What is pagination in Laravel?
Why Interviewers Ask This
This is a classic screening question for Laravel roles. Hiring managers ask it early in interviews to gauge your baseline understanding and determine if you can communicate technical concepts clearly.
Answer
Laravel provides elegant pagination out of the box. $users = User::paginate(15) returns a LengthAwarePaginator with the current page's results. In a Blade view, render pagination links with {{ $users->links() }} — this generates Bootstrap or Tailwind-styled pagination links automatically. Customize per-page: User::paginate(request("per_page", 15)). For simple prev/next navigation (more performant on large datasets): User::simplePaginate(15). For cursor-based pagination (fastest for large datasets, no total count): User::cursorPaginate(15). For APIs, paginate() returns JSON with data (current page items), current_page, last_page, per_page, total, and navigation links.
Common Mistake
Don't just define the term — demonstrate that you understand when to use it and when not to. Showing awareness of trade-offs is what separates average from strong Laravel candidates.