Heading into the World Championships, Shcherbakova was considered one of the frontrunners for the World title alongside Trusova and Rika Kihira of Japan. In the short program, Shcherbakova skated a personal best for the ladies short program, scoring 81.00 to place first ahead of Kihira. She then placed second in the free program with a score of 152.17 points in spite of falling during the execution of one of her quad jumps, within one point of Trusova's 152.38 points. Shcherbakova then won the competition due to her combined totals to become the world champion. Shcherbakova, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Trusova's podium placements made this only the second time, after the United States in 1991, that a single country had swept the ladies' podium at the World Championships. Shcherbakova and silver medalist Tuktamysheva's podium placements qualified three berths for Russian ladies at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.