Which statement best characterizes the benefit of range-based sharding for a multi-tenant SaaS where each tenant's users query their own range?

Which statement best characterizes the benefit of range-based sharding for a multi-tenant SaaS where each tenant's users query their own range?

• A. It provides strong isolation with predictable performance for each tenant.
• B. It handles global aggregations efficiently.
• C. It eliminates hot spots entirely.
• D. It supports efficient range scans on tenant ranges.

Answer: (D)

Range-based sharding groups a tenant’s data into a specific, consecutive key range. When each tenant’s users query within their own range, those scans can be performed by reading a contiguous segment of keys in a single shard, avoiding cross-shard lookups and extra overhead. This alignment between data layout and access pattern makes range scans fast and efficient, with better cache locality and reduced network traffic. So the best choice emphasizes that this approach enables efficient range scans on tenant ranges. It’s not guaranteed to provide perfect isolation or predictable performance by itself, and it doesn’t inherently solve global aggregations or completely eliminate hotspots—hotspots can still occur within a range or due to workload skew.

Range-based sharding groups a tenant’s data into a specific, consecutive key range. When each tenant’s users query within their own range, those scans can be performed by reading a contiguous segment of keys in a single shard, avoiding cross-shard lookups and extra overhead. This alignment between data layout and access pattern makes range scans fast and efficient, with better cache locality and reduced network traffic.

So the best choice emphasizes that this approach enables efficient range scans on tenant ranges. It’s not guaranteed to provide perfect isolation or predictable performance by itself, and it doesn’t inherently solve global aggregations or completely eliminate hotspots—hotspots can still occur within a range or due to workload skew.