Trusova was selected to compete for the Russian Federation at the 2021 World Championships in March 2021 held in Stockholm. She was considered a major contender for the podium. In the short program, Trusova placed twelfth after putting a hand down on her triple Lutz due to overrotation, and consequently failing to execute the second part of her jump combination. In her free skate, she attempted five quads, falling on two of them; however, due to the high base value of her program and the fact that several of the other podium favorites also made mistakes, and due to her successfully landing three of her quads, Trusova was able to finish third overall and take the bronze medal, 8.57 points ahead fourth-place skater Karen Chen. Standing on the podium alongside Shcherbakova and Tuktamysheva, this was only the second time that a single country had swept the ladies' podium at the World Championships, after the United States in 1991.