Data partitioning is a technique used in distributed systems and databases to divide a large dataset into smaller, more manageable parts, referred to as partitions. Each partition is independent and contains a subset of the overall data.

In data partitioning, the dataset is typically partitioned based on a certain criterion, such as data range, data size, or data type. Each partition is then assigned to a separate processing node, which can perform operations on its assigned data subset independently of the others.