Why should you care?

Loading all Flipkart products in one SELECT would freeze Workbench and crash mobile clients — LIMIT keeps responses small.

See it live — copy this example

Run in MySQL Workbench or the mysql CLI.

SELECT product_id, sku, price_inr
FROM products
WHERE is_active = 1
ORDER BY product_id
LIMIT 5;

What happened?

• Active products sort by id; only first five rows return.
• Page 2 would use OFFSET in the next lesson.
• LIMIT applies last in the query pipeline.

Practice next

1. Insert 10+ products.
2. Run LIMIT 5; verify count.
3. Change to LIMIT 5 OFFSET 5 for page 2.
4. LIMIT 0, 5 vs LIMIT 5 OFFSET 0 — same thing.
5. Use LIMIT 5 WITH TIES in MySQL 8.0.21+ window contexts (compare docs).

Remember

LIMIT restricts row count. Always pair with ORDER BY for stable pages. Default APIs use small limits (20–50).

DataFlow product scroll

Mobile app requests LIMIT 20 products per swipe with indexed ORDER BY product_id.

Outcome: Smooth infinite scroll without loading catalog entirely.