Never return unbounded lists. Even if there are only 10 rows today, there will be 10 million tomorrow. Pagination is non-optional.

Offset

GET /products?offset=40&limit=20
// SQL: SELECT * FROM products LIMIT 20 OFFSET 40

{ "data": [...], "pagination": { "total": 1250, "offset": 40, "limit": 20 } }

Cursor (recommended)

GET /products?limit=20

// Response:
{ "data": [...], "pagination": { "next_cursor": "eyJpZCI6MTIzfQ==", "has_more": true } }

// Next request:
GET /products?after=eyJpZCI6MTIzfQ==&limit=20

Keyset

GET /products?after_id=123&limit=20
// SQL: WHERE id > 123 ORDER BY id ASC LIMIT 20

Strategy comparison

Strategy	Performance	Stable under inserts?	Random access	Best for
Offset	Poor (table scan)	No	Yes	Small datasets
Cursor	Excellent	Yes	No	Infinite scroll, feeds
Keyset	Excellent	Yes	No	Time-series, append-only