📄
Pagination looks simple.
Page → limit → slice → done.
That’s what I thought.
So I created a small challenge on VibeCode Arena.
And things got interesting.
🚨 The Problem
The logic works perfectly… on static data.
But real systems are not static.
Data keeps changing.
Users keep adding and removing items.
🧠 What Goes Wrong?
In real-world scenarios:
- New data gets inserted
- Old data gets deleted
- Users refresh pages
And suddenly:
👉 You see duplicate data
👉 Or you miss some records
This is a very common production bug.
🤯 What I Observed
When AI models tried this:
- Most gave basic slice-based logic
- Some didn’t consider dynamic data
- Very few suggested cursor-based pagination
The code works.
But the system is unreliable.
🔥 Try It Yourself
I created this challenge to test real-world API thinking.
👉 Try it here:
https://vibecodearena.ai/duel/b772342a-30ee-4d38-838c-c2c888dfffa7
Can you:
- Prevent duplicate records?
- Handle dynamic data?
- Design a scalable pagination system?
💡 Final Thought
Pagination is not about slicing data.
It’s about making sure users see the right data at the right time.
Would you trust AI to design API-level logic like this?
Let’s discuss 👇
