What are replication, sharding and partitioning?

SQL indexes, transactions and performance · Experienced

Model answer

Replication copies data to other servers for read scaling and failover. Partitioning splits a large table into parts inside one database, often by date. Sharding splits data across several database servers by a key. Each adds complexity, so exhaust indexing and query tuning first.

Learn this topic

Indexes and Faster Queries: EXPLAIN for Beginners in the course SQL for Beginners: Learn Databases Step by Step.

Sign in to add your own answer.

More questions

• What is an index and why use it?
• What is a transaction?
• What does ACID mean?
• What is the difference between a clustered and a non-clustered index?
• What is a composite index and why does column order matter?
• How do you check how a query runs?