Direct-path inserts with reference partitioning?

There is no need to disable the foreign key. Direct-path inserts work with reference partitioning even though the documentation implies it should not.

The LOAD AS SELECT operation below demonstrates that direct-path inserts are used:

explain plan for insert /*+ append */ into child_table select 1 from dual;select * from table(dbms_xplan.display(format => 'basic'));Plan hash value: 2781518217--------------------------------------------------------| Id  | Operation                        | Name        |--------------------------------------------------------|   0 | INSERT STATEMENT                 |             ||   1 |  LOAD AS SELECT                  | CHILD_TABLE ||   2 |   OPTIMIZER STATISTICS GATHERING |             ||   3 |    FAST DUAL                     |             |--------------------------------------------------------

If direct-path inserts do not work with reference-partitioning it is because of one of the many other restrictions, such as triggers, a different foreign key, deferrable constraints, etc.

I would like to add one important detail. If you do direct path insert into a referenced partition table it will not only lock the 'child' table but it will also lock the 'parent' table.