Broken Pagination in Vibecoded Apps

Navigate through all pages of a paginated list and check for duplicate items appearing on multiple pages. Count the total items across all pages and compare with the displayed total count. If the numbers do not match, pagination logic is miscalculating offsets.

Test with different page sizes if the app allows it. Switch between 10, 25, and 50 items per page and verify the same records appear regardless of page size, just distributed across fewer or more pages. Also check if the URL updates when changing pages — if not, bookmarking or sharing a specific page is impossible.

Add or delete items while browsing paginated results. Create a new item on page one, then navigate to the last page and back. Items often shift between pages as the total count changes, causing duplicates or missing items. This is especially common in vibecoded apps using offset-based pagination.

Rapidly click between pages and watch for loading glitches. Click page 3, then immediately click page 5 before page 3 finishes loading. If page 3's data ends up displaying on the page 5 view, the app has a race condition in its pagination handler.

Use cursor-based pagination instead of offset-based pagination for datasets that change frequently. Cursor-based pagination uses a stable reference point (like an ID or timestamp) and does not produce duplicates or gaps when items are added or removed during browsing.

Sync the current page with the URL using query parameters so pages are bookmarkable and shareable. Cache previously loaded pages to avoid redundant API calls, but invalidate the cache when the underlying data changes. Always handle the edge case where the user requests a page beyond the last page — redirect to the last valid page instead of showing an empty result.