How to Design an Infinite Scroll Feed | System Design Guide 2026
A comprehensive system design guide for building infinite scroll feeds like LinkedIn and Twitter. Covers the core techniques: virtualized rendering (TanStack Virtual, react-window) to keep DOM nodes minimal, Intersection Observer API for efficient scroll detection, cursor-based pagination to avoid duplicate/missing posts in real-time feeds, skeleton loading screens to reduce perceived wait time, and memory management strategies including image URL cleanup and React Query's maxPages. Also addresses edge cases like variable-height items, new post injection, scroll restoration, and when infinite scroll is the wrong choice entirely.