Pagination
In plain terms
Splitting large result sets into smaller pages.
Going deeper
Pagination returns data in chunks (pages) rather than all at once, improving performance and usability for large datasets. It limits payload per request.
Under the hood
Offset-based is simple but slow on deep pages; cursor/keyset pagination scales better.
Examples
API result pages, infinite scroll, 'next/previous' links, cursor pagination.
Think of it like...
Like reading a book page by page instead of unrolling one endless scroll.