform/platform.go b/pkg/sentry/platform/platform.go
index 3e32d97de..fb11271b6 100644
--- a/pkg/sentry/platform/platform.go
+++ b/pkg/sentry/platform/platform.go
@@ -122,6 +122,16 @@ type Platform interface {
 
 	// SyscallFilters returns syscalls made exclusively by this platform.
 	SyscallFilters() seccomp.SyscallRules
+
+	// HottestSyscalls returns the list of syscall numbers that this platform
+	// calls most often, most-frequently-called first. No more than a dozen
+	// syscalls. Returning an empty or a nil slice is OK.
+	// This is used to produce a more efficient seccomp-bpf program that can
+	// check for the most frequently called syscalls first.
+	// What matters here is only the frequency at which a syscall is called,
+	// not the total amount of CPU time that is used to process it in the host
+	// kernel.
+	HottestSyscalls() []uintptr
 }
 
 // NoCPUPreemptionDetection implements Platform.DetectsCPUPreemption and
@@ -191,6 +201,15 @@ func (DoesNotOwnPageTables) OwnsPageTables() bool {
 	return false
 }
 
+// HottestSyscallsNotSpecified implements Platform.HottestSyscalls and does
+// not return any syscall as being hot.
+type HottestSyscallsNotSpecified struct{}
+
+// HottestSyscalls implements Platform.HottestSyscalls.
+func (HottestSyscallsNotSpecified) HottestSyscalls() []uintptr {
+	return nil
+}
+
 // MemoryManager represents an abstraction above the platform address space
 // which manages memory mappings and their contents.
 type MemoryManager interface {
diff --git a/pkg/sentry/platform/ptrace/ptrace.go b/pkg/sentry/platform/ptrace/ptrace.go
index 985d480be..0dd10f8be 100644
--- a/pkg/sentry/platform/ptrace/ptrace.go
+++ b/pkg/sentry/platform/ptrace/ptrace.go
@@ -208,6 +208,7 @@ type PTrace struct {
 	platform.NoCPUPreemptionDetection
 	platform.UseHostGlobalMemoryBarrier
 	platform.DoesNotOwnPageTables
+	platform.HottestSyscallsNotSpecified
 }
 
 // New returns a new ptrace-based implementation of the platform interface.
diff --git a/pkg/sentry/platform/systrap/systrap.go b/pkg/sentry/platform/systrap/systrap.go
index e5869845c..f1217602d 100644
--- a/pkg/sentry/platform/systrap/systrap.go
+++ b/pkg/sentry/platform/systrap/systrap.go
@@ -301,6 +301,7 @@ type Systrap struct {
 	platform.NoCPUPreemptionDetection
 	platform.UseHostGlobalMemoryBarrier
 	platform.DoesNotOwnPageTables
+	platform.HottestSyscallsNotSpecified
 
 	// memoryFile is used to create a stub sysmsg stack
 	// which is shared with the Sentry.
diff --git a/runsc/boot/filter/config_amd64.go b/runsc/boot/filter/config_amd64.go
index a56abad9b..447542ec1 100644
--- a/runsc/boot/filter/config_amd64.go
+++ b/runsc/boot/filter/config_amd64.go
@@ -44,3 +44,7 @@ func init() {
 func archFstatAtSysNo() uintptr {
 	return unix.SYS_NEWFSTATAT
 }
+
+func archSpecificHotSyscalls() []uintptr {
+	return nil // TODO(b/298726675): Populate.
+}
diff --git a/runsc/boot/filter/config_arm64.go b/runsc/boot/filter/config_arm64.go
index 778cb5fd9..0f22944df 100644
--- a/runsc/boot/filter/config_arm64.go
+++ b/runsc/boot/filter/config_arm64.go
@@ -44,3 +44,7 @@ func init() {
 func archFstatAtSysNo() uintptr {
 	return unix.SYS_FSTATAT
 }
+
+func archSpecificHotSyscalls() []uintptr {
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/runsc/boot/filter/dumpfilter/dumpfilter.go b/runsc/boot/filter/dumpfilter/dumpfilter.go
index 9328431ae..3c1459ee0 100644
--- a/runsc/boot/filter/dumpfilter/dumpfilter.go
+++ b/runsc/boot/filter/dumpfilter/dumpfilter.go
@@ -36,10 +36,11 @@ var (
 
 func main() {
 	flag.Parse()
-	rules, denyRules := filter.Rules(filter.Options{
+	opt := filter.Options{
 		Platform: &systrap.Systrap{},
 		NVProxy:  *nvproxy,
-	})
+	}
+	rules, denyRules := filter.Rules(opt)
 	insns, stats, err := seccomp.BuildProgram([]seccomp.RuleSet{
 		{
 			Rules:  denyRules,
@@ -49,10 +50,7 @@ func main() {
 			Rules:  rules,
 			Action: linux.SECCOMP_RET_ALLOW,
 		},
-	}, seccomp.ProgramOptions{
-		DefaultAction: linux.SECCOMP_RET_ERRNO,
-		BadArchAction: linux.SECCOMP_RET_ERRNO,
-	})
+	}, filter.SeccompOptions(opt))
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Warningf("%v", err)
 		os.Exit(1)
diff --git a/runsc/boot/filter/filter.go b/runsc/boot/filter/filter.go
index cc31f6a1a..762b8fd81 100644
--- a/runsc/boot/filter/filter.go
+++ b/runsc/boot/filter/filter.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package filter
 
 import (
+	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
 	"gvisor.dev/gvisor/pkg/log"
 	"gvisor.dev/gvisor/pkg/seccomp"
 	"gvisor.dev/gvisor/pkg/sentry/devices/accel"
@@ -37,7 +38,7 @@ type Options struct {
 	ControllerFD          int
 }
 
-// Rules returns the seccomp (rules, denyRules) to use for the Sentry.
+// Rules returns the seccomp rules and denyRules to use for the Sentry.
 func Rules(opt Options) (seccomp.SyscallRules, seccomp.SyscallRules) {
 	s := allowedSyscalls
 	s.Merge(controlServerFilters(opt.ControllerFD))
@@ -72,14 +73,40 @@ func Rules(opt Options) (seccomp.SyscallRules, seccomp.SyscallRules) {
 	}
 
 	s.Merge(opt.Platform.SyscallFilters())
-
 	return s, seccomp.DenyNewExecMappings
 }
 
+// SeccompOptions returns the seccomp program options to use for the filter.
+func SeccompOptions(opt Options) seccomp.ProgramOptions {
+	// futex(2) is unequivocally the most-frequently-used syscall by the
+	// Sentry across all platforms.
+	hotSyscalls := []uintptr{unix.SYS_FUTEX}
+	// ... Then comes the platform-specific hot syscalls which are typically
+	// part of the syscall interception hot path.
+	hotSyscalls = append(hotSyscalls, opt.Platform.HottestSyscalls()...)
+	// ... Then come a few syscalls that are frequent just from workloads in
+	// general.
+	hotSyscalls = append(hotSyscalls, archSpecificHotSyscalls()...)
+
+	// Now deduplicate them.
+	sysnoMap := make(map[uintptr]struct{}, len(hotSyscalls))
+	uniqueHotSyscalls := make([]uintptr, 0, len(hotSyscalls))
+	for _, sysno := range hotSyscalls {
+		if _, alreadyAdded := sysnoMap[sysno]; !alreadyAdded {
+			sysnoMap[sysno] = struct{}{}
+			uniqueHotSyscalls = append(uniqueHotSyscalls, sysno)
+		}
+	}
+
+	opts := seccomp.DefaultProgramOptions()
+	opts.HotSyscalls = uniqueHotSyscalls
+	return opts
+}
+
 // Install seccomp filters based on the given platform.
 func Install(opt Options) error {
 	rules, denyRules := Rules(opt)
-	return seccomp.Install(rules, denyRules, seccomp.DefaultProgramOptions())
+	return seccomp.Install(rules, denyRules, SeccompOptions(opt))
 }
 
 // Report writes a warning message to the log.
diff --git a/runsc/boot/filter/filter_bench_test.go b/runsc/boot/filter/filter_bench_test.go
index 1c66d10ad..894c50ac4 100644
--- a/runsc/boot/filter/filter_bench_test.go
+++ b/runsc/boot/filter/filter_bench_test.go
@@ -37,9 +37,10 @@ type Options struct {
 // BenchmarkSentrySystrap benchmarks the seccomp filters used by the Sentry
 // using the Systrap platform.
 func BenchmarkSentrySystrap(b *testing.B) {
-	rules, denyRules := filter.Rules(filter.Options{
+	opts := filter.Options{
 		Platform: &systrap.Systrap{},
-	})
+	}
+	rules, denyRules := filter.Rules(opts)
 	secbench.Run(b, secbench.BenchFromSyscallRules(
 		b,
 		"Postgres",
@@ -63,15 +64,17 @@ func BenchmarkSentrySystrap(b *testing.B) {
 		},
 		rules,
 		denyRules,
+		filter.SeccompOptions(opts),
 	))
 }
 
 // BenchmarkSentryKVM benchmarks the seccomp filters used by the Sentry
 // using the KVM platform.
 func BenchmarkSentryKVM(b *testing.B) {
-	rules, denyRules := filter.Rules(filter.Options{
+	opts := filter.Options{
 		Platform: &kvm.KVM{},
-	})
+	}
+	rules, denyRules := filter.Rules(opts)
 	secbench.Run(b, secbench.BenchFromSyscallRules(
 		b,
 		"Postgres",
@@ -93,14 +96,16 @@ func BenchmarkSentryKVM(b *testing.B) {
 		},
 		rules,
 		denyRules,
+		filter.SeccompOptions(opts),
 	))
 }
 
 func BenchmarkNVProxyIoctl(b *testing.B) {
-	rules, denyRules := filter.Rules(filter.Options{
+	opts := filter.Options{
 		Platform: &systrap.Systrap{},
 		NVProxy:  true,
-	})
+	}
+	rules, denyRules := filter.Rules(opts)
 	var sequences []secbenchdef.Sequence
 	if err := rules.ForSingleArgument(unix.SYS_IOCTL, 1, func(v seccomp.ValueMatcher) error {
 		if arg1Equal, isArg1Equal := v.(seccomp.EqualTo); isArg1Equal {
@@ -123,5 +128,6 @@ func BenchmarkNVProxyIoctl(b *testing.B) {
 		},
 		rules,
 		denyRules,
+		filter.SeccompOptions(opts),
 	))
 }
diff --git a/test/secbench/secbench.go b/test/secbench/secbench.go
index 7715b5349..72139d284 100644
--- a/test/secbench/secbench.go
+++ b/test/secbench/secbench.go
@@ -33,13 +33,22 @@ import (
 )
 
 // BenchFromSyscallRules returns a new Bench created from SyscallRules.
-func BenchFromSyscallRules(b *testing.B, name string, profile secbenchdef.Profile, rules seccomp.SyscallRules, denyRules seccomp.SyscallRules) secbenchdef.Bench {
+func BenchFromSyscallRules(b *testing.B, name string, profile secbenchdef.Profile, rules seccomp.SyscallRules, denyRules seccomp.SyscallRules, options seccomp.ProgramOptions) secbenchdef.Bench {
 	// If there is a rule allowing rt_sigreturn to be called,
 	// also add a rule for the stand-in syscall number instead.
 	if rules.Has(unix.SYS_RT_SIGRETURN) {
 		rules = rules.Copy()
 		rules.Set(uintptr(secbenchdef.RTSigreturn.Data(profile.Arch).Nr), rules.Get(unix.SYS_RT_SIGRETURN))
 	}
+	// Also replace it in the list of hottest syscalls.
+	for i, sysno := range options.HotSyscalls {
+		if sysno == unix.SYS_RT_SIGRETURN {
+			options.HotSyscalls[i] = uintptr(secbenchdef.RTSigreturn.Data(profile.Arch).Nr)
+		}
+	}
+
+	options.DefaultAction = linux.SECCOMP_RET_ERRNO
+	options.BadArchAction = linux.SECCOMP_RET_ERRNO
 	insns, buildStats, err := seccomp.BuildProgram([]seccomp.RuleSet{
 		{
 			Rules:  denyRules,
@@ -49,10 +58,7 @@ func BenchFromSyscallRules(b *testing.B, name string, profile secbenchdef.Profil
 			Rules:  rules,
 			Action: linux.SECCOMP_RET_ALLOW,
 		},
-	}, seccomp.ProgramOptions{
-		DefaultAction: linux.SECCOMP_RET_ERRNO,
-		BadArchAction: linux.SECCOMP_RET_ERRNO,
-	})
+	}, options)
 	if err != nil {
 		b.Fatalf("BuildProgram() failed: %v", err)
 	}