@krishnachaytanya: When one database can't hold it all, sharding splits the data across servers, each owning one slice. The key decides which shard a record lives in, so a lookup jumps straight to the right one instead of scanning everything. One hop. SHARDING = SPLIT DATA BY KEY to ROUTE TO ONE SHARD. Range, hash, or geo: how do you shard? Save this one. #trending#vibecoding #systemdesign #ai #softwarearchitecture