Pagination and Search API

This exercise tests query params and database query construction.

Goal

Build:

GET /products?page=1&limit=20&search=phone&sort=-createdAt

Parse query params

const page = Math.max(Number(req.query.page || 1), 1)
const limit = Math.min(Number(req.query.limit || 20), 100)
const search = String(req.query.search || '')
const sort = String(req.query.sort || '-createdAt')

Response shape

{
  "data": [],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 20,
    "total": 93,
    "totalPages": 5
  }
}

Requirements

• validate page and limit,
• set max limit,
• whitelist sort fields,
• return pagination metadata,
• handle empty results,
• avoid returning unlimited data.

Interview angle

Explain how query params control pagination, filtering, and sorting, and why the backend must validate and limit those params.