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What is Sampling
Sampling is about balancing observability depth with system performance.
- Sampling decides which traces to keep or drop.
- Reduces telemetry data volume.
- Primarily applied to traces.
- Balances observability and performance.
Why Sampling is Needed?
- Observability systems generate large volumes of data.
- Storing every trace is costly and unnecessary.
- Sampling reduces data without losing visibility.
- Unlike filtering or aggregation, sampling keeps data representative.
- A small, well-chosen sample can reflect overall system behavior.
- In high-traffic systems, 1% or less of data is often enough.
Example
At 10k requests/sec, full tracing is impractical”.