Pagination Patterns: Efficiently Loading Large Datasets

Pagination prevents loading entire datasets at once. This guide covers pagination strategies with their tradeoffs.

Offset Pagination#

Simple but has performance issues at scale:

When to Use#

• Small datasets (< 10,000 rows)
• Need to jump to specific pages
• Simple UI requirements

Cursor-Based Pagination#

Better performance for large datasets:

Encoding Cursors#

Bidirectional Cursor Pagination#

Keyset Pagination#

Most efficient for sorted data:

GraphQL Pagination (Relay Style)#

Frontend Implementation#

React with Infinite Scroll#

Comparison#

Conclusion#

Use offset pagination for simple cases with small datasets. Switch to cursor or keyset pagination for large datasets or real-time data. Cursor pagination provides the best balance of performance and usability for most applications.