1. React
  2. ReactiveConf
  3. 2018
  4. Optimizing GraphQL Applications

Optimizing GraphQL Applications

Ryan Chenkie at ReactiveConf 2018

The promise of GraphQL is clear and compelling: allow your clients to ask for exactly the data they need at exactly the time they need it. Add the fact that you get a strongly-typed API and automatic introspection out-of-the-box and it’s easy to see why so many companies are making the switch to GraphQL. The default tooling that comes with GraphQL works well for small applications. However, once our apps start to get sizeable, it becomes easy to hit bottlenecks and performance degradations. Fortunately, there are several optimizations we can add without a ton of effort. In this talk, we’ll look at some of the best bang-for-buck GraphQL optimizations available. We’ll take a deep-dive into query batching to limit server requests. We’ll look at schema stitching to optimize how we call into multiple GraphQL endpoints. We’ll also talk about features offered by Apollo to improve perceived performance such as the optimistic UI pattern. Finally, we’ll look at some of the best ways to profile and monitor your GraphQL API.