Can you explain what is meant by splitting tables or data in a database to improve efficiency?

Splitting tables or data in a database to improve efficiency is called sharding or partitioning.

The essence is that large volumes of data are divided into smaller parts (shards or partitions), which can be stored separately and processed faster.

Advantages:

• Improved query performance due to smaller data volume.
• Increased scalability — load can be distributed across different servers.
• Simplified maintenance and backup.

Example: an orders table can be partitioned by years — data for each year is stored separately, which speeds up queries for specific periods.