Suggest an editImprove this articleRefine the answer for “What is a shard?”. Your changes go to moderation before they’re published.Approval requiredContentWhat you’re changing🇺🇸EN🇺🇦UAPreviewTitle (EN)Short answer (EN)A shard is a separate server or node in a MongoDB cluster that holds only part of a collection's data: together all the shards form the complete store, but each is responsible only for its own range of data, determined by the `shard key`. **Key point:** a shard exists to split the load, scale data volume, and speed up writes and reads through servers working in parallel.Shown above the full answer for quick recall.Answer (EN)ImageA shard is a **separate server or node in a MongoDB cluster that holds only part of a collection's data**. Together, all the shards form the complete store, but each one is responsible only for its own range of data. ### Key characteristics - a shard holds **not the whole collection**, just a fragment of it - distribution happens by `shard key` - queries can reach a single shard, or run in parallel across several ### Why a shard is needed - to **split the load** - to **scale data volume** - to **speed up writes and reads** through servers working in parallel ### Summary **A shard = a separate node holding part of the data**, used in a sharded cluster for MongoDB's horizontal scaling.For the reviewerNote to the moderator (optional)Visible only to the moderator. Helps review go faster.