Mock Cursor-Based Pagination Response

Cursor-Based Pagination

Cursor-based pagination uses an opaque pointer (cursor) to mark the position in the dataset, rather than page numbers. It is the preferred pagination strategy for real-time feeds, infinite scroll, and large datasets.

Response Structure

{
  "data": [
    { "id": "uuid", "title": "string", "createdAt": "date" }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "nextCursor": "eyJpZCI6IjEyMzQifQ==",
    "hasMore": true,
    "limit": 20
  }
}

Cursor vs Offset Pagination

Aspect	Offset	Cursor
Jump to page N	Yes	No
Consistent with inserts	No	Yes
Performance at scale	Degrades	Constant
Implementation complexity	Simple	Moderate

How Cursors Work

The cursor is typically a Base64-encoded representation of the last item's sort key (e.g., { "id": "1234" } or { "createdAt": "2026-01-15T..." }). The server decodes the cursor and uses it in a WHERE id > :cursor ORDER BY id LIMIT :limit query pattern.

Why Cursors Are Better for Feeds

When new items are added to the beginning of a list (like a social feed), offset-based pagination causes items to shift. A user on "page 2" might see duplicates or miss items. Cursors avoid this because they reference a fixed point in the data.

Frontend Integration

For infinite scroll, the client stores the nextCursor value and passes it as a query parameter in the next request: GET /api/feed?cursor=eyJpZ...&limit=20. When hasMore is false, no more requests are needed.