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Golang / GoLang Production Patterns and Web Standards Interview Questions

How do you implement pagination for list endpoints in a Go REST API?

Two common pagination strategies: offset-based (page/limit) and cursor-based (token-based). Cursor pagination scales better for large datasets and handles real-time data insertion without the duplicate/skip problems of offset pagination.

// Offset-based pagination (simple, common for small datasets)
type OffsetPagination struct {
    Page    int `json:"page"`     // 1-indexed
    PerPage int `json:"per_page"`
    Total   int `json:"total"`
}

func listUsersHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) error {
    page    := parseIntParam(r, "page", 1)
    perPage := parseIntParam(r, "per_page", 20)
    if perPage > 100 { perPage = 100 } // cap per-page

    offset := (page - 1) * perPage
    users, total, err := userRepo.List(r.Context(), offset, perPage)
    if err != nil { return err }

    return writeJSON(w, http.StatusOK, map[string]any{
        "data":       users,
        "pagination": OffsetPagination{Page: page, PerPage: perPage, Total: total},
    })
}

// Cursor-based pagination (better for large/live datasets)
type CursorPage struct {
    Data       any    `json:"data"`
    NextCursor string `json:"next_cursor,omitempty"`
    HasMore    bool   `json:"has_more"`
}

func listUsersCursor(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) error {
    cursor := r.URL.Query().Get("cursor")
    limit  := parseIntParam(r, "limit", 20)

    // Decode opaque cursor (e.g., base64(id+timestamp))
    var afterID int
    if cursor != "" {
        afterID = decodeCursor(cursor)
    }

    users, err := userRepo.ListAfterID(r.Context(), afterID, limit+1)
    if err != nil { return err }

    hasMore := len(users) > limit
    if hasMore { users = users[:limit] }

    var nextCursor string
    if hasMore {
        nextCursor = encodeCursor(users[len(users)-1].ID)
    }

    return writeJSON(w, http.StatusOK, CursorPage{
        Data: users, NextCursor: nextCursor, HasMore: hasMore,
    })
}

What is a key advantage of cursor-based pagination over offset-based pagination?
Why should per-page limits be capped in a list endpoint?

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