Learn when and how to shard your database in this informative video. Explore database application level sharding, which involves splitting tables across multiple database instances to distribute load. Discover why sharding should only be implemented when absolutely necessary, such as when a single instance can no longer serve queries with minimum latency. Compare sharding to alternative scaling strategies like horizontal partitioning, replication for read scaling, and regional write scaling. Examine the process of sharding, its challenges, and real-world examples like YouTube's implementation. Gain insights into database architecture decisions to optimize performance and scalability for your applications.