Does Hibernate perform in-memory pagination when using Join Fetch?

Hibernate provides pagination through setFirstResult() and setMaxResults(), which typically delegate the limit and offset logic to the database dialect to ensure efficiency.

However, a specific architectural challenge arises when combining these pagination methods with JOIN FETCH clauses. Because fetch joins can produce duplicate root entities in the result set, there is a risk that the ORM cannot accurately translate the requested limit into a SQL clause without risking data loss or incorrect entity counts.

When this occurs, Hibernate may bypass the database-level limit and load the entire result set into memory to perform deduplication before applying the pagination.

• Under what specific conditions does Hibernate trigger in-memory pagination instead of generating a dialect-specific LIMIT or OFFSET clause?
• How can this behavior be verified in the logs when using hibernate.show_sql?