System Design – Database Sharding Strategies
Practice system design interview questions on sharding strategies. Cover range, hash, and directory-based sharding. Answer questions and receive feedback on trade-offs. Ideal for software engineer system design prep. First 2 questions are free with full feedback.
- Level Intermediate
- Questions 12
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Sample system design – database sharding strategies interview questions
Preview 6 questions from this track in quiz order. In the full quiz you answer one at a time — type or speak — then get a score and feedback.
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What is range-based sharding?
What a strong answer includes
Splits data by key ranges.
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What is hash-based sharding?
What a strong answer includes
Uses a hash of the key to pick the shard.
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What are the risks of range-based sharding?
What a strong answer includes
Hotspots if data is uneven.
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What are the benefits of hash-based sharding?
What a strong answer includes
More even distribution.
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What is directory-based sharding?
What a strong answer includes
A lookup service maps keys to shards.
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How do you choose a shard key?
What a strong answer includes
High cardinality and even distribution.