Offset-based vs. Keyset pagination for high-volume Hibernate datasets

Pagination Strategy for Large Datasets

When implementing pagination in Hibernate ORM for tables containing millions of records, there is a design trade-off between using native offset-based navigation and manual keyset pagination.

Offset-based pagination via setFirstResult() and setMaxResults() allows users to jump to arbitrary page numbers. However, this approach often leads to linear performance degradation and potential full table scans as the offset increases. In contrast, keyset pagination (the seek method) maintains constant time complexity by filtering based on the last seen unique identifier, but it restricts navigation to sequential movement.

Given a requirement for consistent response times regardless of page depth, the choice between these two methods impacts both the API design and the database execution plan.

• Which approach is more sustainable for datasets where deep paging is a frequent requirement?
• How does the requirement for arbitrary page jumping affect the viability of keyset pagination?