What are the benefits of using a partitioned table?

Partitioned tables bring several benefits. First, they improve query performance by enabling partition pruning: the query engine scans only the relevant partitions instead of the entire table. Second, maintenance operations such as deletes, updates, or backups can target specific partitions, reducing the impact on the rest of the data. Third, partitioning can improve parallelism; each partition can be processed by a separate worker, speeding up large scans. Fourth, it simplifies data lifecycle management: you can drop or archive old partitions without affecting newer data. Finally, partitioned tables often reduce storage costs by allowing more efficient compression and deduplication within each partition.