Is asparagus staging still the most efficient method of staging?

Question

When I used to play a ton, I remember reading and hearing that the dry mass of fuel tanks in KSP is unrealisticly high, resulting in asparagus staging being more efficient than sequential staging by a large margin. Is this still the case in the full release?

Edit: reading the forums and old posts about asparagus staging jogged my memory, I remember that there were 2 major factors in making asparagus staging more efficient in practice: the aforementioned dry mass problem and also the crummy old drag model. Because total mass was (believed to be) the factor considered in drag, instead of the actual cross-section of the ship, asparagus staging was more efficient because it dropped mass much quicker than other staging techniques. I'll be doing some basic testing later, comparing the two, and I'll update with my results.

Answer 1

Just taking fuel efficiency into account, asparagus staging is the most efficient.

When taking drag into account, it may have some impact on what's most efficient depending air pressure and rocket design. This is however easier to get away with since KSP 1.0 with redesigned drag formulas.

Cost wise it might be cheaper to use solid boosters since these are very cheap to buy, but again, this might be a matter of purpose of the rocket since they cannot be turned off.

Disadvantages with Asparagus staging is that stability of the craft may be reduced, and that the tanks might collide with the craft when staging, compared to a rocket staging bottom-up.

More things might be taken into account and there might be more disadvantages than those listed.

Sources:

Kerbal Space Program Wiki

Kerbal Space Program Forum