Offset vs Cursor Pagination

A customer browsing recent reading lists usually wants the next few results. An administrator reviewing a small table may want to jump directly to page seven. Both interfaces need pagination, but they ask different things of the API and its storage system.

Offset pagination identifies a position by counting preceding results. Cursor pagination gives the client a continuation value, often representing a boundary in the result's order. Choosing between them requires understanding navigation, query cost, and what happens when records change between requests.