Consume a paginated API without skipping records

Fetching the first page successfully is not data completeness. A client must follow the API’s documented cursor or link contract until the terminal condition.

Traverse all fixture pages

The integration lab follows three authored cursor responses.

from integration_cases import pagination_case

result = pagination_case()
assert result["items"] == [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
assert result["page_count"] == 3
assert result["complete"] is True
assert result["duplicates"] is False
assert result["network_called"] is False

Use the provider’s returned next cursor rather than inventing offsets. Stop on its terminal value, track seen cursors to detect loops and bound total pages. Treat an empty page with a next cursor according to documentation.

Persist checkpoints only at a defined commit boundary. If pages change during traversal, follow the provider’s snapshot/order guarantees or deduplicate by stable item ID. Handle throttling with bounded retry and keep the cursor unchanged until the page is committed.

Reconcile fetched count or IDs against a known fixture and test deletion/insertion between pages. Log page number, cursor digest and count without exposing tokens.

The FDE for Freshers course applies pagination to its database-plus-SaaS integration service.

Exercise

Build a fake three-page API with a repeated cursor and duplicate item. Prove the client stops safely and reports both integrity failures.

Continue learning

This article is part of the FDE integration and deployment foundations sequence. Use the neighbouring tasks when you need the prerequisite or the next application.

• Continue with Build a FastAPI endpoint with validated inputs.
• Then apply it in Connect an application to a database safely.

Reference: RFC 8288 Web Linking.