2020-05-18
1429
#graphql
Vilva Athiban P B
18629
May 18, 2020 â‹… 5 min read

Common anti-patterns in GraphQL schema design

Vilva Athiban P B JavaScript developer. React, Node, GraphQL. Trying to make the web a better place to browse.

Recent posts:

Frontend Devs Aren't Lazy, They're Burnt Out

Frontend developers are burned out, not lazy

Shipping modern frontends is harder than it looks. Learn the hidden taxes of today’s stacks and practical ways to reduce churn and avoid burnout.

Shalitha Suranga
Sep 15, 2025 â‹… 4 min read

Can native web APIs replace custom components in 2025?

Learn how native web APIs such as dialog, details, and Popover bring accessibility, performance, and simplicity without custom components.

Daniel Schwarz
Sep 12, 2025 â‹… 9 min read
too many tools: How to manage frontend tool overload

Too many tools: How to manage frontend tool overload

Read about how the growth of frontend development created so many tools, and how to manage tool overload within your team.

Shalitha Suranga
Sep 11, 2025 â‹… 12 min read
shruti kapoor the modern ai stack

What you actually need to build and ship AI-powered apps in 2025

Discover what you actually need to build and ship AI-powered apps in 2025, with tips for which tools to choose and how to implement them.

Shruti Kapoor
Sep 10, 2025 â‹… 10 min read
View all posts

3 Replies to "Common anti-patterns in GraphQL schema design"

  1. Hi Vilva, thanks for the great and informative article. I learned something new today! I will start making my fields non-nullable except where null is permitted and makes sense.

    A couple observations and questions:

    There’s a minor typo in the Circular Reference anti-pattern example (‘counrty’)

    In that same anti-pattern, how would one reach a truly infinite depth? I didn’t thing GraphQL allowed for such a thing by design (unless something like a recursive fragment were permitted).

    In the input type example ‘type PassengerData’ should be ‘input PassengerData’ (or even ‘input PassengerInput’ as is GraphQL convention).

    Thanks again!

  2. Can you expand on “Thus, GraphQL supports pagination with limit and offset out of the box.”?

  3. Hey Hunter,

    Thanks for the message. With the typo, let me fix it 🙂 Thanks for being clear. And with infinite depth, its not a practical use-case but a security measure. And with the convention it can be input but personally, we follow type so engineers from typescript world feel easy to pick up and thats not an issue as well 🙂

Leave a Reply