The Backend Engineering Show with Hussein Nasser

How a query optimization gave birth to infinite scroll

The Backend Engineering Show with Hussein Nasser

Show Notes

The infinite scroll in social media as we know it today is despised by all. But it always start as a bad idea. It originated as a result of UI change to relief the backend database from inefficient queries. I explore this in this episode of the backend engineering. 0:00 Intro1:00 Classic Paged results 6:23 Limitations of paging9:00 The scroll interface 12:00 How TikTok to infinite scroll 14:00 The current state

More from The Backend Engineering Show with Hussein Nasser

Oct 22, 2026

I discuss the state of what will be happening in the coming few years and why I encourage the 3 of you who want to be elite engineers to keep their critical thinking sharp. To pause and think before prompting.

Oct 15, 2026

This is a conversation with Rashed Hasan, a PhD Candidate from the University of Nebraska. We chatted about databases, ORMs and how to use AI without losing yourself. Rashed pagehttps://www.mdrashedulhasan.me/homepage

Sep 25, 2026

I discuss loops engineering and how it will numb creative thinking and critical system design for engineers.

Sep 18, 2026

I like SQL but the standard should have included ways to hint instead of the abstraction of "let me do it for you"

Sep 11, 2026

In this episode I explore why you should take some time to examine the operation you are caching before doing so. And why caching is a cop-out

See all episodes →