Partition card/transaction tables by: (1) date (transaction_date)—most common for time-series. (2) card_id range or hash for even distribution. (3) Composite: date + card_type. Avoid over-partitioning. Example: PARTITION BY RANGE (transaction_date) or LIST (card_type). For billions of rows: date partition + sub-partition by card hash. **Why it matters**: Design choices compound at scale—wrong approach can cause 100× overhead....
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