diff --git a/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/DimensionDictionarySelector.java b/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/DimensionDictionarySelector.java
index a02c025b4b8..10cb4668535 100644
--- a/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/DimensionDictionarySelector.java
+++ b/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/DimensionDictionarySelector.java
@@ -47,7 +47,12 @@ public interface DimensionDictionarySelector
    * dimension selector has no dictionary, and avoid storing ids, calling "lookupId", or calling "lookupName"
    * outside of the context of operating on a single row.
    *
-   * @return the value cardinality, or -1 if unknown.
+   * If cardinality is known then it is assumed that underlying dictionary is lexicographically sorted by the encoded
+   * value.
+   * For example if there are values "A" , "B" , "C" in a column with cardinality 3 then it is assumed that
+   * id("A") < id("B") < id("C")
+   *
+   * @return the value cardinality, or {@link DimensionDictionarySelector#CARDINALITY_UNKNOWN} if unknown.
    */
   int getValueCardinality();
 
diff --git a/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/column/StringDictionaryEncodedColumn.java b/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/column/StringDictionaryEncodedColumn.java
index a76cc8a2140..c08a2db7a2a 100644
--- a/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/column/StringDictionaryEncodedColumn.java
+++ b/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/column/StringDictionaryEncodedColumn.java
@@ -121,6 +121,14 @@ public class StringDictionaryEncodedColumn implements DictionaryEncodedColumn<St
       @Override
       public int getValueCardinality()
       {
+        /*
+         This is technically wrong if
+         extractionFn != null && (extractionFn.getExtractionType() != ExtractionFn.ExtractionType.ONE_TO_ONE ||
+                                    !extractionFn.preservesOrdering())
+         However current behavior allows some GroupBy-V1 queries to work that wouldn't work otherwise and doesn't
+         cause any problems due to special handling of extractionFn everywhere.
+         See https://github.com/apache/incubator-druid/pull/8433
+         */
         return getCardinality();
       }