diff --git a/gigl/common/beam/sharded_read.py b/gigl/common/beam/sharded_read.py
index affff00fa..877725171 100644
--- a/gigl/common/beam/sharded_read.py
+++ b/gigl/common/beam/sharded_read.py
@@ -4,9 +4,9 @@
 from apache_beam.io.gcp.bigquery import BigQueryQueryPriority
 from apache_beam.io.gcp.internal.clients.bigquery import DatasetReference
 from apache_beam.pvalue import PBegin
-from google.cloud import bigquery
 
 from gigl.common.logger import Logger
+from gigl.src.common.utils.bq import BqUtils
 
 logger = Logger()
 
@@ -31,11 +31,8 @@ def _assert_shard_key_in_table(table_name: str, shard_key: str) -> None:
     """
     Validate that the shard key is a valid column in the BigQuery table.
     """
-    client = bigquery.Client()
-    table_ref = bigquery.TableReference.from_string(table_name)
-
-    table = client.get_table(table_ref)
-    column_names = [field.name for field in table.schema]
+    bq_utils = BqUtils()
+    column_names = list(bq_utils.fetch_bq_table_schema(bq_table=table_name))
 
     if shard_key not in column_names:
         raise ValueError(
diff --git a/tests/integration/common/beam/__init__.py b/tests/integration/common/beam/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/tests/integration/common/beam/sharded_read_test.py b/tests/integration/common/beam/sharded_read_test.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a51069d0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/integration/common/beam/sharded_read_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+import uuid
+
+import apache_beam as beam
+from absl.testing import absltest
+from apache_beam.options.pipeline_options import GoogleCloudOptions, PipelineOptions
+from apache_beam.testing.util import assert_that, equal_to
+from google.api_core.exceptions import NotFound
+
+from gigl.common.beam.sharded_read import (
+    BigQueryShardedReadConfig,
+    ShardedExportRead,
+)
+from gigl.env.pipelines_config import get_resource_config
+from gigl.src.common.utils.bq import BqUtils
+from tests.test_assets.test_case import TestCase
+
+NUM_ROWS = 20
+
+
+class ShardedReadIntegrationTest(TestCase):
+    """Integration tests for ShardedExportRead against real BigQuery."""
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        resource_config = get_resource_config()
+        test_unique_name = f"gigl_sharded_read_test_{uuid.uuid4().hex}"
+
+        self.bq_utils = BqUtils(project=resource_config.project)
+        self.bq_project = resource_config.project
+        self.bq_dataset = resource_config.temp_assets_bq_dataset_name
+        self.temp_location = (
+            f"{resource_config.temp_assets_regional_bucket_path}/"
+            f"sharded_read_test/{test_unique_name}"
+        )
+        self.table_path = self.bq_utils.join_path(
+            self.bq_project,
+            self.bq_dataset,
+            test_unique_name,
+        )
+
+        table_path = self.bq_utils.format_bq_path(self.table_path)
+        create_query = f"""
+        CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE `{table_path}` AS
+        SELECT
+            id as user_id,
+            CONCAT('test_name_', CAST(id AS STRING)) as name
+        FROM UNNEST(GENERATE_ARRAY(0, {NUM_ROWS - 1})) as id
+        """
+        self.bq_utils.run_query(query=create_query, labels={})
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self.bq_utils.delete_bq_table_if_exist(
+            bq_table_path=self.table_path, not_found_ok=True
+        )
+
+    def test_reads_all_rows_across_shards(self):
+        sharded_read_config = BigQueryShardedReadConfig(
+            shard_key="user_id",
+            project_id=self.bq_project,
+            temp_dataset_name=self.bq_dataset,
+            num_shards=2,
+        )
+
+        # Construction validates the shard key against the real table schema.
+        sharded_read = ShardedExportRead(
+            table_name=self.table_path,
+            sharded_read_info=sharded_read_config,
+        )
+
+        # ReadFromBigQuery's EXPORT method stages query results in GCS, so the
+        # DirectRunner pipeline needs a project and temp_location to run against.
+        options = PipelineOptions()
+        google_cloud_options = options.view_as(GoogleCloudOptions)
+        google_cloud_options.project = self.bq_project
+        google_cloud_options.temp_location = self.temp_location
+
+        # ShardedExportRead flattens every shard, so the read yields one dict per
+        # row with the table's column names as keys. We assert that all NUM_ROWS
+        # rows are recovered across the shards.
+        expected_rows = [
+            {"user_id": i, "name": f"test_name_{i}"} for i in range(NUM_ROWS)
+        ]
+        with beam.Pipeline(options=options) as pipeline:
+            rows = pipeline | sharded_read
+            assert_that(rows, equal_to(expected_rows))
+
+    def test_raises_when_shard_key_is_not_a_column(self):
+        sharded_read_config = BigQueryShardedReadConfig(
+            shard_key="not_a_column",
+            project_id=self.bq_project,
+            temp_dataset_name=self.bq_dataset,
+            num_shards=2,
+        )
+
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            ShardedExportRead(
+                table_name=self.table_path,
+                sharded_read_info=sharded_read_config,
+            )
+
+    def test_raises_when_table_does_not_exist(self):
+        missing_table_path = self.bq_utils.join_path(
+            self.bq_project,
+            self.bq_dataset,
+            f"gigl_sharded_read_missing_{uuid.uuid4().hex}",
+        )
+        sharded_read_config = BigQueryShardedReadConfig(
+            shard_key="user_id",
+            project_id=self.bq_project,
+            temp_dataset_name=self.bq_dataset,
+            num_shards=2,
+        )
+
+        with self.assertRaises(NotFound):
+            ShardedExportRead(
+                table_name=missing_table_path,
+                sharded_read_info=sharded_read_config,
+            )
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    absltest.main()