Implement API Pagination with LIMIT and OFFSET in SQL

Question

Given an `articles` table, write a SQL query to retrieve page 3 of articles, where each page contains 10 articles. Sort articles by `published_at` descending.

Accepted Answer

Optimal Solution:
SELECT article_id, title, published_at
FROM articles
ORDER BY published_at DESC, article_id DESC
LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20;

Technical Explanation:
Page 3 with size 10 requires skipping the first 20 records (offset = (page - 1) * pageSize = 20) and fetching the next 10. A tie-breaker `article_id DESC` guarantees deterministic order.

article_id	title	published_at
1	Data Trends 2026	2026-03-01
2	SQL Guide	2026-02-28