Over-Fetching and Under-Fetching in REST
REST endpoints return fixed payload structures, which can lead to over-fetching unnecessary data on mobile devices or requiring multiple sequential HTTP roundtrips to fetch nested relationships.
GraphQL Schema Stitching and Type Safety
GraphQL allows clients to request exact fields needed in a single HTTP request. Strongly typed GraphQL schemas allow generating client-side TypeScript types automatically.
Caching Challenges in GraphQL
Because GraphQL requests execute as POST queries against a single endpoint, standard HTTP edge caching requires specialized client-side normalized caches or dedicated GraphQL gateway proxies.
Security: Query Depth Limiting and Rate Control
Exposing GraphQL APIs publicly requires strict query depth analyzers and complexity limits to prevent malicious clients from executing expensive nested database join queries.