How Figma Scaled To 10 Million Users

Figma scaled from a single PostgreSQL database to a horizontally sharded architecture supporting 10 million users. The journey involved three phases: immediate relief through vertical scaling, read replicas, and connection pooling; medium-term stability via logical partitioning of table groups into dedicated databases; and long-term scalability through horizontal sharding with a custom query router. Key innovations included optimized logical replication by removing indexes during migration, two-phase deployment using PG Bouncer for safe routing changes, logical sharding with PostgreSQL views for testing before physical splits, and a custom Golang DB proxy for intelligent query routing across shards.